A quick question if anyone can advise?

I've had a few horses that have won multiple grade 1 races and when I exported them to the CK they turn out to be average at best.
Is this a fair reflection on how tough it will be to find a good horse worthy of a place in the league that can compete at the highest level.
For me at the moment it appears the gap between the two game play formats to be very wide.

Yes there is frequently a big difference between horses in the game and horses in the CK and understanding this, as you have, is key to progressing for the league.

When starting out you shouldn’t concern yourself with what is going on in the league as all you can do is breed from those horses in your stable that perform the best in the CK. Try to test earlier rather than later, I believe this time I began testing as early as season 5, once I had enough horses to test with. You must get rid of any horse that doesn’t perform in the CK, it doesn’t matter how many group ones it has won, if it doesn’t do it in the CK bin it, I know it can be hard getting rid of what looks like a great horse but you have to bite the bullet.

Early on make sure you go into the auctions everyday as trainers do sell off their top horses and this can really kick start your blood lines, you may only get one or two a season but it's still well worth the effort because just one of those horses can change everything for you. Sometimes you may not get a chance to test these horses (too old for example) but you can still breed from them and see how it goes, if it gives you duffers get rid of it.

Once you start to make progress you can start using the league times as a guide as your own best horses can be misleading. For example you may have a 1m2 horse that can stuff all your other 1m2 horses by three or four lengths and you’ll breed from it but it could still be several seconds down on the league times, whereas you may have a miler that doesn’t seem impressive as it doesn’t beat your other milers well but could be two seconds down on league times, so naturally that would be the one you’d want to breed with. Don’t use a single league time as a guide, look at all the times for the races over the given distance you’re testing at, view the race to make sure it wasn’t a slow pace etc, in other words make sure the time is accurate. At the moment there aren’t many races to go on but obviously this will change. Once your horses have really progressed you can ignore league times and just use your own horses for comparison.

Good luck.

Good post CrazyBoy!!

Cheers CrazyBoy. A really thorough and helpful response. Much appreciated.
I guess the hard work starts right here.

yeah nice post crazyboy. i cant wait for the second league season onn so4 because im learning a lot this season and so i hope i can be competitive next season

informative crazyboy, tnx.

Thanks for this cb.