Im only passing on what I have learnt from others, including yourself, off this forum. Its a great community overall and the more players the better imo.

But thanks, John

Just quickly, when trialling our horses from our games in RB/CK, its best to use Ascot? Only saying because not one of my horses come close to getting a time at Ascot posted somewhere by Thunder( I think).

I tend to trial at Ascot, Newmarket, Doncaster and York.

Some horses run better at different types of tracks but majority if they dont run well at Ascot they wont run well elsewhere (and vice versa).

I use New Market and nothing else because of the long straight. The only difference I can see from league races is that the horses, you uploaded will run well at the track you trialled them at.

Scatters posted his times on Ascot and others started posting theirs times to compare and that's how it got started.


As to trialing...
There are two ways you could choose your horses.

1) A horse that can run well at any track on different track conditions. So trial at different tracks on good/soft, good and good/firm. If that's too much work just use Good since its the average.

2) Focus on one particular track condition (example your fastest "soft" runner and target league races that are run in soft ground). Your horse will more likely place very well in that race. But the downside is that if you run that horse in firm condition or dirt, there is a very high chance one of it's leg will fall off.

So either an all around horse that can run any track in different track conditions or your best horse at a very specific track condition.

Or I guess upload one of each.

Thank you chaps, as always sharing your experience is greatly appreciated!

If you worried about the quality of your stable. Its best to upload a few horses who like an extreme weather condition such as firm or heavy and horses who like tracks you think most people won't trail at something like Goodwood.

Most of the advice you have been given is good but these trainers target group races which it is very difficult for a newbee to win. If you don't get close to the times its best to start improvising and breed for extreme weather horses. Use the same methods suggested just look for horses that have won on hard or soft amongst the game horses and you should land up with a few offspring like this.

There are still a few days too upload horses so you can still improve your stable.

The second thing is not too fill your stable with horses by Saturday. Put about 18 to 20 horses in your stable. There are only 24 maidens in the first week anyway. You can upload the rest next week as you will be able to improve your stable in a week and you will be able to upload better before the uploads close for the season

I have picked up nice handicaps in the past with below average horses using this method. Even last season after only playing about 35 seasons I managed to win a graded race with Gracious who liked heavy going. She even got nominated for best NH bumper horse. She was very average on anything but heavy going.

There will be a couple of hard and heavy going races in the league so if you have something that likes these types of going and you run it on unsuitable ground before your target race which will lead to a good handicap mark you should pick up a win. Note the horse must run at the correct distance. Don't run a mile horse over 6f. Run a mile horse over a mile. When it wins it will only go up 7lb then and you may pick up another win.

Another thing to note is that a hold up horse is going to find trouble in running quite often. Now normally this is bad but if your horses aren't quite up to scratch then uploading a hold up hold up-horse night be a good thing. Been hampered in a race could lead to a good handicap mark.

Also the longer distances had very few runners last season. Not sure if that will change this time round but make sure you have stayers as you may find it easier to win races over those distances.

As a newbee look at the schedule and target a big handicap or too especially on an unfashionable track.

I have picked up many big handicaps in the past using these methods so hope it helps

very good write up leonvr

also just to add even if you reach the times put up by thunder & scatters does not mean you have a g1 winner just mean they will be
competitive in bigger races for eg my best 5f horse clocked 57.12 in trial someone could have a horse trialing at 56.88 you just dont no

aim low and build slowly eg maiden/handicaps and if mark gets to high go further up ladder listed/g3/g2/g1

the guys that win most of the major races in the lge must put in thousands and thousands of hours in
i reckon i put in 800-900 hours in since last season and will prob only contest handicaps at most disatnces there are of course the exception but you prob will find that those people who put in lots of time and hard work into building there team will win the major races

but i dont care about that the pride i got winning a 0-80 handicap last year was unreal was like winning the derby or breeders cup classic

for me just been a little bit more competitive this season is all i want have a much beter team and i have improved as a trainer
it was a Rude Awakening last year but taught me the hard way about placing horses better.

good luck to everyone
again great job to the lads that make all this happen and make it a great experience for all of us
so4 has a great community

P.S is anyone else chomping at the bit for so5?

Another to add for breeding. Is if you find a really good filly its a good idea to clone it.

Save your game near the end of the season and then retire the filly/mare to the transfer pool. Go to the start of the next season but DON'T SAVE YOUR GAME. Use task manager to end SO4. Restart your game retire the filly/mare you want to breed with and import the transfered filly back in. You now have two copies of the same horse. I sometimes have three copies of the same mare in my breeding barn. This really helps as getting three horses from your best female horse can really speed up things

i copied a mare 8 times 2 versions in breeding barn and 6 versions in 6 other games even beter do it with you best colt/stallion
and cover loads over different games

Another quick question, I hope someone could give me their view on:

Would you still retire a horse to the breeding barn if they were brilliant at 3 at 8f, clocking brilliant trial times, but then matured to 10f at 4 and werent so good in the CK?

I have 3yo filly who is my quickest female miler, but now she wants 10f and doesnt get anywhere near. Im tempted to breed her with my other quick 7/8f stallions but dont know whether I will be wasting my time. I will try it anyway and see but I wont be able to play the game for a couple of days and wondered what other people's experiences of this were?

Hell yeah, still retire it to the CK, breed it with low-stamina milers if you can, or even six furlong horses - I've had this happen a few times before and the results can be really good.

Hope this helps!

you never have to retire a horse
retire to game pool (best on last day of season)
goto 1st day next season
ctrl alt del
close all tabs
reload your saved game in so4
and you will be back on last day of season
goto transfer screen and you will see the horse you retired to gamepool
transfer in your horse so you will have for example its called avatorr and a avatorr ii (2) for 2nd version of same horse
will apear once transfer complete
retire the ii version to stud
end season
save
now you have a version in barn and you can still race origonal horse at 4(if you have multi games saved you can transfer a version into each)
best of both worlds

Cheers leonvr

Trust me, I won't be aiming any higher than the low handicaps. With SO5 coming up I am hoping to cut my teeth with this League season and then know what to expect when the new game comes out.

To be honest, I've even considered different conditions other than Good going, Might need to alter the plan of attack slightly.

Thanks mate

we all start from scratch with so5 with all the help and advice out there the first season of the lge using so5
could be wide open and very exciting

I know mate, can't wait!