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 General League and Breeding Questions 
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
I back up my whole game with all my saves every couple of seasons at least every breeding cycle and I store on an external drive. I also have copies on my pc and laptop, but this is not done with great frequency.

The main risk is the export file, it vanishes occasionally, seems to be linked to starting new games, so this I back up every time I add horses too it, and I check it is as expected before doing any exports. It’s rare but it can happen so pays to be safe.


Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:03 am
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
I'm the same as Josh, I have a folder on my desktop just named latest backup, I back up my whole save folder at the end of every season to that. Any games I want to keep separately are placed in different folders. The export folders I back up all the time, any time I run trials or save horses to the CK, I save that separately. I've lost way too many horses from not backing that up, it's so temperamental.

Try and breed with any top game stallions in the breeding barn you don't own. Early on especially the foreign horses tend to take your lines on leaps an bounds. Any horse that's won a lot of group1s is worth a shot though. In the first 20 or so seasons it's massively important to use these.

If you are so inclined, you can even back up your game. Then Breed all your mares to the group winning stallions you don't own, and all the foreign stallions. if you have around 150, that should get you most of them. Advance the game to the end of the season, then check all those stallions stats from the yearlings they produce. You can do this by clicking on the yearlings detailed stats (the little blue square that takes you to their background stats). Then in the top left of that screen, if you click on the sire, it will show you all his stats you usually cant see. Do this for all those yearlings and you make a note of the horses with the stats you want. This might take a couple of hours, but early in a game it's really helpful. Once you have done them all, just go back to the back up, an proceed breeding with the game stallions you want

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Vinny


Mon Mar 20, 2023 12:05 pm
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
I back up at the beginning, middle and end of each season. I have so little trust for this game crashing.


Mon Mar 20, 2023 10:08 pm
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
Dhughes wrote:
I back up at the beginning, middle and end of each season. I have so little trust for this game crashing.


Totally understand that. I had no troubles until the latest 6 or so months of play and can't even run an ingame months worth of races without the game crashing and taking out my export file. It even affects my ck usage, after around 40 trials I find it best to close and restart the game to continue trialling. I find myself saving the game very very regularly. I thought maybe the export file was to blame but even leaving that removed didn't help. In fact whilst typing that I wonder if the bak file is a factor aswell, going to look into that tomorrow.


Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:30 am
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
Thanks all,

Just so I'm 100% safe, I just copy the save game folder and export/leaguehorse folder to a different location?

Did some trailing or all 3 and 4 yr olds yesterday so find out which horses perform best (and so I can export/save). Got them down to groups of about 10, so a good base to use as benchmarks and to make sure I bred with the best.

Do people breed with a stallion for as long as possible or do you only bred a few seasons and hope to use the offspring?

End of each season I've just been auctioning all non keeper horses. I've noticed that these stallions are starting to flood the AI sires. As these are normally lower potential horse, should I 'retire' any colts under my threshold (yearlings) and only send sires to auction after I have raced them and don't make my breeding cut? I know people have different views on sending to AI but if i don't stop will the whole sire pool become my olfspring?


Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:00 am
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
dragontrainer wrote:
Dhughes wrote:
I back up at the beginning, middle and end of each season. I have so little trust for this game crashing.


Totally understand that. I had no troubles until the latest 6 or so months of play and can't even run an ingame months worth of races without the game crashing and taking out my export file. It even affects my ck usage, after around 40 trials I find it best to close and restart the game to continue trialling. I find myself saving the game very very regularly. I thought maybe the export file was to blame but even leaving that removed didn't help. In fact whilst typing that I wonder if the bak file is a factor aswell, going to look into that tomorrow.



Have you tried your exports file. I always find that when my export file gets too big (over 1000 horses or so), then it starts to crash the game a lot more It's always the crashes that wipe out that file too. If I keep the numbers trimmed down then it very rarely crashes

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Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:17 am
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
Munas23 wrote:
Thanks all,

Just so I'm 100% safe, I just copy the save game folder and export/leaguehorse folder to a different location?

Did some trailing or all 3 and 4 yr olds yesterday so find out which horses perform best (and so I can export/save). Got them down to groups of about 10, so a good base to use as benchmarks and to make sure I bred with the best.

Do people breed with a stallion for as long as possible or do you only bred a few seasons and hope to use the offspring?

End of each season I've just been auctioning all non keeper horses. I've noticed that these stallions are starting to flood the AI sires. As these are normally lower potential horse, should I 'retire' any colts under my threshold (yearlings) and only send sires to auction after I have raced them and don't make my breeding cut? I know people have different views on sending to AI but if i don't stop will the whole sire pool become my olfspring?


I've started to retire those stallions from game. if you don't, down the line less an less new game horses start to come in. The AI horses will start to lose certain traits too. I now find it impossible to get cruising burst in my game. I've checked every stallion a number of times, and I've destroyed that bar in my game by not retiring deadwood earlier in the game

Trialling wise, I do it at the end of every season, then I decide if I should carry on using the same stallions based on what they've produced, or if any new Stallions should be used based on the results. Certain Stallions you should just carry on using as they are far better than everything else. You'll notice these easy enough in trials results, and their offspring results.

I think the people to listen to on breeding are josh an John though

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Vinny


Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:25 am
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
I only sell to the game horses I want it to have, usually versions of my best main stats, potential, cruise and speed and of course good at trial, either just under my best, or an older horse who I have bettered. Less picky with fillies, but after a few seasons you don’t need to money so I retire the majority.


Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:31 pm
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
Thanks guys,

I think I'll start retiring all that don't make my cut and after some racing (and trails) if I don't want to keep I may give to AI.

Just got to a new season and as my horses are starting to produce more than before I think I need more advice for management.

I have 130 in Barn. They produced 18 fillies good enough to breed, straight to barn (high pot, but 50 or under realised). 25 horse good enough to race. Potential over 87.5 and realised easily over 50.

Now my issue is my 2 yr olds from last season I have kept maybe 15 to race as 3 yr olds and maybe 10 x 4 yr olds. That is a lot of horses to race.

My 2 yr olds win the mile races later in the yr so hard to tell who is best in the early game too. Do they need a mini races for development? I have been giving 3-6 depending on how quick realised potential grows.

Do 3 yr olds have any stat/development after say April? Should I export and trail them at this time and make cuts. Same applies to 4 yr olds I guess.

Should I start including a mini xtra speed rating into my yearling cut offs.

I've noticed some of my 'average' in game, are trailing better which makes culling mid season harder I guess.

Most of my horse are miles to mile 4 (1600-2400), playing a flat uk game if that helps.

Thanks everyone for your advice so far


Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:52 am
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
That’s not so many really, and you only need about 5 races each horse each year. My active US flat game has around 25 horses in each age group 2-4.

In terms of development they tend to continue to develop until 4 though racing seems to have a lesser impact. I cull my 3 and 4yo after racing them before export towards the end of the year, whilst the game and the trials are different there is usually enough consistency for you to be able to get rid of a few, especially if your sure you have worked out their best distance.

I tend to keep all my 2yo’s to 3 and race them at this age, if they have gotten this far then one or two extra in trials is not a problem especially as your still very early in game.


Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:20 pm
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
The key thing to remember when managing a larger number of horses is that your not playing the game anymore, least this is how I approach it, accepting my position is slightly more complicated because I am a manual trainer. You’re playing the league. It does not matter if your horses are unbeaten or win 8 G1’s it makes no difference to how well they perform in the league, they just need enough races to max out their potential growth. It’s common for me to have lots of horses in the same race, I basically just blitz through any five races as soon as possible to then rest them before export. Having ten runners in the Kentucky Derby or 2000 Guineas or Champion Hurdle is normal for me make no difference which horse wins it. My 2yo races sometimes have a full card of 30 of my horses in them just because 2yo races tend to be back ended in the schedules. So managing 10 is no more or less difficult than managing one, sort of :)


Fri Mar 24, 2023 7:03 pm
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
Hi All,

I've been plugging away for a few seasons since last comments.

*edit sorry this got big*

How does everyone trail?
I ask this question as now I'm getting 60 horses making the cut from culling at 1 yrs, so I think I need to find ways to be more efficient. As racing 150 plus horses a year is a pain and slow.

I was trailing every season and placing them up against the saved/best from past seasons. Racing 6 times (2 firm-good, 2 good, 2 good-soft) over different distances and keeping scores. Worked out averaging top 5 over the races I would keep them to run next time.
End of each season before these trails I would have trim the ages down. Generally I would break into 3 x groups of 15-20. I'd race each distance twice with random conditions. If a horse was in bottom 10 every time I'd cut it from main trial. Would this be a good indicator to cut in the actual save? I know people say a average 2 yr old can come good by 4, but if it can't make my top 30 from that yr, does it have a chance? I've noticed most horses are the same through the years, but if one pops up at 3 or 4 it normally has produced a point or 2 a season before.

Going forward I'm going to trail the top 30 only against itself and the top horse from this will trail off every 5 yrs. They will race 10x, same as before but adding 2 over dirt and 2 international. Is there a difference between turf in Ireland/Australia/England. Ie a good track is the same in all? I just run them on random, which seems to be always good.

No horses are going straight into barn now, apart from 5 mares and their future fillies with over 70 pot, because they have cruising speed which i'm trying to get into my future lines.

Also I know to race horses around 5 times to improve, does this only apply to getting realised potential to fill? ie if a horse is full after 3 races and the seasons bump in other stats has happened (seems to be 30 May in Start it mod), is that enough?

One last question for now. I know game performance vs trail performance doesn't matter. But if a horse is finishing last or near last in game, am I right to think its not good and just bin?

Thanks


Tue Apr 18, 2023 3:35 pm
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
Trialling every season early on is probably not as important, however I still do it. Determining if the lines your breeding are good Construction Kit horses is one of the most important parts of all this in my opinion, if not the most important thing.

In terms of time you spend trialling, I know you think it's a lot, but I'd say it's not enough at the moment (just my opinion again). Depends how competitive you are of course, but my trials I do as follows. This is based on my game with all distances in, I've since split all my games into distances, which is much easier to export as you can then start to 'export all' as they all go into the same folders in the construction kit.

1. Run all horses 3 times in game, this takes me up to beyond their run at Royal Ascot
2. I give 4yo's 25 days after their Royal Ascot run and export them. There's usually about 3-40 4yo horses that have made it to this point.
3. To export I go to 'enter race' screen.
4. From here, put in age order then click on the enter race button, this gives you the previous runs it's had on the right hand side.
5. I then click through all 4yos, an anything that is a sprinter, based on it's previous runs I click in to, if it's bars haven't gone up to a miler, I export, then put that horse out to grass.
6. Keep moving down all 4yos till all sprinters have been exported an moved out to grass
7. Once you've exported them all, save the game an go and move all those horses into the 'Sprint' folder in your Construction Kit. In here should be your best 5-10 sprinters from all previous trials. and now the new ones ready to trial
8. Go back to the game an repeat 1-7 for milers, then foe middle distance horses, then stayers

Once that is done I enter my 3yos and 2yos in another race, which takes me to the end of July roughly. Once they've ran that, give it to about Aug20th -25th, making sure they've all had at least 20 days rest after the run, and then Repeat the above steps for 3yos..

I do the same for 2yos after 1 more run too, but this is optional, as I don't think 2yos are quite as important. You could basically just export all 2yos to a folder an trial them at any point you get bored, at 5,6,7, an 1m, not sure there's enough races to warrant anything longer distances

I only trial my 3yos against other 3yos except for 2m an 2m4 trials. The trials themselves I have folders set up in CK for;

5f Open age
6f 3yos
6f Open
1m 3yo
1m Open
1m2 3yo
1m2 Open
1m4 3yo
1m4 open
1m6 3yo
2m open
2m4 open

With all the horses saved in the right folder, an each folder already having the best 5-10 horses from previous trials, I can start. I have a google sheet for each distance with the names of the best horses already on it. I run 5 on good to soft - 5 on good - an 5 on good to firm. On a track that best suits that distance an age group, i.e. 1m4 3yos run the trials at Epsom, 1m 3yos run at Newmarket, basically, whatever is best representation for them in the league races. Some get a second track now on sharper tracks, or US dirt tracks as I'm trying to get better on these. Each ground type is totalled automatically on my sheet, then there's a running total at the end of all 15 races. This means for colts you get a very clear sense of your best horses for every distance. Fillies too. Any 3yo that gets any points in my trials is kept on to run in the game as a 4yo, so makes my 4yo trials. Everything else I get rid of in the game after the trialling. The 2yo trialling is basically just to keep horses that may make the league. I never get rid of 2yo horses after trials alone, they all make it to the 3yo in the game an therefore the 3yo trials.

Mares - if they've made the 4yo trials by getting any points in my 3yo trials, they always make my breeding barn in the game. Then in my game, at the start of each season I go through an list my horses in alphabetical order. As the names each season all start with the same city name, I go through that seasons 11yos - usually 20 or so, and get rid of any horse that has not bred anything good. This keeps my numbers down

Rinse an repeat each season. Mine probably sounds way over the top, however, setting up the sheets for the trials is a 15 minute job at the most, an always there afterwards, so it's 100% worth it. I can even send you one if you wanted an you could just copy an paste for all other distances, even if that's the only thing you take from this, it will make trialling much easier and wont take any time. The other stuff takes a bit longer to do, however, getting each horse to the right folder when exporting will likely save you a lot of time afterwards when actually trialling, means you're not having to trial lots of horses over multiple distances it cant win at.

Sorry that's a bit long winded, got away from me a bit once I started :) Tried to keep it as a step by step, it looks a lot written down like that, but once you've done it once, it gets a lot easier. I dont even think about it now. I also have a full capacity stable virtually all times in my game so it needs to be organised, if you have less horses you may not need it all.


One more thing, I never used to, but I do now - My trials, everything included, exporting, trialling, then sorting the best horses into folders and deleting others from game all takes longer each season than it takes for me to play the season in game. I value the trialling bit a lot :)

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Wed Apr 19, 2023 12:29 pm
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
Thats the trials sheets, and the folders I have in CK


Image

Image

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Wed Apr 19, 2023 12:55 pm
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Post Re: General League and Breeding Questions
Thanks Vinny,

Love the reply.

I'm actually enjoying the trialling bit too, think the reason I'm looking for ways to push through the 'game' so I can spend more time trialling.
On what you have said, 4 yrs don't need more than 3 races, 3 yrs - 4 races, and 2 yr olds 4/5 races. I've noticed after a point their pot. if not filled stops moving.

I currently just place all into a group called Untrialled. Then for each age, I ran 3 groups of 20ish over each distance twice, if a horse doesn't make the top 5 in these they are cut. By this I can find the ones that wont make it and end up with around 20-30 to run my main trials. 10 races over each distance in different going, then if they score enough points they breaking into 3 groups, short, middle, long. Next step in a few season will be to ran these seasons against each other.

I'm running an excel doc, with seasons as tabs and each age group has all distances down the page. If a horse scores enough points it's name filters to the bottom of the page. Working well.

I think the natural progression for mares and breeding sounds like to me.
-Keep all horses with pot for breeding
- Only keep those horses good enough to race
- Only keep those in top half of trial (when I cut my 40-60 horses down to 20-30)
- Only keep those that score points in yearly trials
- Only keep those that score points in best of 3 yr trials

I've only just moving on to step 2, hopefully step 3 in a season.

Am I right in thinking times ran in trials don't mean anything? Think I read that somewhere.

How do you split the game, is it coping the save file and renaming? Don't think I will but would be interesting to try and speed up the seasons to see if I can breed any cruise.

Maybe not the right forum, but using start it schedule and if I try and watch a race at Curragh, game crashes. Anyone know why? Not that fussed as hardly watch.

Once again Vinny thanks for great reply.


Wed Apr 19, 2023 8:04 pm
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