Purely from a breeding point of view it doesn't matter what a horse achieves in Racing. Their progeny's ability will not be affected by it.

My question is....

Is this the same for the game itself?

For instance, does a horses rating or number of big races wins affect its ability to produce better offspring at stud in the game?

Thanks.

Anna

Hi Anna

Basically the answer is yes BUT a horse that wins a lot of Group 1 races or Group races in general has to have something in it's stats to suggest the winning form.
A horse with bad stats in the game wont win Group races.
For your normal single player game - breeding your best and favourite horses will with each season produce better horses.

If you then want to compete in the league against other trainers online (check out the league forum below the general forum) -
The bars you want to concentrate on are the Potential, Cruising Burst, Extra Speed and Finish Application. The small box with vertical red/green bars, I think Speed and Acceleration, if high are handy and
the Stamina Bar is important when you start breeding as it gives more of an insight if your horse is a sprinter, miler, classic or stayer because the 'Average Best Distance' is just a very rough guide once you start breeding compared to game bred horses that you buy which are basically linked to the Average Best Distance.

There are other threads/posts in here and the online league forums that go into breeding on a more comprehensive level but what I posted above will put you on to the right direction.
No idea how long you have been playing the game but breeding is a fun learning curve. Also best to get an external hard drive or large memory stick and copy your files regularly as a back up in case you have pc issues (plenty of tears if you lose a lot of hard work and time from a pc crash)

Outside of that there is a league running at the moment (small break for Xmas and New Years) that you can check out in the league forum page with links to recent race meetings and review shows etc. Feel free to post up any questions as this is a great little community and some one always has an answer or opinion that may or will be of help.

Cheers

Doug

In my view it makes no difference, I have had breeding mares who never ran a race and yet produced some great horses, though as Doug suggests, it does give a good indication of what you have when breeding.

Josh

racing them or sending them to the breeding shed makes no difference to the offspring
a G1 performer will produce a g1 performer most of the time

I send several unraced mares to stud and they produce MG1W's
as long as the sire and dam are g1 horses they will produce good horses