It was asked on another thread about what prep races actually do, so thought I would start a new thread with this to keep everything on topic and easy to find, for reference. Should anyone be planning to create their own schedule or change around the preps in their schedules, below is a brief explanation of what preps do, for those that aren't sure...

Prep races can be used to give the game's AI a helping hand, and to instruct the game that horses that do well in certain races will then be entered for target races.

If you have a prep race before the declarations for the target race are made, you will probably find that the declarations include the first two or three from the prep race. If you have a prep race that is after the declarations for the target race have been made, you will find that a horse that does well in the prep race and wasn't already included in the target race (subject to eligibility and having a high enough rating) will probably then be entered for the target race, and the horse with the lowest rating in the target race will be eliminated.

When it comes to using preps for handicap races, you will usually find that the horse from the prep race gets added to the field, with no horse eliminated (unless it's a handicap with a maximum field setting and the maximum number of reserves has already been met, in which case the lowest reserve will be removed). Obviously on the day of the race, any reserves will still be eliminated.

It's sometimes tricky to get the balance just right with prep races, as having too many can affect the fields of non-prepped races, but for some races they are very important (the Derby, for example), as many of the trial races happen after declarations for the Derby have been made, so the use of preps can ensure a very strong field.

If anyone has any questions on the use of preps in schedules, please ask.

Ok thanks for this panther.

I used to prep all my G1's, but then I found for example with the three triple crown races, the winner of the Kentucky Derby would very rarely be entered in the other two, or would go for something like the Prix Du Jockey Club or the Derby, so I haven't bothered now, as it doesn't seem to work as it should??

Not sure why that would happen, as preps always work really well for me, and I think they're actually vastly improved from the way they worked in SO4.

Maybe i'm confusing S04 with S05 then.....anyone know if prep races can be added using the editor yet, or is it safer to manually add them to the Sched_f ??

Have to say, prep races work brilliantly in SO5 now, used the editor to prep all G1's and major h'caps in my custom schedule to the max. Ran a season and had proper triple crown for the first time, Oaks & Derby with winners of all the trials, and so on. Impressed.

Yes, the preps in SO5 are definitely a lot better than they were in SO4! If you're testing though, I would test at least five seasons, not just one. Schedules don't even themselves out until the third or fourth season usually, so what you get in the first season isn't always typical of what you'll get when the schedule is in full swing. I've found this before, and had to tweak things further, so I always test changes to schedules for a minimum of five seasons.

Doing that at the moment Panther, early signs are promising, but like you say I always find things improve after a few seasons of racing. I normally skip the first season anyway, as the field sizes are a bit hit and miss, but this schedule i'm testing from day one to see how it holds up.

Funding them a nightmare fore editing- when I remove various races messes up the preps for others. I'm doing combined so I cleared out most of the Dubai race and now for Dubai world cup might I've got champion hurdle as prep for the sprints, arkle for the mile and cross country chase for the world cup! Going to be a long time sorting out all the preps.

Until that issue is fixed in the schedule editor, I would just wipe all the preps, then add them manually to the schedule file.

That's what I was thinking of doing, is there any way to wipe all the preps at the same time or do I have to do it manually?

Ok few stupid questions i figured i'd ask here instead of creating a new topic (hope someone sees)

Where is the schedule editor? I didn't see it in-game or a seperate exe for it.

In the Sched_F file the track name and race name need to match up to the one in the Showc_f to show up correctly in game correct?

With a track if you add the 2 after it for example: Belmont Park2 does that denote a night time race?

Is there a limit to how many featured races can be run on the same day at different tracks?

You have to do it manually, unfortunately.

If you click on the spanner icon in the bottom right corner of the main menu screen, this takes you to the schedule editor.



Yes, they need to match exactly.



Adding "2" after the course name means it's on the dirt track, rather than turf. To show that a race takes place at night, you put "_evening" on the line immediately after the date for the chosen race.



You can have up to three feature meetings per day, each with a maximum of eight races.

Thanks for the feedback panther.

So 3 feature meetings does that mean tracks? like I cannot have races at more than 3 tracks on the same day and the total amount of feature races cannot exceed 8 total form all the tracks?