That's a good list. I tend to agree. My flat horses have only ever came from a UK based game though. I tend to feel in the first 20 seasons of a UK flat game, you can get all you need into your lines from breeding with the very best foreign horses. So although starting a game in one of those Countries will likely give you an easier route to what that Country gives you, I feel a full UK flat game gives you them too. It's probably tougher to keep in your lines
All my sprinters an 2yo's which were very good in the league - my 2yos in particular, were all bred early from a US stallion, however it took me getting a game UK stallion that had won 21 GP1s to really take off. I bred all my mares that were average before that with that game horse, an it really took off. My personal opinion is that it was a combination of that game stallion, an the list of early stallions that were in my mares that really hit home.
All my stayers have been bred from originally a good UK Stallion I managed to buy very early on in my game. They stayed pretty average to good in the league until I got them Mares bred with an Aussie Stallion from the foreign breeding list again. Then they took off an
I've never played a US or Aussie game at all, so I don't know if the foreign stallions list works the same way in the first 30 seasons. My view would be that because most of the races in the league are in the UK, if you only want to play one game, UK would be best, trying to use the foreign stallions as much as possible, but also making sure your trials reflect the league races. This was the massive mistake I made early on. I only ever trialled at Newmarket as it was easiest to do, being a straight track. If you want to keep the US stallion traits in your lines, you'll need to have trials at their tracks too. The trialling is one of the things that has massively changed in my game now. I now trial at much more tracks for a bit more variety. I unfortunately left it too late. As all my horses come from 1 game originally, they are all still better at staying, tough tracks, an all love coming from last to first.
If I had the chance to start over, as I have a game now for each distance (all just branched off from the 1 UK flat only game) I would have 5 games
1 - US Sprint only
2 - UK Milers
3 - Aussie Stayers only
4 - UK 1m2-1m6
5 - US 1m - 1m2
Each of these games would need to be started as a full game besides the sprint one though, for at least 15-20 seasons. Get some variety into the mares in your breeding barn. Then streamline each one
Almost every game will give you the stallions you need to to advance your lines short term, giving everyone the opportunity to grab some very good horses. In order to keep those lines going, you have to have variety in the Mares you have in the breeding barn. Each stallion that advances the lines you want in most of your mares somewhere in the barn to breed with the next one.
All only applicable for flat games as always. Although I do have some NH horses now for the upload window. Found the game I used to play for NH an sorted it out somewhat. It had a few Grade1 winners in the NH league too, so hopefully not too bad a base to start
apologies for the waffle
