Better than expected start for me this season.

Flat horses are performing well enough. Seem to have a few that are competitive.

NH team is doing well. 15 seconds in 2 weeks is a lot but at least they running well and things should improve when the ground softens.

Looks like NH is very competitive this season which is good to see

Another 6 winners

In The Fast Lane by moviestar and the last word - Nice win by over 3L in NHF, He enjoyed the good ground today and will go hurdling now
First Up by first strike - nice win in Wetherby's Mares Hurdle another that enjoyed the good ground
Game Winner by Game on - winning Haldon Gold Cup H'Cap Chase by 5L good mark helped, He will step up in class and go to Ireland next for The PWC chase
Seeking the Stars - winning Walters Graded Chase G3 - Won Two G1 last season and 2nd in Arkle, She will go for the PWC Chase next too , Just gound expected to be soft is a worry but will give ago with both
Chance to Shine by fontmort - in 2m1 maiden will run in all main 2m/2m1 novice races now,My Arkle Hope
Last Word - winning Smoke Screen Listed Mares off to France now for Carmarthen Hurdle looks like a tough race but should be in the mix

No Winners on flat but expected a tough week on flat all the horses are from years ago so likely all handicappers

Well done everyone with winners and placers

Thanks to every running the league

Very disappointing start for me, especially on the flat where I am still looking for a first win. A third consecutive top 10 finish looks unlikely now unless things improve drastically.

Slightly better start on the jumps with 5 winners over the first 2 weeks, surprisingly all bar one in hurdle races as my chasers tend to be better. After finishing 5th (on wins) for the last few seasons the hope was to be able to close the gap on the top 4 but it seems more likely that the trainers who finished below me will overtake me as David R, Padraig, Craig and Gray have all had good starts. It may take a brown envelope in the direction of Alex if I am to retain 5th.

Awful season for me so far and probably will continue that way, i can't see where any winners will come from. Still haven't got over losing my main game, haven't played it too much since and struggling to get any good horses, will need to play it some more and see what happens but looks like i will be getting the wooden spoon this year lol

Having now started a number of games and run them for 20 seasons or more, I feel for those starting new games, it can be really hit and miss getting horses who trial well regardless of what the horses look like in terms of bars, actually its more miss than hit. Only takes one horse to unlock it sometimes, but know when to start another is my advice or run two, if your early game breed stars don't breed horses that trial well it can be a slog.

I feel u pain Alex.

I think the first 5 seasons are the most important , do u start with a so called 50 rated horse or a 70 rated horse.

I think ive found few decent game stallions especially over fences. I think its important to have had league horses in u trial stable so u can a better judge at what u got. Those two horses i entered are very valuable to my mid season team. Ive got to admit after 6 months away from the game im enjoying breeding again . I wasn't going to enter the league this season and so i made a super jumps non league game with UK-Irish- French- Oz schedule and when i decided ( it pulls u in )to have another go i used my schedule and i think that was a massive help Ive always used a US only flat game and a UK only jumps game but that might have been a mistake because the overseas stallions are far better than the home country team. Have i missed out on this. . I start games until i think i like the look of some stallions ( normally front runners ) and when i think i found the one then i wont breed anything the first year but to get lots of money and buy loads of mares and keep the interesting ones. The second year i will split my game so i have two of the same game in different slots, the one game i will keep and go back to it. The second one i will breed to the stallions i like the look of and race through the seasons so i can get to when they are 8 years of age and put them into my trial barn and see how they get on against u other trail barn horses, that way u get some idea of how good those stallions are . When i go back to my original save i know a bit about the stallions in barn and i breed to the ones that look ok/good in my trail races, that way i think i'll have a decent start at stud.
Some times u can look at the stallions at stud and think u found a good one with great bars but turns out to be a donkey, that can totally mess u team up and but u on the back foot. After about 15 seasons i would normally stop breeding to the game stallions, unless u strike Gold they normally dont give u much.

After 12 seasons of my game i think ive started well , only time will tell when they go in the league. I think i might have got stallions that will jump better in league, so less pulling my hair out

I know exactly how you feel. I have started about a dozen games over flat and jumps and getting nowhere even though the stats look good.
I sometimes get a superstar in game that wins G1s by 5l and when I export it, yeah you guessed it rubbish.

Yep there is a massive amount of luck in it. My main NH game where the bars are not impressive, clearly has whatever the trial gene is in abundance, and I now have two flat game that look to be on the right path, my latest attempt got some league horses for this season. My last active game is another NH, the latest in a line and everything there currently stinks, 5 more seasons of last gasp game breeding, since I already have the bars, and it will be time for another.

I always try to keep some much older horses in my CK in a folder. If I've started a new game, these are the ones I trial any new horses from it against. I always found if you try to trial these superstar looking horses from eRLY ON IN A GAME against your up to date crop, they will always struggle. You need to check them against some horses that started your game, a little bit more advanced than where you are now. I also probably wouldn't trial that superstar horse Davy, just breed it, an test it's offspring instead

It is all about that one game stallion you get for each distance, then keeping those lines going with variety until another comes along. I tend to never trial the initial stallions though, only their offspring if the stats look good. And only against older horses, not my current 'best' horses in my trials. If you're trialling against your best, but it's really early in the game, you're gonna miss a very good breeder for me. Especially if your horses are already group level in the league

Absolutely buzzing with my 2 runners so far this week, Thubian Bard (name the game gave it as I forgot to change as was no good in the actual game ) romping home in the 6f handicap and showing what I could see back in the CK at home on ground he wouldn’t have enjoyed. However, Claudius au victus placing 3rd in the group 3 on his first race of the season just to get him a mark to try run in handicaps (probably will be too high for these now but not good enough for anything above) is my best result ever in the league. Hopefully my 2 horses in the 2.2m on Wednesday nights races will show up better than they did last time in a distance that was too short for both.

Nice Adam well done

Congrats mate. Those horses that end up too high for Handicaps, but not quite good enough to win group races are a sure fire sign that you're getting somewhere. I remember a few seasons ago having a full squad of those, any wins I had tended to be in the big 0-110 Handicaps. The next season it really took off. So it'll come

Thanks del! Fingers crossed! I changed the way I bred them about 3 weeks before this season started and only managed to get 3/4 seasons out and Claudius au victus was from the new way and a few of the others who haven’t seemed to have done so well just yet

Been a hellish couple of season for me almost completely fell out of love with the game and then had
to ditch my USA game which I had become too over reliant on and start from scratch as horses from
the US were no longer competitive in the league in fect they drasticcly went backwards. It was going
to be a long road back from there but never gave up.

Had virtually given up on this season and then along comes Metropulous and wins my 6th 2000 Guineas
& my 15th career English classic that one is the sweetest of them all as it was so unexpected.


Team Rhodes English Classics - 15
2000 Guineas - 6 - S3 Twilighted - S6 Lamborghini -
S7 Cape Thorne - S9 Vice Lombardi - S10 Tajikstan - S15 Metropulous
1000 Guineas - 2 - S10 Tunisia - S12 Air Defense
Epsom Oaks - 3 - S6 South Carolina - S8 Treaty Of Versailles -
S13 Fiddler Ontheroof
Epsom Derby - 3 - S8 The Colosseum - S9 Stonehenge - S10 Phantom
St Leger - 1 - S6 Newsround

Huge thanks to the team appreciate all the hard work and effort you all put in

Many Thanks to the commentators fantastic as always (Martin loved your 2000
Guineas Comms made me feel very special many thanks)

well done to all the winners and placers especially the newcomers

The fire is back in the belly

Well done Paul on the 2000 guineas and getting the fire back! I got another winner today and thankfully green glade won the 2.2m handicap after mentioning him in my last post! Even though the jockey tried his best to lose on him by dropping the reins with about 10 strides left and only just managing to win. With Edge just getting nabbed for 3rd by a nose on the line! After this weeks performances it’s made me want to proper dive in and do lots more breeding before the next window. Thanks for all the volunteers who makes this all happen.