Hello guys!

My first post here, so I will make it short - well, probably not!
First of all: What a great game!
I found this game some months ago and have been playing it almost daily since.
First it took some time to get accustomed to the handicap system, which I had no knowledge about, since I am from Norway. Then I saw one of my horses winning a claiming race effortlessly and was shocked when I found out it was instantly sold away from my stable! After some learning by trial and error and reading several pages of this forum, I got some grip of it, and my stable began to produce winners. The game has for me developed in steps, and I can remember each one of them:
1. Getting my first group 1-winner. Then I cheered loudly YEEEEESSSS! Fist in the air and everything and my wife wondered if I was really going insane, a thought she has been wondering about for several years now. Those of you who have a wife knows that look...
2. Getting my first horse to reach 130 in ranking. I thought for a long time that this was impossible, even though I had seen several screenshots of horses with that ranking. When that at last happened, I could not believe it. Then I just closed down the game and sat down with a large dose of Ardbeg.
3. Getting my first win at Nad-Al Sheiba World cup. Also this seemed impossible. After many tries with horses I was confident of being winners, which all failed miserably, it suddenly happened totally unexpected, with a horse who had given me a long string of disappointments after I bought it for 1,1 million. It even won with two lenghts! Then it was time for a new Ardbeg.
4. Getting my first group 1 winner from my own breeding barn. This was the final proof that my breeding was on track. Ardbeg time!
5. Getting my first win with my own bred horse at Nad-Al Sheiba World cup. Another one that required several tries! My horses seemed at this point capable of winning everything - except this one! Frustrating. When it happened I was so pessimistic that I didnt believe my horse would win, even though he was a great favourite. Then it happened - just like that! So simple! Ardbeg!
This didn't happen in one day, as you understand. If it had, I would have been asleep on my keyboard waking up the next morning with WASD engraved in my forehead.

I am still playing SO3, since I am not "finished" with this game yet.
Now I am in my 20th season, and my biggest problem is that I dont want to retire my beloved horses, because they are still able to win listed races at 10 and 11 years old. But the breeding goes on and on, and I evidently have to retire them.
Even though I have come a long way into the game, I still cheer when my horses wins group races, especially the unexpected ones. I often watch replays of races, some of them several times. My favourite is when my horse gained four lenghts on the leader on the last furlong and won by a nostril hair.

SO4 was bought as soon as it came, and I look forward to start a new round on this game especially since there are so many great new features to it.

I hope you liked my little story of how I see this game, a story some of you might seem familiar with, although I know there are many ways to play this game and many focuses on different things than me. This is what makes the game so great, the deepness, which makes us able to want to play this as long as we can envision.

Keep up the good work Mark!

Excellent story. This is a great game. Its nice to hear stories like this. We have all been there.

If you keep winning group races you will become an alcoholic.