i want to like starters orders 7 i really do but i keep restarting saves maybe 4 or 5 times a day over jumps just now actually was a horse with high potential and had done top 5 in grade 3 to listed h'caps got slapped in 2 very weak races over same distance if previous form is pointless just do what they did on staters orders 6 honestly also have had many times on the flat where high potential horse comes last by about 3 or 4 over their best distances novice when settle fine and seemed to do what they wanted yet still last meanwhile ive bought horses with garbage potential who have won previously , another example of high potential horse that flopped was a bumper winner on debut but over hurdles never did anything more than meh like mid to low finishes in weak novices despite good potential its just so broken and i dont know what actually defies a good horse

Without seeing the horses and the entry history it is hard to say.

Pace is a bigger factor in 7 than 6. And there are other factors that may be specific to the race and horse as well as "hidden" ones like a strong preference for a short peak in form at a certain time of the year. Betting on a horse seems to also give it a penalty. More penalty on higher difficulty and with multiple bets.

its weird though cuase i can even have a good potential horse with good finish application and consistentcy although one thing i have noticed is that literally 0 horses have any good battling qualities

That is very rare to see. And if you do get a horse with some into breeding it quickly goes down in offspring. So not seeing much battling quality stat is normal.

I'm struggling a bit with all this too. I've pretty much learned to read the Stamina stat OFTEN as its length is (to me) the best indicator of distance the horse should run over anything else. I had been just starting most horses at 5f (I play US flats) and then only move them up when the jockey tells me they struggled for pace. Sadly this ruined a favored bred horse of mine where for two years I couldn't find his pace only to them look at Stamina to find the horse could run 20 furlongs if it wanted. Breeding indicator wasn't that high either so that didn't help.

Where I'm going nuts are horses I just can't seem to explain. I have one 3yr old with 80+ potential, 15 battling, low confidence, 30 cruising, 80 Extra speed, 60 Enthusiasm, 100 Finish, 100 Consistency, 15 Distance Adap, 100 Going, and zero Maturity.

This horse I can enter in every junk race in the game and she'd find a way to get lapped. Is her confidence really destroying everything or is it the maturity? Is NO bar there saying she'll never mature or will mature in 10 years???