My heavily favored G2 - the one this newbie in the first four months of his initial season mortgaged half the farm to purchase so I could assuage the inferiority complex babysitting a stable of low level handicappers will trigger - was beaten by a head, over his preferred distance by a clearly inferior horse, with a good bit of my meager bank riding on the outcome. This game is outstanding! Counter-intuitive? Nope. A come from behind horse, boxed in along the rail, by the time his knucklehead jockey steered him out of congestion and freed him to run, it was a wee bit too late. Another 100 yards and he'd have handily claimed what should've been his. After torturing myself with repeated replays - sadly, I'm already far too heavily invested in my equine pixeltruppen - I couldn't be happier with the result, given the circumstances. I'm not seeking an arcade game I can master with a few gimmicks. I want a sim that mimics real life racing to the extent artificial intelligence permits. Think I found it. Now back to cherry picking cheap dates at backwater venues for my nags and plodders. Carry on, please.

Yeah I enjoy that it's not an auto-win type of game even coming off back-to-back seasons where my 3 and 4yo horses are dominant. However I rarely take a poor jockey ride in my stride as you seem too - it infuriates me when they are running the horse laterally for most of the race or into a box when they could have had a clear path easily!

I'm getting better but honestly, I still get pretty salty with those.

My two preferred jockeys were already booked, as I was a late entry, so I took a flyer on another and have to own it.