I decided I should get my act together and do something with my horses that have been enjoying roaming the lush pastures of Vaucluse Farm in Australia since late March / early April…
I entered all my horses overseas so they could have a decent selection of subsequent races. My bill for entering mainly allowances ended up being over $400,000 for shipping! Yikes!
Let’s hope the rest has done something wonderful to my horses natural energy and they arrive in the US all hyped up and ready to win something!
People waiting to join - you might want to consider NOT locating your stable in some land far, far away…
Same applies to England! I have brought all my horses home to run in England for the entire season. At the end i will have a few weeks where i do nothing except let them all recover natural energy (which will be a bit boring for me!) before sending some back to the States for racing and retiring, selling or breeding from those that I don’t want to pay for.
While i like the reality of the game the expense of shipping from outside the US is likely to lose the international flavour of the game by encouraging all players to locate where the most races are which seems a pity. Luckily i was already out of the newbie stage and had enough money to manage but it must be very difficult now to start a stable anywhere but America as money is so tight when starting out, particularly if it takes a while to get your horses earning.
Hey Jase, I told you it’d be pricey to be in Australia.
(There is now a “warning” on the edit profile page when members are selecting their track location to check the schedule first…so if members fail to do that, or fail to calculate how expensive it’ll be, that’s their own problem.)
If I could do it over again I’d relocate to the New England area, it isn’t so expensive shipping from Santa Anita as the overseas areas but it is still a pain keeping their energy up, just something for people to keep in mind even if you plan on staying in the U.S./Canada tracks.
Eventually, I will be adding the following options:
relocate your stable (this will be very expensive, however)
FF-owned farms for you to stable at, so that if you’re based far away from your horses, you can rest them at a farm where they are rather than shipping home (there will be boarding fees, however)
I like the idea of a boarding stable to get natural energy. It would mean i could keep some of the low allowance racers in the US to race all year there. (providing the boarding fees were not too great )At the moment it’s uneconomical to pay 19,000 per round trip for the allowance level horses to rest in England and race in the US. They are currently subsidised by the stakes level horses and I’ve not got many of them!
I have a filly who accidentally got stuck in Australia when the game switched to shipping. I was going to ship her back to the States but when I saw the price I almost fainted. Soooo unless she starts winning some big stakes she better get use to the weather over there because she’s going to stay an Aussie for forever … or at least untill I retire her. lol
Same issue here. I have two horses who got stuck in Australia and they’re going to stay there for good. Or until I get really rich. One of them is pretty close to retirement though.
Hahaha I’m with you Jase… even though I’ve earned quite a bit this year most of that has went towards breedings and shipping the monsters everywhere. I just went on a major shipping-to-home spree as well… but at least I’m still in NA, Aussie I’m sure would have been a much better kick to the piggy bank. :S
LOVE both those options Shanthi, something to look forward to! I have to say I’m a particular fan of being able to board at FF stables, be a big advantage for keeping lower level horses at tracks around the world that have more of the conditions that certain horses favor. Who knows, maybe I won’t have to be a “traitor” and move the east coast…
I love the FF stables to board at! I can’t wait until that option comes into play. That is a great option.
I also just realized that Australia is a kick in the wallet… I’ve been putting it off, but I finally bit the bullet and shipped four of them home. Oh well though, my horsers did well over there, so I can’t complain
The only problem I have is the fact that racing shuts down in Oz for awhile Which is unlike real life cause as you know we have wall to wall racing here 7 days a week (I not advocating this just explaining how it is)
I had envisaged racing all my horses in Oz and only travelling the ‘top of the tree’ but unfortunately a few of mine got stuck in far flung places and have not earnt enough to get home and the ones at home are roaming the paddocks.
I love the boarding stable idea as well, just because I am to chicken to even ship anybody out west, let alone overseas anywhere. One experiment to Australia was enough.
How expensive are you talking about, $,000’s or $,000,000’s? My stables are at Churchill Downs, however, most of my horses run at the New York tracks, so I would like to know about moving from Churchill Downs to probably Belmont Park. Obviously, my problem isn’t as urgent as those stables in Australia or England, but, it is something I’d seriously like to consider.
I tend to race each of my horses every three weeks or so, so I could bring them home to recuperate between races for next to nothing.
If you do add this option, please let me know what it would cost me to make that move.
(I not advocating this just explaining how it is)
and the ones at home are roaming the paddocks.
(I’m good at posting in old topics… lol)