I am having a hard time getting up for breeding for invisible qualities, that no one knows what they are, that don't show up in run times or race results, and that no one can accurately describe, that having success in races offline don't reveal, but you might get lucky and find them in a horse someday through no real skill on your part...
This could have been a great thing, racing your best offline horses against others, but... oh well.

Trial in CK. Run all your horses this season in low handicaps, so you have markers to see how much you need to improve by.

The most important stat is potential. It needs to be full or close to it. I wouldn't worry much about the other stats for now. ( but crusing burst is important) Just keep playing and exporting and the good ones will come. Once you get them you can start looking at improving your stats. I know other play for stat bars but I have had a lot of success playing for what is good in the construction kit

This should be a sticky but had to go to page 6 to find it - viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19570
Keeps your stable numbers down (I hate to get rid of anything). I'm a hoarder, 'it might come in useful one day' could be my family motto.

Basically your looking for benchmarks within your game(s). I take little notice of the bars but 2yo should have 70% potential minimum. May forgive a little if other bars are high but if it doesn't trial well then it's gone otherwise it's a breeding candidate.

If you get horses dominating at a variety of distances in the ck you may have a monster use it, and keep an eye out for natural front runners to help in trials, not important but useful.

Don't be put off from starting new games. My flat game is 40+ games in and 10 seasons of that were a revamp after playing the league and deleting many of my horses and breeding with the AI to improve the breeding stock. My combined game is only 20 seasons in and is in a mess but I am happy to sort it out, it shows in my NH stats (big improvement needed).

And as Leon said use this season as a marker!

I can sticky it if you want

It's a real culture shock for new players when they come to the league but
please be assured that every single one of us went through the same thing
it either inspires you and gives you the bug to get better or you just end up quitting
after the first 2 weeks of maidens.

Most give it a go because the schedule is amazing now back when I first started every
race was a Group 1 no other races just an elite league as it happend for a bunch of
lads that were swapping horses making monsters thank the lord those days are long
gone.

Under Gray & Leon the league is 0% corrupt and is clean and there is no bigger buzz then
getting your first race win. Honestly stick with it.

There is a lot to take in at the start, if you try to think about what all the top trainers do and think about straight away, it will likely put you off as a new trainer.

There are much better trainers here than me, however the one piece of advice I would give you for getting started is to forget the game races completely. Export all your horses and trial them against each other in the relevant distances they need. ONLY use the very best stallions of these to breed with. The Filly's/Mares, keep anything that finishes within the top 7 of their races and use these to breed. Get rid of everything else for a few seasons and you will see your stock improve massively. After a while of this you can then start fine tuning all the little intricacy's, and start to develop your own ideas on what work etc.

Most people here have slightly differing techniques breeding but the top trainers will all be using the CK trials as the basis for everything an build the rest around it. That is the single most important bit, not what happens in the game, but what happens in the CK after you export them

I likely spend as much time trialling in the CK as I do playing the game early on, to make sure I get the right lines at the start. Once the lines are established I start to enjoy the game a little bit more, but still vital to keep the CK trials extensive.

If you want any advice for starting a game with screenshots an stuff, feel free to message me an I will help where I can. The start is vital though, and I definitely wouldn't discourage starting again now if your horses are struggling that much. The game Stallions you breed with for the first 15 seasons or so are vital

Thank you for posting that link! It is very helpful, as is your post in general.
I had to take some time off to recoup some, after the serious setback of discovering what I was doing was worthless as far as the online racing. So sorry I didn't get back on this sooner.
So what do I do after that?
I test the 2 yo's etc, and then I race my offline season and sometime at the end of it I export my horses? To allow them to develop etc.

Hi!
Yeah I gave up for 2 weeks, but I am back now and going to try to move forward.
I am following your guide on testing your 2 year old's before you race them.
Thanks for that.
But then what? I figure I should race them and let them develop some before I export them maybe in August or September? Is that about right?

Probably would be a good idea. I certainly found it helpful.

I will sticky the subject

You test your 2 year olds in the ck as shown and then you race them in the game
then you can export them from the game at any age for your CK trials
give me a shout if you need anymore help

Ran my first 5f test. I ran 5 x 5f just to be sure, but I see you were right that only 3 would have worked, because the 2 dominant horses dominated all 5 races. I ran 5 on turf and 5 on grass, and the 2nd and 3rd place horses exchanged spots going from turf to dirt.
Very interesting. One filly dominated completely. in the 10 races she got 6 wins, 2 2nds, 2 3rds and racked up the max 10 bonus points. This was in a field of 18 horses all new 2 yo's.
I want to think I now have a horse that can at least run with the pack next season, but who knows.

Most of the males didn't do particularly well, but one finished 3rd overall on turf and 2nd on dirt, so hopefully he will become my first CK Sire for the breeding barn.

The colt who did well in the 5f trials, dominated the 6f trials. Which is great news.
It shows how much I know about this because looking at the bars for the colts I had, he would have probably been in the bottom third for my expectations. I ended up selling some really good looking colts (one was 90 pot and 88 speed, where he only has around 76 POT), and I found that neither the filly or colt that dominated the trials were from one of my breeding sires.

Thanks again. I will pop in with updates if you are interested, or I will just pop back if I have a question.
Good racing to you.

Thanks man!
Yes, I am completely changing my approach and focusing on the CK. Getting things sorted out and then trying to run another season or 2 to get ready for next online season.
Definitely going to be a step back from where I thought I was as I find out my horses that were very successful in the offline league are terrible in the online one.
The good news is 2 of my sires ran ok in the CK, so I just need to get them to pop out some future sires that are better.
Going to keep looking at game bred stallions in auctions as well. I used to just re auction them if they didn't look really good, but now I will CK trial them first.

I will probably start another offline game so I can do jumpers (NH) as I am only doing North America flat races currently.
When I do I would like to take you up on your offer on the tutorial. Might save me some time trying to get a bloodline going, which would be nice.

Thanks again for the help. I don't like to ignore people who try to be helpful. I just stepped away for a couple of weeks to regroup.

Sounds like you have found a very good starting point now breed the heck out of them and repeat

I'm no big hitter in the league but have my successes and for the past 2 seasons I have
only bred using the 2yo trialing system it's worked for me saved a ton of time and has
produced a horse who has won the first 2 legs of the US Tipple Crown

And please feel free to ask any questions always have been and always will be happy to help
others especially newcomers

OK, a couple of quick questions.
What do you think the best field size for your 2 yo trials? 10, 15 etc.?
What is a good neutral (no effect) draw UK track for turf and dirt?
When do you export your horses for online racing purposes? July, Aug etc. Please give me a month as I use US racing schedule and don't know the UK dates for races.

And lastly for now: and you can answer this privately, or not at all if it is protected info - do you set jockey preference for the exports for online league racing? I know you said you don't for trials.

Thanks man! You have been a big help, as have a few others.