I am looking to improve my horses to take part in the league.

I read a post by Scatters ( it was for SO4) that described how to start a breeding program.
I decided to concentrate on the one distance, 1 mile. The best 2 stallions I could find timed at about 1.36.25secs on hard going at Goodwood. I bred them about 10 times with my best 6 mares and produced about 25 decent horses where the light green potential bar reached its max. I trialled the 7 stallions in the ck at Ascot over good going and they all won a couple of races in 1.40.5secs.

I picked the best 2 stallions and bred them about 10 times with the best 10 mares producing about 35 decent horses with their potential maxed out. When I trialled the offspring in the ck they ran the same times as their sires, 1.40.5 secs.

I thought I would try one more generation of breeding but there was still no improvement in the times.

Should I concentrate on breeding and breeding the current generation and hope for a better stallion or should I try more generations?

I don't know there's any more concrete information on the forums. Once you have the basics sorted and it sounds like you do it's simply a question of breeding faster horses based on CK times. Sometimes the improvements are huge i.e. .3s better but more often than not you're simply chipping a way a little at a time. Find a method of testing your horses that allows you to pick the best ones out. Use that method and breed generation after generation. Compare them every 4-5 generations or so and you'll notice a difference. We each have different methods for testing and choosing which horses to breed. That's part of the fun .

Some people have run hundreds of years of breeding over several games. Personally I have logged some 20-25 generations of breeding but I'm very selective in which horses I will breed. Who knows which method is better? The proof is in the league if/when it start. GL with your programme and don't forget to enjoy the game .

the way i do it is like this

1) Day 1 of the season i inspect the 2yo put all of them in aution sell anything that has not reached 75% max potential(Dark Green)
and sell the ones that dont have a near full ability bar(Light Green) i buy back the 2yos who cost 1million and over apart from the ones
that dont meet the above criteria i notice some mares 2yo cost very little in auction when they get past 10 and produce poor horses thats why i sell all under the 1million bracket


2) After that i have what i hope is the cream of the crop it works for me i am working on stayers so i dont race them at 2yo so put
them out to grass i also put all 4yo out to grass there peak is at 5 again this works for me

3) I then run a full season of racing so race all horses about 5 to 8 races each 3yo's go on a classic route and 5yo+ go for major G1's

4)At end of season i export all horses and run a few trials in CK i set qualifying times for a horse to be added to my breeding barn
he needs to be placed in a race that beats my qualifying time he/she then gets added to my breeding roster anything that does not make it
if they are young eg 3 will give them a chance to come back at 5 and trial them agian at 5.all others who fail retire from the game

5)i keep a copy of all horses on the breeding roster because you never no when breeding goes stale you sometimes just have to start
again and you want to import your best horses

6) Once i have around 30 horses i do serious trials i then start a new game with the best of the best in the breeding barn who i import into new game

7) i save my tff file at the start of new season

if your times are not improving in 10 years then its time to find fresh blood or start again

The Norm is you chip little bits off your best times but AKHC is right you do get the odd one take a ump off your best time
i got a 2m4 horse who broke my record by over a second i
thought it was a freak time but he constantly trials at that time but this is only too rare but a nice shock when it happends

this explains it better

PJ - Do you ever get ones like the top right to full putting out to grass? Looking at the difference in light green and darkl I'm amazed that you do. If so I might change my no racing beyond 3 policy.

yes i had couple 2yos like the one on far right
raced 3 times at 3 and light green bar moves up a bit only small bit
then put out to grass until 5
by the end of 5yo season the bar was full and were strong at 6 (late bloomers)
it is not uncommen but not a regular occurance

Running an experiment at moment will post image soon which will explain everything (hopefully)

Thanks for the replies PJ and AK.

From what you have said, I am the right track, just need to keep perseveering.

Just to report back.

I am onto the 5th generation and I have 1 stallion and 3 mares who consistantly running 0.2 secs faster than previous generations.

great news mate

i will update on my experiment tommorow

Is it possible to run a successful breeding program as in real life- breed horses, keep the fillies, sell the colts, gradually upgrade breeding stock by breeding with the best?

i very rarely breed with gamebreds in other horses section in barn they usually are not good enough
i only take a chance with a gamebred if they won 10+ G1's

just shows that not all horses reach there porential
some just never do

Surely this leads to inbreeding which is why I am currently breeding with gamebreds, as well as trying to boost my stock, as my best stallion I found was siring all my horses and left me with limited breeding possibilities.

there is plenty of in breeding in real racing i disagree with it
gamewise has little effect if any when you in breed