Hi guys
any of you veterans got any tips for us newbies regarding trialing our horses in ck for the league, also I keep reading about how players breed differently for the league, than if they were breeding to play the game.............. Any advice on either of the previous would be greatly appreciated.
Feel like i have hit a bit of a wall, getting world beaters in the game, 1 horse won 23 from 25 with 20 G1's, its not bad in ck, as all of mine seem to be, but NOT BAD is NOT GOOD ENUFF!!!

im the same mate, average in ck

i was told early to put in pace makers done my times a world of good improved by 2 secs on average truer run race

Only problem with that, in the league there will be no pacemaker!!
The best horse will win, gonna try goin from a different
angle, when are we allowed to upload more horses and how many??

The counter balance to that is, the power and pace of the league is naturally a little higher.

Run trials with and without pacemakers, so you can see who's the most consistent, regardless of how the race pans out.

I'm not a know it all, but what I do is trial everything with at least a front runner or a horse that races handy. That way I get a truly run race for the league. There might not be a lot of pacemakers in the league but 90% of my horses are Race Handy or force the pace types as I got bewildered by some of my horses last season being locked in the pocket etc. So I made a conscious decison to go that path. That doesn’t mean I will ignore a very good horse at another preference but usually with time, a front runner or handy horse will pop up. That's just my preference and my opinion.

So yes, I trial with front runners and handy horses.

I stick to two tracks, Royal Ascot and Flemington on a good going. The ones that usually win by a length or two I keep and the rest I might keep to try on other tracks at a later time.

I then trial them at different conditions to figure out what going suits what horse etc. Once I’ve sorted this out I use the information for breeding i.e. firmer horse with softer horse to get the best overall horse etc. The UK schedule comes out well before the league starts and you can know roughly what the going is going to be as the percentages are given for the outcomes of the different track conditions. This is only a general guide not full proof. Based on that I might sacrifice a horse that is super on the fast but the odds of the ground being fast are low so will go with the softer going horse to select for the league. Sorry went on a tangent there.
I always double up on the horses i.e. will have a copy of the same horse in the same race and repeat the race two or three times. This is to show which horse is the most consistent and who starts well. I have found doing this that the most consistent horse gets in. To me if it loses by ½ L but is most consistent it gets in. I have horses in my league stable now that every now and then do incredible times. But too inconsistent so I remove them. Might breed with them but not race them.

Another thing I do is try different preferences to see which one is best. I don’t always trust what the jockeys say. I had a horse in game in which the jockey stated “closer suites”. I still tried it at different preferences in the CK and found that it was best at even pace.

Hope this helps.

Just let me know if you need more help.

cheers scatters, your help and advice is greatly appreciated!!! im definitly guilty of not being that thorough with my trialling. one thing i want to ask is your advice on training in the game i.e. im on a simple training mode and am wondering if how often running horses on the gallops effects how good they become?? basically im trying to figure out, like most of the newbies im sure, why my best horses are failing to even get a top 8 finish in a league race. Its getting frustrating because season after season im failing to get a horse which blows my current lot away. And when I know how bad my current lot are in the league i need to figure out my problem quick!

im not asking you to give your secrets away but just general things like, for example, do you retire a horse only when green bar is full as opposed to just retiring them after a race? or when you export them do you have a certain 'exporting programme'? for example, a certain date or a run on the gallops a week before exporting them or something?

any help would be grand mate!!!!

1.Very important, I always export when the green bar is full.

2.I export the same horse with different riding preferences and trial to see which preference suits best, usually the winner most of the time.

3. I have a certain time in mind that it needs to achive in the CK

For eg, so far at Flemington on a good track the following times for 2yo I have found to be competative:

1000m 56.30sec Carring 57.5kg for colts & 56kg for fillies
1200m 1.9.00 sec Carring 57.5kg for colts & 56kg for fillies

Bit hard to find 2yo's so I end up buying everything and see how it goes.

4. I play the AUS game and the season starts in August so at the beginning of every season ie after the green bar is full I export. You would be surprised at the performance of some of the horses first up. This is not always the case. I then export the same horse around December and again in April or May. I have found a few that as the season progresses especially for 2yo's they actually mature in game during the season hence why I export in April May. Sure enough(not always) they gain between 0.75 to 0.5 sec in the CK!!!

That horse that was average at 1200m becomes a potential champion at 1400m and 1600m.

Cheers

PS I could be wrong and someone correct me please but a gain of 0.5 sec in the ck equates to about 1 L which could make all the difference.

Scatters-your correct regarding pacemakers but one thing i have found out this season is- i tested my 1m4 horses with pacemakers and as you may have noticed mine haven't performed...So i re-tested recently without and then noticed Aston villa was front running...which is not race handy..its forcing the pace...obviously it finishes last...When i test i have 9 or 10 race handy horses so its tricky because in the league ive noticed mine are always near the front or front running...Another example is Ashamed...Ran a cracker drawn wide fto then runs badly next time out..reason...forced the pace lto...So my advice is to do both..test with pacemakers and without....but only from a mile upwards...
Hope this helps....Hurricane....

Thanks for your advice guys, it's greatly appreciated, will crack on
Monday eve when I get home, killing me not been able to watch the races............ Even though mine crawled home again!!

I name horses sprint pacemaker, mile pacemaker and staying pacemaker then export them as 'force the pace' . You need a true run race to make it worthwhile imo.

ESagent, you are correct.

If I have a race handy horse and there are no pace makers in the race and it goes to the lead and acts as a pace maker during the race. Does this affect race performance? To be honest I haven’t noticed with my lot but I do have horses in the stable that when they lead 50% they fade away and 50% they hang on doggedly. The reason I put this down to, is that the horse is actually inconsistent. That is part of its trait. I have a few horses that are race handy types and they often lead. They always battle on. Why? Because they are very consistent. I believe horses have this trait to varying degrees.

I have one horse that trials unbelievably but only does it once every four or five races. Realm Guardian, check out its first run. It is actually a pacemaker but faded badly. But if the horse is in the right frame of mind he runs super times.

Cheers.

I always test with pacemakers from 7f and above when deciding if I’m going to keep a horse for the league or breeding as it’s the only way to get an accurate result, but when doing final testing for the league I don’t include pacemakers so I can identify the most consistent horses over varying pace, and naturally these are the ones I enter into the league. Also when testing anything up to one mile I only test on courses with no draw effect in order to get an accurate picture of horse ability. Over one mile I keep an eye on the draw as this has a huge effect, it’s easy to miss an otherwise great horse if it keeps getting a poor draw, unfortunately some horses are plagued with getting bad draws so I tend to keep them for breeding but not enter them into the league when possible.

I think there are many factors determining whether a horse will fade when it sets the pace, the biggest factor is clearly how fast the pace is, if it’s too fast then it’s likely to fade towards the end but if it is an average pace for that horse then it should hold on. Other factors such as the nature of the course, the draw (if it has to bomb it to the front at the start of the race) and how other horses are running also play a big part. Ridden handy horses are always the best in my view, especially once the bloodlines really are established as these horses become very difficult to catch.

Good points Crazyboy,

Just thought of another possible reason a horse might fade, it could be a dominator horse. But if this is the case then there should be some indication in the form.

scatters when you say you export them at the beginning of the season and once again in december and and may etc, how do you compare them with each other as it just overwrites the last export file doesnt it??

also when you retire a horse to stud does its green bar have to be full or does it only matter for exporting them??

last question - im just wondering if people export horses to the jumps league which have never been invovled in a jumps game??its just that my best horse in ck over 3m - 4m is a horse from my flat game.