Would like input from everyone but especially from Rich and Steve.

I'm putting together a study on the UK race field sizes so far this season in the event we want to make tweaks to the schedule for next season. I know this is early but I need to start putting in the information into a spreadsheet.

Q1 What would you consider as the lowest unacceptable field size? E.g. in UK Week 08 race 11 we had a 2 horse race. Foe me personally I would like at least 8 horses participating maybe seven minimum.

My ideal minimum would be 5 and generally we have been comfortably over this. The race this week was a bit of an anomaly because many trainers don't have long distance horses and even fewer at the lower end of the handicap. Clearly I'm torn between offering races for all types of trainers and offering races for the most popular distances.

One of the problems with the races is often the lack of pace which makes results muddling. You can still get a slowly run race even with 16 runners.

Being my first season I don't have any knowledge of previous seasons but this one seems very good for field sizes. But I would say 6 or 7 is about the minimum.

Pace of the races, especially early, is something I have noticed. A few races I've been involved in have been run at 25mph for the first few furlongs and it turns into a sprint. Not sure how we improve this?


The one thiing I couldve done better is have an even spread of horses over all distances AND ages, 2yo, 3yo anmd 4yo+. I just chose to upload my 18 best horses but the schedule caters for all abilities and I will upload accordingly next season

I would like to see pacemakers introduced into all group 1 races.

I might be mistaken but do the league cater for handicap hurdles/chases under the 100 rated bracket i don't think i have come across one yet if so sorry for not checking just could not be bothered to check through the 12 week list lol

No there isn't mate. All Jump horses start at 100 at the start of the season. The lowest is 0-120 Handicaps.

The only way to ensure a decent pace is to have a pacemaker in every race (or as Jamie says, every G1 race).

It's dodgy ground because any horse that races well off a slow pace is screwed. Maybe a dummy horse file that sometimes sets a strong pace, sometimes not would be the middle ground.

Ultimately I would want SO5 to reward front runners more. In SO3 and SO4 any horse that sets the pace cannot possibly win which is bizarre. In my game I have a 7f horse who's preferred instruction was Force The Pace, in game he set track records everywhere, in the CK he was beaten by terrible horses.

Yes l would like front runners to have better chances in SO5, although l was all for pacemakers in league lm now actually against it. In some races this year a pacemaker has gone off and left a few horses far behind and never in the race. A true test every race is just not fair plus Scatters has some good animals that go from the front so it can be done.

As to runners its hard cus if you look at Exeter today 2 races had 3 runners and 1 had two so whoever wins that 2 runner race this week that may be there only win in league and is it really there fault there was only 2 entries?? Long distance races are tough and maybe SO5 they are delt with different from the hcapper?

Scatters horses are handy types which end up making the running as there is no early pace horses, i believe. As for real life racing we can put on a better show than them idiots!! The pathetic cards at both Exeter today and Plumpton yesterday are REAL problems in racing which need addressing. I believe if you have a balanced stable you can win a race in the league

Agree Rich the force the pace horses have no chance of winning races, if we went through all the files uploaded i would be surprised if we could find many with this instruction, the pace of the race ends up being set by the handy horses i think in the league, a force the pace horses chances being small may have something to do with the limits of the stats bars that are used to show a horses ability, maybe the stats should be figures out of a hundred on certain abilitys a horse would have, i know a few have asked for this in the mods section including myself... acceleration, top speed, response to whip, will to win etc sure there could be a fair few but that would be down to Mark to implement if he thought he could. Again only an idea of introducing stats like this but maybe mark has got a idea to sort this without so much detail involved. I really wish we could get a little inside info on what he is looking at introducing.

I dont like seing races with less than 6. So 6 min.

The longer distances will have less horses since not many breed for 2m+. If there were more trainers then its possible some of those lower rated races can get filled. Most trainers will focus 6f-1m4.

Everyone like sprinters and everyone wants to win the Guineas/Derby/Oaks.



I'd like to see a pacemaker also.

Horses leading usually lose. So technically adding a pacemaker is good for everyone and especially horses who are race handy and likes to lead.

My suggestion is to do some testing for next season. We do some pre-season trials with a pacemaker like what John/Kenny did and see how this works out.
Or if people are impatient, we can start testing it out this season with some races having a pacesetter. Maybe a few of the handicaps

My take remains the same.

Better spread of stable horses and better placement by trainers.

The schedule should not be changed, trainers strategies should.

Steve

I agree with everything you said Steve but if we continue to get 5 or 6 horse field sizes, is this acceptable in your opinion?

Cheers mate

I think all types of horses should be catered for, and that is what the schedule does.

What is the alternative, say no we don't want 2m3f/2m4f races for smaller trainers?

There are more than enough races, if one or two don't fill up past five so what?

Better spread of stable horses is the way to go, not pander to player whims. The schedule will NEVER be 100% right no matter what you do, best to leave it alone.

Just my opinion.

Just how many races have fallen under the number of 5 runners this season so far?

The schedule i think is working well, just the the races over 2m+ seem to struggle and thats just as was said earlier not all trainers bother to trial over the longer distances and only bother up to 1m 4f maybe 1m 6f. If a race is run with 5 runners cant see why theres anything wrong with that, under 5 runners may be a bit of a waste of a race thou but it has in no way spoilt the season for me at all!