Now that clarifys things for me, it don't seem so complicated.
Hope to see you in league eventually:)

Welcome mate, good luck with your breeding.

Can i upload SO4 horses to race in this online league or have I missed the cut-off date?? I have registered on TOM and exported my horses...

so5 only horses now

Sadly this is the last week of the SO4 league, the next league will be run with the horses exported from the SO5 game so if you have not purchased it do so and get breeding, you will then be ready for the league when it starts a fresh in a couple of months time.

Do horses have to be exported with both condition and fitness full? And does trialling a horse wear down its condition? Also how do you get condition full- do you have to start a new season. It's just I've got a top class stayer that is yet to be tested in ck but he is 6 years old so will be 7 next season.

hi ubar im a newbie so im not probably the best to answer those questions but i think the condition never gets full but when u export make sure the fitness bar is always full..and no trailing horses over and over dont affect them at all mate...also u dont need to start a new game just make sure u export the horse when the fitness is full and at different ages just in case u want the same horse in the league next season...

just had a look ubar...the fitness needs to be full and the condition bar but only the green bar of the condition bar needs to be full because the red part of the condition bar sometimes never goes all the way to the top..unless its just my horses.lol

Ok I've read on the forum about horses being exported at different times of the season. Does it have an impact?

It can do. I haven't tested it, but I do remember someone saying they exported their horses 3 times during the season! (you need to take them out of the horses folder to do this otherwise they are overwritten) I have exported all of mine in March, including those from the flat game. I just figured I wanted them all to be ready for Cheltenham! I haven't done too badly. I would imagine the time of year would be more important for 2yo and 3yo. I don't have any of those, nor did I really trial any.

I run my three year olds for 5 races and then export. Haven't found any convincing difference exporting in any month

AKHC - would be interested to know a few more details regarding number of races and exporting.

I am a Mac user. With Mark's timing of release of SO5 Mac it meant that i had a few weeks to sort out a league team from scratch. Hence I immediately started playing with breeding for the league as the sole focus.

First up i didn't really run anything in game. Purely CK. I became worried about a few things, one of them being potential.

What i do now is run my 2yos 2 or 3 times (pretty much the most i can do as all my horses are middle distance) and my 3yos get 2 runs, last run being the Derby or Oaks.

I started racing my 2yos because I am unsure how potential works. I've read that potential improves up to 4 races as a 2yo. It then improves year upon year (in some cases). I figured that unraced 2yos would be not be competitive against those who had raced.

I started racing the 3yos as i thought it might help them grow into their true 3yo distance. No real science about this. Just felt weird exporting them fresh. I tend to export 3yos in August and 2yos in December.

So, a couple of questions.... a) do you think it makes a difference whether they have raced as a three year old or not? b) same question with 2yos.

My 4yos are pretty much all better than the 3yo versions (as my stable reflects). However, i know that you are the reverse... is there any science behind this or just the build up of the individual horses?

Any thoughts on this from other trainers welcome as well.

I run my 2yos 2/3/4 times depending on the potential bar, I like the horses that are full at the start or full after one run, some take 3 or 4 runs to go full. If any horses arent full after 4 runs I delete them, and usually ill know after 2 whether they will go full or not and get rid of them right away.

At 3yo I export after 2 or 3 runs so most of mine are exported after 5-7 runs all in. I export on the race day while selecting the jockey instructions, dont know if it makes a difference or not, its something I have always done even with the older games.

I cant speak for Andy but my 3yos are better than my older horses which is why I dont have any older horses in the league. I put it down to only breeding horses who are max by the end of their 2yo season, I am probably losing a lot of horses who wouldnt have peaked until 4 or 5. I would expect that if you only breed the best 5yos then your older horses would be better than your 3yos.

Just a note that this is clearly for flat only. A lot of mine only start racing at 4 and only have a half full bar at 2 including the light green bit. the bar of my horse then grows and at 5/6 the bar is a full green for a lot of my horses.

My 3 year olds aren't very good. My 5 year olds are much better. Fugitve Motel who will win group 1's only started racing at 4. I don't even have a copy of her at 3

So have all of your best breeding lines for both flat and jumps come from a NH game? And also, being South African, what's the jumping scene like where you are?