Season 20 of an unmodified flat only game. Early in the game I got a top class 8f colt who has produced countless G1 winners and many breeding quality animals. Mostly fillies though and the single top class colt has been a failure at stud. And now my stallion has snuffed it and I've got nothing to cover my mares.

However, on the horizon is 'Barricade' a 2yo colt from easily my best 8f mare, who happens to be from an entirely different bloodline. He makes his debut at Lingfield and, despite the predictable pink dot, he wins easily in a decent time. Feels like a high class animal & the solution to my problems.

Until I read the jockey comment that is: "The horse ran a little freely"

Now we all know what this means; to show his true form on the track he will have to be gelded. And his dam will continue to produce colts who all have this trait.

So I have been thinking that I should just send him to stud now & give up on his racing career. Has anyone else tried this with such animals and does it work? In particular is he likely to pass on this trait to his offspring?

Are you trialling your horses in the ck before deciding what is your best mare or your best colt?

it doesnt really matter that he ran a little freely if he went and won, it was his first race. I wouldnt geld him personally unless he is running really badly finishing down the field. give him a chance to mature and see how he is

I wouldn't geld and I wouldn't worry. If it is a trait that is passed on, it can be bred out of the line quite easily with horses who have no problem settling and have relaxed natures. You can always do an O'Brien in the mean time and run five or six pacemakers with it every time it runs.

DON'T GELD IT!!!!! I tend to ignore this message unless (as Hurricane said) the horse visually doesn't settle in it's race, or if it's form is very poor and you know it should be better. E.g I have a horse who couldn't do better than 9th place in low grade handicaps because it wouldn't settle, I gelded it and it's now won the Ascot Gold Cup twice.

The head lad reckons that most of my top stallions need gelding, I did geld a couple of them in the middle of last season but only the ones who hadn't won G1's or who were struggling to place in Group company. I found that gelding them didn't really make any difference and despite the fact that the head lad told me to geld them a couple actually got worse for it.

Thank you all!!

First can I say that I never take any notice of the Head Lad on the subject of gelding. He's not allowed anywhere near any of the horses in fact & these days spends most of his time staring whistfully at the breeding barn and muttering 'raring to go'.

Second, I do sometimes geld them in more or less the same circumstances as you SuperCat. Latest example is 'Don't Do That' who won 10 6f g1s after the snip. Unfortunately he's now a 7yr old & after the Golden Shaheen I was told that he now needs 7f.

Seven furlongs. Sigh.

What interests me most is this exporting/trialing malarkey. I'm haven't used it before & I'm afraid I have a number of questions.

a) presumably the 'retire to game pool' instruction takes effect at the end of the season? You then race them off against each other and send the best ones from the trials off to stud? Do you have to re-import them into your current game to do this and if so how? And do you trial even the apparently hopeless horses or just the better ones?

b) (whistles innocently at this point); is it possible to export horses to the game pool and then import them into an ENTIRELY NEW GAME? It's just that I'm thinking of starting a new one with lots of extra 7/9f races in it, but would like to take my better 2/3yr olds with me.

Sorry about all the questions - I've looked in the Instructions but can't find the answers there. Thanks again.

Retire to transfer pool only takes effect at the end of the season but it is not related to trialling. To trial you have to export the horses from the game, by going to the horses data screen and hitting the E in the top right corner of the box containing the horses stats, details and picture. Then set the instructions if you want them and click export this horse now. You need a decent amount of horses at each distance before it's worth trialling, but I would stick to the better game horses to export. Trial on varying tracks going and export pace makers per distance to insure a genuine gallop.

If you retire horses to the game pool, you can then import them into an entirely new game. You can only import six a season and unless you change the horse name file, the horses you import will have Ii next to them as horses in the game will already have their names. You can only move horses into the transfer pool that are currently in your game, ones in stud already will be lost. Be careful of the red dot button in the transfer pool as it deletes horses with no recovery and the transfer pool file alters immediately when a change has been made so as soon as you import a horse/horses, save the game.

Thanks very much Dancing Brave; this all sounds quite exciting & I've just spent a very happy 90 mins in the editor planning the schedule for the new game. Did you know that there's a fixture at Flemington at the end of April consisting almost entirely of 7f & 9f races? Well, there is now!
(rubs hands gleefully).

You say that I'm only allowed to import six per season into a new game. If I finish the current season of my current game & then retire,say, 30 horses to the game pool, will I be able to inport six per year for the first five years of the new game? (please say yes). And will they age while they are in 'storage' so to speak?

Shall leave the exporting/trialing until I have bred a sufficent stock of animals to make it worthwhile in the new game. Thanks again.

Costs £20,000 per horse so you'll need to raise a few quid but yes.



Nope

Excellent!

Choosing which horses to retire to the game pool makes me feel a bit like Noah deciding which animals to put in his ark. "Two of those and two of those..."

Bit worrying really.

An update on this also; it worked!

Ran this 'Barricade' animal three times as a 3yr old; each run got a 'ran free' or 'would not settle' comment. He won the Craven nicely enough but was only fourth in the Irish Guineas, so I sent him to stud and let him cover one top class 8f mare in each of his first two seasons.

First foal was a filly who has won 5 8f g1s at 3yr old; beaten 1l by an AI superhorse in the Suspect Stks at Goodwood, but that was only to be expected. Second foal is also a filly & has been a cracking 2yr old. No hint of any 'not settling' malarkey in either of them. It looks as though Barricade is going to be an excellent sire.