First of all, I should say, that I'm not a person, who wants to find a point to criticise and does anything to find the "hair".. I regard minor problems as things that can happen, and that Mark listens to our remarks and tries his best to fix them is reason enough for me to thank him very much for realising SO4.

BUT... compared with SO3 I'm lacking the suspense in the finishing stages of the races... the graphics have improved, and the jockeys' actions are neater now, but it seems to me, that this improvement in neatness has happened at the expense of the overall thrilling suspens.

On the last 400m every jockey with a chance to win the race should be riding. It leaves a strange impression to see jockeys ride, stop for a few seconds, then starting again to push the horse, pausing again... and doing nothing during the last 50m although just being half a length behind the leader.

This has also diminished the suspense in the photo finishes. The movement of the horses' heads in the final finishing head-to-head stages happened at "a larger scale"... with every stride it was another horse, which was in front, and in SO3 you sometimes really did not know which one would be declared winner, even after the photograph appeared on the screen.... until the final judgement appeared.

Especially, in my opinion, the riding styles of NH jockeys were better imitated by the SO3 version.

I remember the problems I had had with the jockeys' riding styles, when SO3 appeared, but I got used to them and finally they convinced me.

I'm not sure, if that will happen too in SO4.

I wonder, if others share this impression too, or if... I have reached an the age, at which I have started to become an old grumbler.

I agree, Mark sorted it out in SO3 in one of the later patches, once this is put right it will be an awesome game, then Mark should look at the Racingpost doing another review

Yes I have an issue with Jockey AI at the end of a race.

AS an example in 1 hurdle race, my horse was about 4 lenghts clear with 2f to go. Second place horse starts get whipped and shoved and starts to catch my horse. My jockey remains motionless, which is still the case when the other horse goes past my horse. It wasn't until approaching the final flight my jockey asked the question, by which time it was too late.

It's as if the jockey has the distance and the horse's preferred distance preprogrammed and no matter how the race pans out will ride exactly the same?

What it seems, to me, is that the programme has decided the finishing order before the race has started. How else could you press space and get the result immediately? Obviously it is not perfect, but I think the game has to find a way to produce a race that fits in with the result that is already decided. How often do you try a 9 furlong horse in a 10 furlong race and your 9 furlong front runner makes a poor start and never gets on terms? Then it turns out to be a non stayer, comes last and the game has to do less work, graphically, cos it has been at the back for the entire race. Same as hold up horses who are bred to race a furlong further than the distance of the race, they never get on terms, when we know that in real life they would be on terms and then get outpaced in the last couple of furlongs. Or, they might be 'never nearer' but they would not be tailed off by 10 lengths at the start. I reckon all these things are making the programme do less work.

Generally, I would think that if your horse is half a length behind, and the jockey is not riding at all, and I've had this too, the better graphic would be to have the jockey pushing away and the horse to not be responding. Another thing I've have noticed, is that, sometimes, if my horse is meant to come third, he will let 1st and 2nd pass him and then start running on when they have gone past. It's as if all the jockeys are in on a huge race fixing scam together!

p.s. The problem with some of these finishes is that it hard to know how literally we should take 'the look' of a race, compared to just looking at the result. Sometimes a strong finisher in a race never does it again. Did he just have a going day that day or was I looking at a graphic that was required to get the result to work out?

And when the form summary says 'faded' but i saw a horse running on strongly, from miles back, to be 6th, which should i believe?

I've seen a jockey taking a pull half a furlong out, when about half a length down off the winner, when he is totally in the clear and seems to have the race at his mercy. Should that be taken as a bad ride or is the programme just getting slightly mixed up with its computations on this occasion?

yes i have to aggree with what omero is saying, i have a horse which is 7 furlong and like to race in front, at the last 2 furlongs the jockey just sits on her and won't use the whip nor even shake her it's like he is waiting for the other horses to catch him, when they do pass my filly he starts to ride her not untill the half a furlong before he starts to whip the horse, plus the photo finish is no where near accurate

Maybe your horses are emulating Keiran Fallon on Ballinger Ridge.

On a serious note I can't really say i've noticed this at all, if my horse is leading into the last 200 and then a rival is coming quick behind, my jockey usuall takes the horse off the bridle again once the chasing horse gets to its tail