SO I am a newbie and it took some time, but I totally have picked up. I'm doing well but I have some questions about breeding with outside horses and buying mares intended for breeding. When you are looking at horses you don't own what is best to look when you can't see a complete list of the horses stats? HOw do I know what the potential is on the horse I am buying or breeding to and what about that horse would you say says it would be a good match with mine? Right now I am just going on race history pretty much and sometimes it works other times it doesn't. I know this can be the way it is in the real world. I am just looking for some insider tips.

There are a lot of people on here more knowledgeable about the game than me but I would say you are pretty much getting it right.

Look for wins at group and listed level. Mares wise buy anything in the auctions that has won a group race and send it straight to stud. Breeding from your own horses seems to give better results , at least it did for me. Once you start breeding from them you can then also use the ability of the offspring as a guide to whether they are good at passing ability on.

When using the non owned horses go for the ones with the most Group wins and not the highest rated as the ratings are a bit off. Also the highest price ones are not always the best ones so don't look at that too much.

Also 'follow' horses that win the biggest races and you will get an email if they come up for auction. The really tops ones don't come up that often but I have bought a previous Derby winner, a champion sprinter and a previous Grand National winner by doing this. I am 18 seasons in though so don't expect it very often !

Thank You so much. I didn't even think about following a horse until it auctions.

All good and valid points, especially the looking beyond the fee point. So some other things you may consider, though I will caveat it with saying I have virtually unlimited money on the games I play and 95% of the time I breed my own horses with my own now.

1- you can look at their times in races, there are a lot of factors such as conditions etc but when deciding on say two sprinters clock times on the same distance may help the choice.

2- look at win percentage, there maybe a cheap fee horse who has say 2/3, if the quality in the races is also there it maybe a better bet from a 4/35 even if the 4 were all G1

3- be illogical with matching distances, it is a simple assessment, but if you assume sprinters will mostly have high extra speed and distance horses have high cruising burst, match some 6f horses with some 2m horses, you get the best of both and find you breed some full speed 1m to 1.2m offspring, if cruising survives also it is the start to move that into the sprinters, so that 1.2m offspring can try with a 6f next time out etc etc.

4- be prepared for some disappointment, game horses in my experience are invariably worse than you expect, that said all my main break throughs came from game horses, I have league lines now for chasers that all plot back to one random game horse breed.

Good luck

Josh