First let me say that I appreciate all the hard work that was put into creating the current schedules.

It doesn't look like there will be another SO7 season so this is really aimed at SO8 if we have a league.

For me there has always been some annoyance with parts of the schedules. Some weeks there were multiple races over almost the same distance and because of this there was no room for other races.
I don't have specific examples to hand but from memory I am sure that one week there were three races at 1m 2f on the flat, one from the UK, one from SA and one from AUS.
Similarly in the NH there would be no hurdles races at say 2m 4f but three races over fences at 2m 4f.

Some other thoughts. I would get rid of Dubai from week 1 on the flat. Only have maidens. My next statement is not aimed at the handicappers who do a great job. If the top trainers have their best horses running at Dubai, some trainer may win a weaker week 1 race but their horse could be handicapped in such a way as to make it non competetive later in the season. There were also instances where horses were entered into the Dubai races and flopped but because they ran in a G1 race it is hard to handicap them appropriately.

We don't need maidens for a mid season upload so they can all go. I think 13 weeks is too long. I would cut the season to 10 weeks. It is also less work for those running the league.

I am going to attach two files, they show the same info, one is an excel spreadsheet, the other a pdf file. I did not do any fancy formatting.

My aim is to provide a race at every distance and age group each week. I have not listed handicap races on the flat but I was thinking along the lines of there are four sprint races for each week, two could be handicaps and two group races. Similarly if both races were Open, one could be a handicap and one group race. Races are split into 3yo and 4yo, some races could be 3 plus races, maybe leaving room for more h'caps. A I said above, just something to discuss.

I have another thought. Do we need Novice races in the NH. None of the horses in these races are truly novices?

There are 36 races in both sections. Many weeks we had 40 races in a week so there is some leeway to add extra races.
In the flat I have broken down the races to show colt & filly races but there is nothing to stop both races being Open.
There has always been a shortage of longer distance races in the NH, I have tried to take this into consideration.



https://app.box.com/s/djzz1nvwh4r4jg2kxuvpakiiavm8040d - excel file

https://app.box.com/s/2dihfqdqapl6a91cg6xyeb4yibazbhlf - pdf file

If there were to be a SO8 league then I think would start small and build up, I don't think u would have a massive schedule because u wouldn't know how many wanted to play. I'm not sure if 8 is the same as touch there would be much interest, don't like the look of that game at all.

The reason there are more races at 10furlongs is that it is the most popular/middle distance. If you only had one race per week there would be 40 runners.

In your schedule you are adding too many mare/filly races.

The current schedule follows the real life schedule (apart from week13 which is a random selection).

Getting rid of Dubai is crazy, there are plenty of maidens, if people don't want to enter Dubai, wait for week 2.

I doubt the schedule will be changed, as I understand only Leon can do it and he is too busy, it is a lot of work on the website.

If you had understood what I had posted and read it carefully you would have seen that the idea was to have two 3yo races at 10f and two 4yo races at 1of, they did not need to be filly or colt, they could be Open. I also said that they could also be 3yo up.
So four possible 10f races, two handicaps and two group races each week.

I only used 10f as an example, there were similar instances at 8f and 12f.

I also said that my post covered 36 races, most weeks there were 40 races per week so there was room to add in other races.




Why does the schedule have to follow the real life schedule?
I understand some people want as much realism as possible but this is a "fantasy" league and the horses do not run the same within this game as in real life.
To balance out the schedule, does it really matter if for example two or three races are moved from week 6 to week 8 or vice versa.





I always enter Dubai anf if memory serves won 4 from 6 races with a couple of other placers.
I was only thinking about some of the "middle" tier trainers when I suggested getting rid of Dubai. I saw several posts from last season where trainers spoke about their horses being handicapped in such a way after week 1 that they were only eligible for group races and they were not group standard horses but had done well in weaker maidens.

Wait for week 2!!!
Just because your horses are competetive at Dubai?


I know it needs Leon to change things and he is a busy man. I was not expecting the schedule to be changed during the lifespan of SO7. I was trying to look ahead to SO8.
If this is discussed now, there would be plenty of time to implement any new ideas.


Some other stuff that I thought about but didn't mention in my original post:

The whole idea was to have a more balanced schedule where a trainer at low, middle and top level would have an option to run almost every horse almost every week in a suitable race. For example, I have had horses win in week 1 but have no viable races until week 4. Sure, I could place my 12f horse in a 10 f race but that is not ideal. As a race runner, I see trainers doing things like this on a regular basis.

Maybe I made an false assumption that most trainers would try to upload a balanced stable but I know some trainers don't upload long distance horses or maybe they have only two viable sprinters so upload more middle distance horses.

I want the league to be an enjoyable experience for a trainer, no matter the level of their horses. There is maybe a top tier of trainers, about a dozen, whose horses will have a realistic chance in G1 races but the majority of tainers fall into the middle category.

There's loads of other stuff needs looked at. Some fields are too large for the tracks. I ran one race last season with about 25 runners and at least 5 horses ran outside the barrier rails. After consultation with Alex and Leon, the race was moved to a more suitable track.
The bends on some tracks are horrendus if your horse gets an outside draw.
Should all group races have a lower h'cap limit?
Some races allow two entrants from the same trainer. This was done because fields were too small in some races but if this was stopped and there was less options available at the same distnce, you might get larger fields. There must have been at least two races every week with only 3 or 4 runners. I guess this was more obvious to me when either running races or commentating on races.

There's probably other stuff that other people have noticed.

Jim, I know your intentions are good but I also know that you have openly admitted to not following racing in real life.

The majority of us, if not virtually all, play this as a simulation of a real sport we all love and follow and not as a fantasy game.

I for one would not be involved at all if it didn't reflect, as close as possible, the true racing calendar and I am fairly certain most would agree with me.

Yes, the schedule does need changing and yes some of your points are valid and could be implemented, as are the comments by Dan and the changes he suggested a couple of seasons ago.

The main problems for those of us behind the scenes are time, limitations of TOM and the fact that EVERY change we make will be opposed by at least one or in some case many.

Our main priority at the moment should be encouraging new players, keeping the players we have, getting people who have drifted away to come back and most of all getting more people to volunteer to help out in running the league for the whole of the season.

Jim, please don't be offended by these comments. It is good that you care enough to have taken the time to come up with the ideas. Same comment applies to Dan's lengthy suggestions of a couple of seasons ago.

Actually the fact that you both have such opposing views and are both in the top tier of trainers shows the problems we have implementing changes and keeping everyone happy