I haven't been around as long as some, but cruising burst is the bane of my life in this game. I currently max out at 60 in all my distances, an I've been buying all available game horses to try to find higher, an I just cant. I messed up the start clearly, but then got my sprint line going an didn't want to go back an start again. I think it's the reason my horses struggle when the taps are turned in races, then fly at the end. Almost all my horses have extra speed 95, which is why they're still competitive. I'm also working with between 95-100 Potential for most now.

Those 2 are definite big indicators, but you don't necessarily need both if you ask me to be competitive. Having one will always make up for not having the other to a certain degree. In terms of the league, I'd say the cruising burst is a bit more important to have. That's only personal opinion, but if you get your horses that can take off a little quicker, it just seems to suit how a lot of the league races are run. Especially the slower run ones.

Extra speed high will likely give you horses like mine that finish like trains, but take a while to get going

Cruise high an you'll likely have more horses like Johns, that seem to pick up instantly when the race itself speeds up.

Personally I think it's tough to get both peaking in a horse, a good mix I reckon would be 90-95 extra speed, an 65-70 cruise. Think that's where you probably get the best out of a horse in general. Josh has a good point too in regards to distance mattering. A sprinter likely to need less cruise burst than a stayer in general.

Just to add, I never get rid of a horse based on just a stat, other than potential. I do all my culling as yearlings, and anything below 80 potential goes. Everything else stays. I'm not sure you should cull based on other stats, unless you're specifically trying to train a certain type

100000% spot on Vinny even thou i cant get 60% cruise but pot and extra are great to have
my cruise burst is average 50% which i have kept till my game of 140 seasons on the flat game
and happy with my breeding too
hoping to have some good horses on the flat with some really names i called them

My horses are around 60 ish cruise and i could probably get to around 70 at best , at this stage my flat game is my game . I was proud that i never started more than once . I think it would take a massive amount of work to start a new game and become competitive in the league now . After 50 seasons i split my flat game so i have a sprinter -mile game and a mile and quarter plus game . Over jumps i just ran some trials after 40 seasons and i've had to split my game up into two because i had 140 mares in my barn and it was getting out of hand. I think SO7 has been harder than SO6 for getting higher bar horses.

80% potential as a yearling. Blimey I don't get many that high as yearlings. Most of my keepers are between 50 and 75 but I get loads that reach 95 as older horses. Colour me puzzled !

Started a new game and got the 75 plus CB straight away. Found some with good ES and managed to mix the two a little with some 90 plus pot. However all those horses finished a mile behind my last lot of league horses in the CK despite bars looking better or equal. Still colour me puzzled.

Now I am thinking should I just blast through seasons and quickly breed all these horses with each other and each others offspring for about 20 to 30 seasons or more and not bother racing them until then. Colour ne even more puzzled.

This game is so damn confusing I am constantly veering between giving it up as a complete waste of time as its a random luck based game that isn't worth the effort and a niggling feeling that I should be able to crack it so to keep plugging away. Colour me almost totaly puzzled !!

Ok your first colour me puzzled, broadly the game you play decides the aging of your horses, this is rough but hold largely true, flat peak 4yo, combined peak 6yo and jump peak 8yo. However the manner in which they get their differs between games, less within the game itself though. This is especially evident on the NH where development can be continuous or stop and start. So you may just have a slow burn game. As a rule, 80 as a yearling equals 90-92 as a 3yo, least what I have found.

The second colour me puzzled, does not matter how good they look if they do not have the trial gene. That’s why old mature games are gold if you’re onto a winner, as you have had years of selectively breeding the best at trial, I would take trial gene over bars one on one every time. The trick now is finding this to breed into your bar lines I am working this on my new flat game, my first trial after 20 seasons gave me two colts who can hold there own and a load of nicer looking bar horses who were awful. Those two will now cover absolutely everything.

Third one. No you need to breed and trial everything even inferior looking bar horses you have to find the trial gene and at the same time maintain your bar lines. Usually if I do not find it in 20-30 seasons after sorting the bars I start to think it maybe a bust.

The phrase keep plugging away is pretty much the league tag line. There is a lot of luck and a fair amount of patience with a little applied learning, or just luck and time as I am fond of saying.

My point on culling as a yearling is that it's a much better representation than it is as a 2yo. In my flat game it goes down at 2, then back up at 3. But you need to figure out when your horses peak in general and what potential they're getting as Josh says. If you're maxing out at 90 potential at peak, then lower the culling point to 70-75 as yearlings. an so on

100% agree on the trialling gene (it does exist despite being told it doesn't exist officially). This is the most important stat any of your horses will ever have, until late in the game when they all should technically be bred to have it an you go mostly off trials anyway. Personally I think you aren't trialling every season you're missing out. I trial for as long as I play the game in gerneral. You can't trial too much

I also cull and name my horses as yearlings, I cull again at 3yo after races before export. For NH I cull and name as yearlings again then don’t touch them until they are 6yo and I very selectively cull 6,7 and 8, but am reasonably forgiving.

Interesting regarding the NH horses. Is that on a dedicated NH game or combined ?

Dedicated NH. I don’t play combined have tried it a few times but can’t get along with it. I understand the aging of my lines now, least on my main NH game and can usually tell from 6 if they will make 100%. That said the 6yo cull is minor, most get filtered out at 7 and 8.

I'd keep playing it, u cant go from 0 to 100 in a quick time. I'd trial all of them and find out u best colts and use them with u mares . After every 5 seasons id go back to trialing them and keep doing it . U will build up u horses in time. To make them good u need a few generations .