I have been playing SO7 for some time now on and off. But I never can quite fathom how much my horses can take per season. For instance, I have got into a routine atm where they all run 4 times per year (Oct, December, March, April) and even then my horses are needing to be put out to grass by the end of march. All my best form comes at the festival but I would'nt mind winning a King George in December.

But when I switch it up and run them over september, october, november, by december they are on a decline and needing to be put out to grass again. All with a 2/3 week break in between too.

Any suggestions?

There is no simple answer to that question as each horse is different, but if you go into the stats there is a bar that tells you how likely a horse is to take more racing. Also watch the red condition bar in the main stats as you go through each season. With some horses it drops quicker than with others and will not return to 100% until the horse is rested. Really it's a question of knowing each horse.

Not sure what happens in simple training mode as I have not played it. If you control training yourself you can ensure horses are ready for the right time of the year. In the UK I have those that like firm going ready for a Sept start. Those that prefer good going I run from Oct, and the softies from Dec. Every year the weather is different so this is when you need to pace the training a little. Impossible to get it spot on but it generally works for me. The horses that like firmer ground I stop racing in Nov and set training to blue (which stops red condition bar from dropping). They lose fitness but I move them back to red training in Feb and can get another couple of months out of them racing. I used to put horses into the field but rarely do that now. Varying their training in the race yard works better for me. I would normally get five races out of most horses but some will do up to eight. Once a horse starts losing form you know it is starting to have enough for the season, so just turn it back to blue training. Three and four year olds I am careful with and wouldn't normally go over five races at the most. I'm guessing in simple training mode it is easier as my understanding is horses are always fit.

I have a few horses I consider to be better than others and I may well identify featured races for them at the start of the season and so i will leave them in the racing yard on blue training until nearer the time. For all the others I declare them into their next race the day after they have run - so as with you that's going to be a race every three to four weeks providing suitable races are available. They go onto mid training (orange) whilst jaded from the previous race, then full training (red) the very day the jaded message disappears. I always have horses fit and raring to go - which doesn't always help !! but at least I have done the best I can. At one stage I left horses on orange longer and results went backwards. Also if you leave them in the field for months on end they take much longer to recover race fitness. With a racing team of over 100 on flat and jumps it was not unusual for me to accidentally leave them in the field and miss their 'time of year' completely.

Hope this helps - probably covers things you already know but might be of interest to newer players reading it. I guess others have different methods that work for them.

p.s I have not mentioned illness and injuries which messes everything up big style. These horses are on catch up and just get raced when ready, even if conditions are not ideal. And some horses can run in different conditions anyway - another hidden stat you can check out for each individual horse.