Is it Wise to send them to breed when they are only 2YO?

I have space in breeding barn for 20 more horses should i send my best 2YO fillies there now or wait til they are 3?

I normally wait until their potential bar has stopped rising, somewhere around 4-5 usually. I know a lot of people race until 8 unless there is a high deterioration bar too, as they can go a long while before declining.

Really it's up to you, but my floor is 4-5 and the ceiling for breeding is 10-12 years old. Hope that helps a little.

thanks, i thought the higher the deterioration bar the quicker they worsen?

If I need the fillies in the barn, I often retire them at 2 unraced. If I don't need the fillies, I race them until either the end of their 3yo or 4yo year. If I have a lot of horses in my barn and need to weed some out, I only retire the very best to the barn after their 5yo year and the rest either go to the game pool for another game or get retired permanently. Some I just sell.

When I retire a horse I usually base off when they stop performing and if I have the space in my barn. I often retire twice a year: July and December. If the horse has performed decently and their rating isn't taking a dive, they stay on until the next retirement evaluation period.

I also tend to keep my horses in the shed until they die unless I really need the space. One of my best mares in SO5 came out of a mare who was like 19 years old and her sire was similarly aged. So you never know if you get a top horse out of a 20 year old mare/stallion. If I need the space, I retire the ones with the worst performing foals. I give them 5 years in the shed to prove themselves. That means I get 3 on the track (2, 3, and 4-year-olds), a yearling still in the breeding barn, and potentially an unborn foal. If the three on the track suck, then I might retire the questionable parent at the end of the year. If the foals are okay, I give the horse another few years in the shed. If they're excellent, the horse sticks around until death.

Geldings are the only horses I race past 5 consistently. I just keep them around more to advance the year faster, but as soon as they stop performing, they get permanently retired.

When I retire just varies largely on my mood and what I'm trying to achieve. No way is right. Just find what works for you. As you progress through a game, you may change up when you retire and why multiple times. Early on, I might retire my horses at the end of their 3yo year just to have a stable and decent breeding stock. After year 10 or 20, I might up the age to 4 or even 5. Some games I might just buy every horse I can at auction between January and March to retire to the barn and then race my horses until 4 or 5 before retiring them. I'm always changing up what I do.

You do have the option to retire a horse to the game pool and keep the horse racing and/or in the barn. There's a trick to it, though, although it may not work anymore. Did in SO5. Anyway, save at the end of the year and reopen the game. Select the horse you want to keep copies of and check save to game pool. Go to next day to start the next season. FORCE QUIT the game (do NOT save it). Reopen the game and you should be back on the last day with your horse still in the barn but a copy is now in the game pool. At that point, remove the check off the horse you wanted in the game pool. If you want, save a copy of your game to a zip or rare file or copy it to another folder somewhere and then save a backup of your game pool horses (not sure what the name of the file is anymore since it changed). You can then reimport the copy of your horse into the same game as the original and have two. One you can keep racing and the other you can throw into the barn. If you want the horse for another game, either recopy the game pool horse file or move the saved game copy you made back (BACK UP the other game you're replacing first or change the numbers associated with the save so as to not overwrite your other game) and put the horse back into the pool.

If you want to recopy the backup save and say it's in the 1 slot but you don't use 2-10, then rename the copied save to 2 instead of 1. Then you can have both games. Be sure only ever to copy the save and not move it or you can accidentally lose your horse you want to save.

Hopefully that makes sense. Not the best at explaining things at time but there's instructions in how to do it in other threads although they may be on the old side.

it's hard deciding which 2yos to keep for racing, breeding or pool come the end of the season, obviously i sell the crap ones early on but there are some above average to greats that leave me undecided, i think i'll stick them in the breeding barn for a season or 2 just in case they are good enough if not then i'll retire them - i don't want to auction them and have to race against them in case they are secret wonders

its not easy to be ruthless when you've got used to a name to the extent of classing them as family

I used to think the same but recently I've been selling them via auction and if they turn out to be good horses then I just put their names down in a notepad to watch for once they retire to the breeding barn (if they do). Saves breeding with poor horses and gives a second chance with some horses that I sold.

when deciding which 2 to breed do i look for matching high stats or best to have both with different highsest?

Makes no difference bud

every time i get a decent looking 2YO there is always 1 stat that sucks and looks like it doesn't belong - annoying as it's usually one of the main needed stats