I'm a beginner player who has watched some Youtube tutorials that have helped me out immensely. I followed the tutorials and I managed to build my stable up and I have about 10 million in the bank and about 30-40 mares all breeding each year.

The problem that I have just noticed is that all my 2 year old horses only have a tiny amount of red stamina on the bar graph. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to do something in training (I have simple training turned on in the start up options)? Or am I not breeding them properly?

That's perfectly normal. Their stamina should increase over their two year old season, along with speed, potential, and extra speed/cruising burst. It's recommended that you race two year olds at least 4 times in their first season to help them develop.

Do keep in mind their juvenile constitution and maturity, though. If they have low juvenile constitution, you might not be able to get those 4 races. And if they've got a slow maturity rate (the higher the bar, the longer it takes for them to mature) don't worry if they're not running well or their stats aren't developing as expected; they're probably just a late-bloomer!

Hopefully this is helpful!

That's good to know. I thought I was doing something wrong. Thank you for your help.

What is the minimum potential for a 2 year old that you would keep in your stable? The reason I ask is that I have a 2yr old horse at a low 50% potential but the rest of its stats are quite good. Should I keep this horse or sell it at auction?

Does finish application, consistency and other stats go up too?

Generally, I keep 2yos with 50% realized potential (dark green) and around 75% absolute potential (light green). A little lower than 75% is fine as that will increase over time. So take a look at your horse and see if its potential fits the criteria I mentioned. If it does, then I'd probably keep it. It's hard to say though without knowing its realized and absolute potential.

Here's some examples of horses I plan on keeping so you can get a visual:





Also, here's this filly. Her stats aren't the greatest (that FA and consistency, yikes) so I doubt I'll keep her, but she's a great example of ideal potential.



And no, those stats don't go up. Only potential, speed, stamina, and cruising burst/extra speed.

That's great, I know what I should be looking for now!

Thank you very much for your help its much appreciated.

I have just one more question. Should I be buying fillies from the yearling and 2 year old auction or should I stick to the weekly and breeders auctions?

I would stick to the yearling, weekly, and breeders auctions. Two year old auctions tend to have overly priced, not so great horses. I only buy from there if I see a horse with attractive breeding, usually out of a G1 winning mare or a G1/multiple graded stakes producing mare.

Also, you can find some nice ones in claiming/selling races. That's where I've found the majority of my best broodmares, plus some nice stakes winners. If you go to the "Do you have to use money cheats?" thread in this forum, I wrote up some things to look for in claiming/selling horses.

I'm going to start checking out them selling/claiming races now. Thank you for the tips.

No problem! Glad I could help!

When I need money early in the game and I either can't get good breeding mares or can't wait the 2 years for an infusion of cash, I like to buy yearlings with good sires, and if possible good dams, then flip them unraced as 2 year old's the next season.
I just started a new online league for the first time (only played solo) and I needed some $ so I bought a G1 yearling with good bloodlines for $518,000 and then in the new season I sold it unraced for $2,290,000.

Sure beats trying to gamble to raise $.
Later in the game when money isn't an issue I only buy yearling I want to look at for maybe racing, but tbh they never end up any good, which is probably why they were sold off.

I don't really have a problem with making money as I make millions from breeding. I now also buy every single yearling in every single auction every year and then sell them at 2 yrs old which makes me a ton of money each year.

My only problems now is winning races, chosing the right races for my horses and knowing when to give up on a horse.

You probably also found out that buying 2 yo's was a waste of time and $$$.

I mentioned in another post about hiring a 8-0 to 8-3 jockey with max (or as close to max as you can get) in both skill and honesty, with obedience being nice to go along with those but I will take a lower obedience jockey to get higher skill and honesty if that is the choice to be made. You can then start with "On pace" (or whatever the steady pace is called) and "late challenge" as your baseline and adjust from there based on what you see and what the jockey tells you.

I usually race based on my horses rating. Unless it is a major up and coming force, I don't put them in races where most or all of the horses are higher rated than them.
Also I put them in races that suit the ground they like. You can look un their sub stats and if the are maxxed out in "surface adaptability" then they can race on anything.
So dirt on dirt, turf on turf, good on all, and max or really high surface adapt on all.

Is it distance you struggle with? can maybe give you some help there if that is it.
I am not great, but the last season I had a 28% win rate, which I think was good. (waiting for an online veteran to call me a loser! lol ) It was only season 4 and my horses still aren't really good yet.

I would like to amend my comment to reflect I did buy a yearling at auction who had a sire I knew to be great at breeding good horses, and that filly not only ended up being a great racer, but gave me my first Preakness winner.
She just ended her 4 year old season and has 5/1/3 win ratings, and $3.6 million in career winnings.
Not bad for a foal bought for 505k at a yearling auction. But then again I KNEW her sire was a proven stud through my own experience with him breeding my mares, and the dam looked pretty good.
She will soon be heading to the breeding barn and I expect a good 8 or so years of high quality foals that improve my stable. Surely a few of those even make their way into the online league. (I have her from her 2yo season in the current online league - Dancing Iris which I named her after I bought her.
Pretty good return on investment.
But most of them do end up just being flippers, so to speak.