Afternoon all, I am not totally new, although I haven't played for a while, but in the past i have been reasonably competitive. I just have a few questions regarding the upcoming league if anyone can help ( I know not all things are finalised yet)

1. Is there definitely only going to be one upload at the start of the season and then no more? This would heavily effect my stable to be honest as I only started playing again a couple of months ago after a long time off, so had to start completely from scratch with the breeding lines. I know that the reason for this is the amount of maidens available late on is limited, but surely horses uploaded in week 6 or 7 can be allowed to run in GP1's straight away and if there are maidens about run them. But this would mean it was an upload for anyone who feels they have a good horse to upload. Most of my distances would fall into this category at the moment.

2.Is the starting date likely to be the start of May or middle etc. Just a vague idea would be nice please as I am struggling to get everything ready in time.

3. Is there a thread anywhere I have missed with all the details and rules please? I missed all this season so I'm not really familiar with anything since Rich took over and wouldn't mind reading through if possible?

I'm sure I will think of more, sorry for the length of the post.

Cheers Vinny

Hi Vinny, I can't speak for Rich but at the moment it looks like an early to mid May start. There will be an opportunity to upload in week 1, 2 and 3 only since the season only goes for 12 weeks. Please consider that no maidens after week 2. So if you upload in week 3 you have to chance your hand in a listed or G2 or G3 race. You are not allowed to enter horses in G1's unless your horse has raced at least once. This is so as to receive a rating as the fields for all group racing ie G1, G2 & G3 has been limited to 14 runners. So the best raters get in. I could be wrong about the 14 field limit, it might be extended to 16 or so. However you can still enter unraced horses in G2 & G3 races without a rating but might not get in due to the 14 field size limit. Rich can you clarify all this?

Another point is that during the course of the 12 week season any one horse cannot have more than 8 starts so you need to be selective in placing your horses. Once again Rich can you clarify this?

Hope I have made sense.

Cheers.

Rich, also on another note, I take it that some of my returning horses from the previous season cannot be entered in maidens if they won last season?

Will they receive the same rating as they finnished with last season?

What if a player who participated in Season 11 ie two seasons ago and has decided to play this season but did not play last season. Can he bring in his stable from 2 seasons ago as long as the horses are 1 year older or do they have to be 2 years older to reflect the passing of 2 seasons? I mention this because there might be some out there who would like to have a go again but have not put the time in to play. There were some pretty good types in season 11 who could still be competative 1 or 2 years older.

Thanks Rich.

Thanks Scatters, clears up a few things for me. Didn't know we were limiting races to 14-16 field runners. Not totally sure how I feel about that as all my trials are currently run in full fields Thanks for the reply mate.

A lot will depend on TOM John with regards rating, they won't be eligible for maidens though.

I think a horse from 2 seasons ago would need to be 2 years older! Let me know if TOM won't let you do that at the time.

Mainly stated this for others not my horses.

But ratings do affect me. For example Roya will be returning and racing in 4yo+ races. If she is going to be alloted the standard 75 how will she get in the Group fields if she can't get a better rating. I say this assuming that the 2 race handicap rule still applies. Since she cannot run in maidens and handicaps how will she get in then?

If the 2 race handicap rule is removed (not sure that it applies this season or not) it would not be fair that Roya enters a handicap on 75. She is just too good.

So my point is that we should somehow bring in their previous handicap rating from last season. I have a few horses that will be returning and be affected like this.

Cheers Rich.

In previous seasons returning horses kept the handicap rating they finished with ( manually adjusted or uploaded with that rating ) and could be entered in handicaps or maidens if they were eligible.
TOM should show their previous record but I'm not sure if group penalties were carried forward or not.

I agree that any horse entered from last year and they have a higher mark then 75 should be given same rating as teh year before, but to make it easier everyone who does this makes an email and sends to Rich with the names and ratings of these horses to make manually entering a lot easier? I myself was very poor so will all be new uploads

Davy is right, group penalties weren't carried forward and this was due to the 4yo horse "file" being a separate entity.