In my NH game, really good horses keep being gelded. One example is a horse who has gone from being a really good novice to winning the world hurdle and lots of top staying hurdles. He was gelded at some point last season and since then has not been the same horse. Same can be said for lots of good horses in my game. Why should the game do this? Means there are no good stallions except mine which makes expanding breeding lines impossible. Especially as there are hardly any good mares.

Hmm, tricky one this. It maybe a nod towards realism where virtually all horses are gelded, although admittedly, it makes a NH only game very very realistic in that you can't get breeding lines going. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea.

Perhaps you could run a combined flat /jumps game but with just the NH season. Then you could make it even more realisitc, identifying good NH sires and expanding that breeding line?????

I'm quite enjoying my NH only game at the moment, despite giving myself loads of cash, I haven't yet come across real superstars, and am enjoying campaigning my horses at their level. I'm considering starting a combined game as above to get some breeding going as realistic as possible.

However, if you want horses for the league .........................

But mikee, the head lad is only suggesting to geld horses that are winners not losers nor strugglers, for example, a horse will win a g1 race and the head lad wants you to geld it that is not realism, in real life we only geld horses that are not trying in their races or play up, hard to handle, not horses that win g1 races, I just bought two colts in a new game both are 5 & 6 furlongs as soon as they won their first race there came the head lad wanting me to geld them both that is not right there is something wrong with that, I just wish mark looks at it soon because it does spoil the game.

Indeed. I agree with JC. I guess I could import some good horses from a flat game into my NH one. But make the game less realistic in my eyes. Nearly every good male horse in my game has had one good season of racing then, for no reason at all, the horses get gelded and lose all their form. So not only do they go from champions to barely selling horses but you can't breed from them either. So so far from realism, why would you feel the need to geld a horse which is winning easily?? Agree JC something that needs to be looked at, especially in the NH. At least in the flat there are still quite a few stallions available from outside your yard.

Yep super, I just wish mark would fill us in about this issue as it's very disheartening to say the least, I have written mark an email about this issue about a week an a half ago but I haven't heard back from him guessing that he would be a wee busy at the moment with all the patches, but it should appear in the next patch hopefully, I do think that mark has tweeked this problem in one of the earlier patches, but it's more then just quietening the head lad, because like you said super, the horse is a champion untill the head lad gelds it and then the horse goes down hill in form.

Exactly, when did you last hear of Ballydoyle gelding one after winning multiple G1's...??

I know there aren't many colts/stallions running under NH rules but if you had a really good one that was, no trainer in his right mind would geld him while he is still winning, only if the form tailed off or if he became un-manageable to the point he was dangerous. Even then they'd probably be more likely to think that racing was not for him any more and because they'd had such a good run they'd retire him to stud and command a high fee for him being one of the few top class, champion NH racing stallions. It just is un-fathomable to me, but then it is a game.

Would be great if Mark could address the problem though, or at least tell us why the game might feel the need to do this!

just ignore the head lad. i think we can tell ourselves if the horse is in need of being gelded, to just have a stab at it if its not doing well at all. if ur horse wins a g1 dont even look at the head lads advice

It's ok to say that Hurricane but it's a problem that needs to be looked at, I say really, because it's entirely different playing the game the standard way then playing it the simple way,

Look I might sound bad saying this but please don't get me wrong, mark should be using people who play the "standard way" rather then the simple way to test run his games before release because there are a lot of things that are not quiet right when it comes to the standard way of playing the game these things are been missed in testing the game playing it the simple way.

I agree with JC and SC, sounds like a double act doesn't it?
The head lad in my flat and jumps game, both separate games loves to geld them, I think what the head lad should say pacifiers may benefit this horse. I don't get those comments anymore, it's always geld them. And it is irritating because you want everything to be right for your game and not to vision the head lad with a chopper or whatever it is there use to geld horses.

I'm not talking about the head lad with my horses. Maybe it is the head lad with other trainers horses. But it's outside horses that keep getting gelded. I never geld mine unless I want to. But other trainers are gelding top top class horses for no reason at all, then obviosuly their form tails off and they're no good anymore so get sold on etc etc.

Yeah, that doesn't sound right at all, I should have been more specific that I was referring specifically to NH racing. Maybe it was Mark's intention for this gelding stuff to be mostly in the NH game that has somehow spilled over a bit too much into the flat game.

G1 winners should certainly not be gelded.

Exactly Mike, and the G1 and some good handicappers are specifically what I'm talking about. Don't know too much about the flat game because I'm only playing NH atm. But like I said at the beginning there are at least 3 or 4 multiple G1 NH winners who are being gelded for no apparent reason.

Would be good if Mark could tell us why or start looking at the problem.

I've had 3 Derby winners in a row who the head lad has recommended gelding. Had a UAE Derby winner who was a dirt specialist and the head lad recommending gelding. His form dipped for a fair while so I gelded him. He was still rubbish, maybe even worse than before. But now I don't have a dirt race specialist to breed from. I agree with the comment that the head lad should recommend more pacifiers, although in my experience pacifiers hardly have any effect in this game and jockeys hardly ever recommend them now, compared to in SO3.