Hi All,

Been playing for a couple of weeks now and been lurking on the forums trying to "get gud" but I'm still pretty awful, my only real interest in the UK Jump scene,
winning Cheltenham Races is the aim especially the big 4 (5 if you want to include the Ryanair).
So far I've only won 2 grade 1 listed races in about 11/12 seasons and one of those horses died the next race! I've got a breeding program going on with about 4-6 horses coming out with 75-95 absolute potential every year but rarely do any of these horses make it in grade 1, a couple might win a grade 2 or 3 luck permitting.

1) So I'm looking for some advice with the Jumps game which seems like more of an unknown than the flats. What horse stats are the most important for national hunt?, is jumping speed the #1 priority here? or cruising speed? do you replace cruising speed and extra speed for jumping speed and jumping potential? If anyone with some success perhaps list them in order of their personal important that would be a massive help.

2) Currently my race plans follow this
2-3yo year - 2 NH Flat races after January don't want to get any injuries this young
3-4yo year - The best horses go through the feature race juvenile hurdles for 3yo and then the 4yo feature race Juv hurdles after January, I tend to win a lot of these races.
4-5yo year - This is where I'll decide to move into the chase jumps or stick with hurdles if a horse has 40%+ on jumps I'll move him onto the novice chase races, if not he'll stick with hurdles and normally I'll only be able to enter C3 conditional races or listed c1/c2 races or a graded race due to the Hcap, this is where the winning stops. its at this point my horses stop winning or if they do win a few listed races I'll put them in grade 3 race and they'll be outclassed.

What am I doing wrong here? is my race plan fine and I'm just not breeding the correct stats in or am I doing this wrong?

5-6yo year - Hurdlers continue with the same as before and the novice chases now start entering listed races and graded races usually with no success.
6-7yo year - normally find this the last year before they start to decline so I try race them in graded races only with limited success.

I'll try upload some pictures of my horses later for scrutiny, also if anyone has a spread sheet with the race schedule on that would be amazing if you could link it!

Thanks

First thing I would suggest, and I assume this, but stop playing a jumps only game and switch to a combined schedule. From my experience horse potential seems to fill out less frequently on a jumps only game than any of the other variants.

My approach with this when playing jumps on combined is to forsake the bumpers and play my horses on flat for their first two seasons, as they get a potential development boost when racing at 2yo.

At 1yo, you get them at 1yo on a combined game, I put them in jump training for the year. At 2yo I race them at least five times over the flat, results do not really matter you just want to get some runs into them, I do much the same when they are 3yo and crash through the 3yo season fast, aiming for again 5 races per horse ideally by August. The go back into jump training for the rest of the year and I try to get some hurdle runs into them at the end of the year and early in there 4yo season before the April end game point (combined end with the flat season, though there is still a jumps end of year award point also). From April of their 4yo year, this is the key season, I jump train them for the summer after going after the last few races in April/May and then look to do two races at the back end of their 4yo year circa October to December, here I experiment, chase and hurdle and distance, usually 4f either side of there apparent preference. This is prep for the Cheltenham races in march when they are 5yo. I then look to get one more race into them Jan/Feb to confirm the experiment and then rest them to Cheltenham. 5yo and then 6yo is typically when I see the best performances. Though the 4m horses last longer.

As for stats, potential is still the most important, speed and cruising matter on jumps as the do flat, logically so your distances horse want more cb than raw speed, speed in the 2 milers. Jump speed and potential certainly help but they will not make a bad horse good, I have had full bars here on horse that could not win a donkey derby and has multi g1 winners with no more than say 30% on each.

Other stats I like on jumpers, finish application and consistency, training adaptation so they respond to jump training and enthusiasm which I think helps all other bits, training racing jumping etc.

The jumps are certainly harder to master than the flat, and there are more degrees of freedom, but your largely on the right tracks, few subtle changes some experimentation etc and you should get a Cheltenham or aintree win before long. Flat cast offs sometimes make great jumpers and I have seen horses only respond at 1m outside of their best distance, 4f is common.

Good luck

Josh

If you do decide to try a new start you can pool your current team and export them to the new game for a fast start. You can even do a free breeding runs as you will lose your breeding barn, using the donkeys to sell at auction or generate cash in races and betting. Combined also gives you two transfer points for 12 horses per year in export does not take long to be up and running again.

Thanks for the advice, I think I will transfer them over to a combined game and try out what you suggest, I see no reason in handicapping myself by playing a jump only game even If its just for training the babies.

I'll let you know how it goes.

All of the things you are doing make perfect sense and in 'real life' are the right way to go. However I have found that in the game you have to accelerate things a little. Firstly I should point out that I play a combined game and breed mostly for flat but this does for some reason give a lot of potential NH horses.

If by the end of a horses 3yo or 4yo career it is not showing enough ability, is not suitable for breeding and has over 50% jump speed plus at least 75% potential I send it hurdling. All entires are gelded at this point.

They all run in a novice or juvenile hurdle sometime between Nov and Jan. If they win they go straight to the big novice races at Cheltenham. If they don't win they go in a second novice race before Cheltenham. 75% win first time out, of the other 25% virtually all of them win second time out.

Second season hurdlers will have one race prior to Christmas, one after and then run at Cheltenham and/or Liverpool.

Champions will get a chance to repeat in season 3 others go Novice chasing with same set up as per hurdles. Most will win prior to Cheltenham.

In a nutshell most of my jumpers will run 1-4 times as 2yo and 3-6 as 3yo on flat. Then go hurdling at 4 and 5 and then chasing from 6 and 7 but rarely have more than 5 or at most 6 runs a season.

I am 20 seasons in and have won all the major hurdle races including novices at Cheltenham and Liverpool for the last 10 seasons. Also the main chases up to 3 miles most seasons. For the first 10 seasons I played in the more realistic way that you are using and had no decent NH horses at all. Best I managed was 4th in the Triumph and second in the World Hurdle.

For Gold Cup and Grand National type horses I apply a separate system (which hasn't quite worked out as well yet !)

Not sure if this is any help or will transpire to a NH only game but in the combined game bypassing the lower grade races and going straight for the top races with flat outcasts works a dream.

Maybe if you aren't too far in you could restart in combined game. You don't have to participate in flat events if you don't want to but the spread of horses available for breeding and buying at auction will be better. For example you can buy ex flat horses and send them hurdling. Also a good flat miler/stayer is better for breeding than an NH horse. Breed the speed through the sire and the jump ability from jumping mares.

If you have any good horses in your current game you could transfer them to the game pool before restarting and then transfer them into your new game.

Hope this helps a bit.

Josh types faster than me and is one of the top trainers in the league so do what he says !!!

I've started a combinded game but all the horses show nothing for the red start and jump stats? infact it looks like its been disabled?

Is this suposed to happen?

Cannot say I pay much mind to the stats on the vertical bars, likely just means you have nothing good at getting out of the gates, which only really aids short distance front runners and they cannot jump, on paper at least.

I cant thank you enough buddy,

Transfered my best horeses over to the pool and transfered them into my new flat/jump game and started breeding simulator 2017
The first couple of seasons i just tryed to stay afloat and working through your scheme, and my first batch produced me a cheltenham grade 1 winner! The world hurdle grade 1 (3m)!!

Anyway im into season 9 now and i have 14/7/12 in graded wins total, with 4 of the grade 1s comming in the cheltenham festival and in my latest season the gold cup, still trying trying to work out the breeding side of things now so i can win the;
Champion Hurdle
Queen Mother Champion Chase
Ryan air Chase
World Hurdle
Cheltenham Gold Cup

All in the same year!

But thanks again man, the flat races on the 2 year olds and 3 year olds really seems to help them progress and increase their potential!

Your welcome, glad it has improved the experience for you. Next step will be the online league