The rating systems seems to be off. This horse placed 2nd to my other horse and still got a 130 rating after 1 race. I've had winners with lower rating after their first win. What affects the rating?

I have no idea but it happens in the jumps too. It can be quite insulting, I find, to have a horse win a good maiden hurdle easily, only to be rated below the horse it beat into second. I have to admit though I've never had a 2yo rated 130 first time out. Also never had it happen to me in the flat. But maybe it's something to do with being rated higher. One of my jumpers was given a 120 rating after it's first run and the one in 2nd was given 122. So maybe there's some kind of issue with it when you get into the higher numbers...??

In addition any particular reason you have blacked out the year you are on??

I've had this happen many times. Where the 2nd place gets a higher rating than the winner. Usually its when that 2nd horse is closing in on the one in front. Which still doesn't make sense since it lost. But in my case, this horse was beaten by 2 lengths. So still not sure what it is.

As to the blacked out part, I didnt want to freak anyone out when they see the year have 5 digits

The rating system uses 5 bits of information.

1) The level of the race.
2) The number of runners in the race
3) The winning time
4) The winning distance over other runners in the race
5) It's existing handicap rating

The reason a horse will get a lower rating than the one that comes second is usually down to the fact that one of them will have raced before and that will have affect the calculations. As with all derivative equations the more iterations (i.e races run) the more accurate the output.

But what if neither of them have raced before? I understand if 2nd is rated 115 and goes up to 122 and the winneris rated 0 and goes up to 120 because proportionally the winner has gone up by the most but what if both of them have no rating? That I think is the problem the poster is asking.

Also Thunderspark if you're into 5 figures for your date why does it say 2035 on the horses' screen?? I hope you don't mind me asking, I'm just curious! I'm only on 2027 which seems to be pitiful compared to most people on here!

I'm on game year 34. I usually retire my horse at age 4 right after the Meydan races. My horses usually run less than 10 races unless they are on a win streak. Before I run my 2 year olds, I trial all of them against my best. I keep only the top 2-3 of each race distance of 7f, 1m 1m2f and 1m4f. Their first race is on October usually the Breeders Cup and Criterion. I dont race them earlier since most haven't matured yet. (you can tell by the stamina bar)

If they win 2 G1 then they are retired to stud. Otherwise I delete from game. I do this every year so the game goes fast with only 8-10 horses to worry about.

As to this horse, the winner was also unraced. The winner got a rating of 129.

This horse's 2nd race was the Epson Derby and got stuck in the pact finished 17/21. Which reminds me of the other problem, jockey AI, but thats another topic. Anyways after its 2nd race its rating dropped to 126 which doesnt make sense again. It won its 3rd and back to 130.

do the horses not mature at different times Thunderspark ? are you not potentially missing by letting go all bar 2 or 3 inmates per distance ?

Yes the horses mature at different times thats why I do my trialing at October just before year end. By age 3, 95% of them are grown except for a few. I noticed from my trialing, they peak just before they turn 5. But I'm not 100% sure since none reach 5.

I produce around 50-60 2 year olds per year so thats alot of racing. And there is no way I'm gonna race all of them. So I rely on trialing heavily. Also I've learned some tricks as how to trial horses not yet fully matured. These are the tricky ones and some of them become really good horses.

After doing this for many years, I can usually tell which ones will do best. My top 10-12 of each race distance is pretty decent and the way I figure is why keep horses that can't beat the ones I already have?

I will probably miss on some and I will never know, but thats ok compared to the nightmare of racing 50-60 unraced 2 year olds per year.