I'm starting my very first jumps game, and I'm pretty clueless. I trialed most of my horses for a few hours last night over the jumps from 2m to 3m at Chetlenham. A handful of horses stood out from the rest, and I've transferred 6 of them from the transfer pool into my 'Jumps Only' game. I'm just using the default schedule, and I was caught off guard when the 2yo auction popped up early in the year.

Questions: Will I find good game horses to breed to, just like the flat only games? Should I have started with a flat/jump combo schedule? I heard somewhere that there are better game horses when you do a combo schedule, but I wanted to just focus on jumps for the first time. Any tips on what to look for when breeding? Tips on how to trial? I'm only interested in getting horses for the league.

Thanks

Hi Doza,

I did 80+ seasons using only a Jumps game and i found it very hard to get good game horses to breed with and improve my bloodlines. Maybe you will do better with exporting some of your flat horses into a Jumps only game, am sure Thundersparks did this with good effect.

From what i've seen in the keague this season, some of you flat guys have struggled to get good 3m+ horses, this is down to having to much speed in your lines from your flat breed horses. For me Stayers have been the hardest for me to improve over the seasons. Buy some 2m+ Flat breed horses from the auctions you will be surprised at how good some of them are, when they get to 6/7yo+.

Best way i found is using a combined Flat/Jumps game, flat horses are by far the best to breed jumpers.

Another issue i have with breeding jumpers in the barn is it's a little inconstant.

What i tend to do which i find best is breed with different distances, so you get a blend of speed and stamina into your bloodlines... 2m/2m4, 2m/3m, 2m4/3m and so on. With finding good stayers i tend to only go down to 2m4+/4m+ horses.

Hope this helps and good luck

Thanks Hemz! When you run the combined flat/jumps game, do you focus on jumps mainly? How do you know which flat horses to breed to? Do you only breed to the flat horses who have excelled on the jumps? I'm also a little confused about preferred distances for flat runners. Say I have a miler on the flat, who is best at 2m 2f on the jumps. When he goes to the breeding barn, will it say his preferred distance is 8f(flat) or 18f(jumps).

Yes i mainly focus on the jumps side of the game but i do put them in Flat races from the end of April till beginning of November. Mainly to get a G1 status horse and experience. But i race my horses at 3 over Hurdlers, same at 4yo, then at 5yo they go chasing. If you need a Combined schedule i have a pretty good you could have. Send me your email in a PM mate. We can send Private messages now

Once you start to build up your CK horses, just trail them mate a lot. You will find when trailing over Jumps you get inconsistant results often, the aim is to find the most consistant and those who can jump fences. Also when trailing say your 2m Chasers don't just trail them over 2m go up 2/4f with them, you'll be surprised at what you find.

Best trailing courses i find is Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown and Sandown. If you horses can jump round Sandown they can jump anywere.

Another tip is find horses that like good to heavy ground, very rarely you will see fast ground in the NH league. This season has been great for it, some real winter weather throughout.

When you go to your barn you can flick between flat or jumps, so it will tell you your horses prefered distance, 2m, 2m4, 3m, 3m4f, 4m, 4m4f. You dont get 2m2f,2m5/6f, 3m1f you have to trail them mate and find there best distance. Can be a long process, trailing is so different to flat trailing, you will see

Export all your horses from 4yo+, there is no 3yo races in the NH anymore. You flat guys get very good 4yo jumpers in the NH over 2mC/H and 2m4C/H, but for distances over 2m4+ i find 5yo/6yo are best, but it all depends on your breeding tbh Doza.

Thanks a lot for the info Hemz. Great stuff!