Hi I'd just like to lodge a complaint about the league.

It's about the bl**dy jockeys who keep holding my horses up out of contention and then not asking them to quicken until it's too late; OR falling off just when my horse takes the lead. I'm sure PJ has something to do with it! It is SOOOoo frustrating and it seems to happen every, single, week! I would like to request that we re-run all of the races until jockeys start riding them properly so that my horses actually have a fair chance!

i have absolutely nothing to do with the running of the races Cat Kev and gray run them with Leon
some of mine on the flat have been given absolute shocking rides Was Not Wrong should be a 3 time G1 winner
given 3 terrible rides this season
same thing happens in real life just have to take it on the chin and move on

I am with cat somebody somewhere is messing around with Grey Bear after a bright Start on debut his Jumping is shocking and Jockeys are not taking any notice of my instructions on racing handy and are Holding them up

Yup, all of my jockeys seem to be doing the opposite to their instructions! The hold up ones are being allowed to race too handy, the even pace/ slight hold up ones are being allowed to either lead, or are being held up! Definitely a conspiracy going on! I would also like to blame AKHC too because he is just generally doing too well!

Cheers Cat . Actually I know this is a joke thread of sorts but I have a feeling next season is going to be very different. From what I've seen so far this season the margins are not huge at all and if I've done well it's simply just by being a few tenths faster. Put it this way, it wouldn't take a lot for a few trainers to close the gap with a bit of breeding and I've always said I'm not playing the game as much and haven't done any kind of focused breeding since Jan/Feb of this year. I expect that gap will be closed come next season by quite a few. I won't mention names as I would hate to give anyone a grudge by omitting them . Just look at the table of G1 winners and two/three will be right at the top next time around.

I don't mind not winning (much), but what really bugs me in game is when you give a jockey instructions and he blatantly ignores them. In some cases I think it might be a bug, but in others it is probably programming. That is one thing, but I don't get why they do it in the league. Surely they should be programmed to do what the instructions state? It is just getting a little tiring as it seems to happen to quite a proportion of mine each and every week! Though having said that, the instructions on at least two of my horses seem to have changed somewhere between exporting and uploading.

Ok a serious post then.. I have to say that I don't export with lots of fancy instructions.

The 5/6f horses have no instructions. I've never seen one of my horses ridden held up by a jockey in CK at 5/6f and conversely I have very few horses that are ridden handy even without instructions so I simply export all 5/6f horses as is.

At 1m I exported even pace. Here I have had a few quibbles. In quite a few races here the jockey simply did not follow instructions period. Mayin in the 2k guineas where the colt was held up is the most extreme example. But anywhere in the 7/8f horses where you see restrained early or held up means the jockey saw fit to do something else. Also one of the new uploads was restrained early and in the case of the new uploads, I definitely did not have slight hold up as the instruction. In fact these horses have more complex instructions in a bid to prevent them drifting too far off the lead.

At 1m2f again the instructions are even pace and Taran in the Kentucky Derby is another example where I suspect the horse was held up as he drifted some 8 furlongs off the lead but in the main I have no complaints here.

The longer distances have been fine.

I dunno if Mark needs to look at this. Might be worth flagging up.

For horses who I want to race off the pace the only instruction I choose is "Don't Lead". I find the jockey usually puts the horse in the right position. If you choose "Hold Up' or "Challenge Later" you're at the mercy of the pace of the race which you have no idea what it will be when you put your horse in the league. Speed types I give no instructions to.

agree completely Sirius

i keep it simple EVEN PACE
every one of my horses in both codes has that instruction apart from 1
who is a hold up horse she has had mixed results

I still feel it could be something buggy. It seems to happen so often to mine. Most of mine are slight hold up, don't trail, and/or challenge earlier. One or two are hold up, don't trail, challenge earlier and the others are even pace, don't lead, don't trail. Except for Oak San Rose whose instructions changed whilst in the race builder from even pace to race handy!

Maybe I'll mention it to Mark when I speak to him next.