View unanswered posts | View active topics It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 1:44 pm



Reply to topic  [ 7 posts ] 
 Trialing 3yo vs 4yo 
Author Message
Group 3 winner
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2017 11:05 am
Posts: 554
Location: Melbourne Australia
Post Trialing 3yo vs 4yo
Howdy

How do you guys trial your 3yo against the same 4yo?
I'm trying to workout which age of a certain horse would be best to enter in a 3yo+ race.
Ive tried a method of putting my 2 star 3yo against the rest of my almost as good 4yo's but the results were inconclusive.
Does the weight for age penalty mean that it isnt worth running 4yo or 5yo?
Any advice would be welcome.

Cheers


Sat Dec 23, 2017 6:36 am
Profile
Group 1 winner

Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2014 4:39 am
Posts: 2497
Location: South Australia
Post Re: Trialing 3yo vs 4yo
The weight for age aspect can't be ignored and it can be successful in racing against older horses in the league.
Remember, some races are 4yo+ so you want to cover bases.

My thoughts are - choose a group of horses for each age group and then trial them against each other (within the respective age group) to work out who goes into the league.
There is a thinking that big trial fields can be counter productive so maybe keep the fields to around 10 or under.

In the game i think you'll find your 4yo's are better than when they were 3yo's. And a lot of 5yo's are at their peak.
So i think you are better off running all age groups in your stable.


Sat Dec 23, 2017 9:49 am
Profile
Group 2 winner
User avatar

Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:22 pm
Posts: 739
Location: Fife, Scotland
Post Re: Trialing 3yo vs 4yo
With the vaugories of the CK it is hard to tell about horse performance sometimes, but what I did for this seasons league was:-

Use two horses per race distance that were not going to be in my team but I knew performed to a certain standard. These were the benchmark horses. I always used two horses because the chances were at least one of them would run a decent race. I kept field sizes to a max of 12 horses. (Two benchmark horses plus 8 - 10 other horses).

I then ran my 3yo horses against these benchmark horses and took a note of the winning distances, then I ran the 4yo horses against the benchmark horses and again took a note of winning distances. I figured that over about 8 - 10 races any discrepances in the construction kit would even out.

My flat horses tend to have about 95% potential as 3yo and 100% potential as 4yo, so is a 5% extra potential worth a 6lb penalty in the weights? I found that for the shorter distance horses there was not much difference in performance, maybe the 3yo just edged it, but as the distances increased, the extra weight told against the older horse until I got up to the extreme long distance horses where the older horse seemed to do better, maybe it was experience that counted for long distance horses.

Something else I discovered was that my best 3yo at a distance was not always my best 4yo at that distance. Some of my 3yo horses that were rated about 7 out of 10 were suddenly rated at 9 out of 10 as 4yo and vice versa.

My jumps horses were different. The 2 mile and 2m 4f horses did best as 5yo who had 100% potential, but when I got up to 3 mile horses, a 95% 7yo seemed to do better and at 4 miles, a 8 or 9yo 90% potential horses seemed to do better. The potential went down as the horse got older but I think age and experience took over for the longer distances.


Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:14 am
Profile
Group 3 winner
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2017 11:05 am
Posts: 554
Location: Melbourne Australia
Post Re: Trialing 3yo vs 4yo
Thanks guys

Wannabe wrote:
I found that for the shorter distance horses there was not much difference in performance, maybe the 3yo just edged it, but as the distances increased, the extra weight told against the older horse until I got up to the extreme long distance horses where the older horse seemed to do better, maybe it was experience that counted for long distance horses.



I am just looking at the short distances for my first season in the league so yeah, i can hardly detect a performance difference in the trials ive run so far. I think my time will best spent choosing my best 3yo's before the window closes. I will select a couple of 4yo's for that age only races though.

Cheers


Sat Dec 23, 2017 12:41 pm
Profile
Group 1 winner
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:03 am
Posts: 4104
Location: Wales
Post Re: Trialing 3yo vs 4yo
Its stupid how u can run the horses against each other in game but u cant in CK, I'd say if u don't have full 3yo then I would wait until they get better at 4 or normally 5.


Sat Dec 23, 2017 2:35 pm
Profile
Group 1 winner

Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:00 am
Posts: 1288
Post Re: Trialing 3yo vs 4yo
agree with john if i get a 3yo thats 95% ill train it on till 4 but if it hasnt maxd by 5 then bin it.realistically its very hard to get a 4yo to beat a 3yo at the top level in the league although i have seen 4yo beat my 3yo in home trials if they do its normally a beast.


Sat Dec 23, 2017 3:02 pm
Profile
Group 2 winner
User avatar

Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:22 pm
Posts: 739
Location: Fife, Scotland
Post Re: Trialing 3yo vs 4yo
Jango wrote:
Thanks guys

Wannabe wrote:
I found that for the shorter distance horses there was not much difference in performance, maybe the 3yo just edged it, but as the distances increased, the extra weight told against the older horse until I got up to the extreme long distance horses where the older horse seemed to do better, maybe it was experience that counted for long distance horses.



I am just looking at the short distances for my first season in the league so yeah, i can hardly detect a performance difference in the trials ive run so far. I think my time will best spent choosing my best 3yo's before the window closes. I will select a couple of 4yo's for that age only races though.

Cheers



That is the way I decide to go as well. I will probably give my 3yo horses first go at any races and keep the 4yo horses for 4up races.

If you look at the schedule for races after week 5, there are very few races for 3yo only over short distances. Quite a few 3yo only races for middle distance horses and a scattering of 4up races, but there are a lot of 3up races and I reckon my 3yo horses will be the better horses in these 3up races.


Sat Dec 23, 2017 4:07 pm
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic   [ 7 posts ] 

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 31 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by STSoftware for PTF.