I have been running a jumps career for best part of 30 years now, been very successful. I always struggle with horses at a young age. My NH flat record is shocking. I have many examples but this one is just really baffling me. The stats on this own bred are great, everything looks good. I have noticed now how important maturity is and most horses come good around 8yos. My issue with the horse below is its first two runs are shockingly below par, like tailed off 40 lengths in the second race because the other 3 behind fell. In the stats its maturity rate to me looks really high, like it should be running a beast at a young age. Am I simply mis understanding the bars? Does anyone else suffer with this? any tips for Jumps season and when to run horses and how you develop etc? Thanks in advance, Jordan

how do I add images

how do I upload images

I use Imgur

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Cheers for that! Got it figured out now.

I have many questions around this game. I've played It since SO4, never the leagues though (not really sure how). During the lockdown its getting hammered a lot more and I'm trying to work out breeding in depth. I usually breed high potential horses with high potential horses of course but sometimes try random horses and see what happens. Is there any really good guides out there you or anyone else uses? I have a string of successful types but it does throw some real rubbish out randomly. I have had most success exporting my flat horses across, usually ones with high potential but never made it for some reason on the flat. They tend to love hurdles but most struggle being consistent over chase fences due to low jumping ability.

Back to my question with the horse below, like I said this is a common occurrence. Looks a good horse on paper but completely failed on first two starts. Since then its actually ran better on next two starts, two seconds in half decent races I suppose. The changes I made after the first two starts seem to have had a positive effect. Wind op and blinkers added. How do pacifiers work? I use trail and error but never seems to have the right impact. Wind ops I have no idea, should I do them on every horse or can it actually have a worse effect? I have seem the head lad mention it once or twice in all the seasons that the horse needs a wind op or something.

Finally and I will leave it there haha, any info around maturity? Like my horse here the stats are high. It really annoys me when your horse performs so terrible after being a great novice. When are the golden years I guess I'm asking? Sometimes my horses even drop off at 10, but always by 12.

Thanks for reading this honestly any help and advice so I can make the game more interesting during these crazy times will be appreciated.

In relation to the maturity part of my question, this horse full of potential looks good in all ways. Half decent novice career over hurdles, won Dovecote second in the supreme but now cant win a poxy listed mares hurdle. I am attempting 3mile distance hence the claimer just for bants to see what happens

I am no expert but looking at your horse called "Capable", the horses last few races have been over 2 miles. If it were my horse, I would look at the stamina bar for an idea of the horses best distance and the stamina bar of "Capable" indicates to me that it might be a 2m 4f horse.

Next, potential is split into two parts, the absolute potential and the realised pottential. The absolute potential in the pic above is about 90% but its' realised potential is only about 75%. In my game a 75% potential horse will only be able to compete in races upto Listed, not in group races.

I am playing a league game so I can't see the 2nd set of bars in the pic above in my horses, but cruising burst and extra speed bars in the above horse are only "average at best". Try to improve these two bars by breeding with gamebred stallions.

The horse called "Champer" is probably a 2m 4f horse as well.

Looking at the stamina bar for a horses best distance is not exact but I usually judge the distance something like this:

upto 30% - 2 miles
30% - 50% 2m 4f
50% - 75% 3 miles
75% - 100% the longer distances

Nice one. Thank you for that, worth a try.

I would be very careful about been so rigid. Hire a good jockey and read what they say. I have 20% stamina bars winning 3 miles . I have a multiple Grand National winner with 40% stamina. I have 2 mile horses with 60 stamina. Breeding and jockey feedback is the best way to figure out the best distance to run over. Unlike other SO versions the horse distance will stay constant over time. So 2 milers will stay at 2 miles even when turning 10 etc, so once you get the right distance you can keep them at that distance. It may take a few runs to figure this out.

Also have found some 2 milers where the jockey feedback says they getting outpaced and then at 7 they world beaters at the lower distance. Breeding is the best guide here. They normally run over the same trip as their parents.

Also horses are more versatile in trip. Never before in SO have I won the gold cup and grand national in same season with same horse. Have done it twice in SO7 and came close on another occasion

I agree with you there. Although I have been trailing different distances since your last comment and had some success. well done on the grand national wins haha.. I still have not cracked that one been trying too long!! Do you buy pre-season auction? what do you look out for?

thanks

I go to all auctions and buy from there with horses who have form. I only buy horses from pre-season auction or unraced horses if the sire/dam are horses that I want offspring from. I follow horses I like the look of in races I watch and either breed from them when they are in the breeding barn or if I'm lucky buy them in an auction. I like to buy or follow horses where the race card comments are: fast jump at last, good jumping or good jump at last. I don't like small builds they fall too much.

I have won the GN for the last 10 seasons in my game. In fact I had 8 out of the first 10 a few season back