With it being this time of the year, I wanted to mention one thing that I feel needs looking at is the ai on selecting quality horses and horses that have shown potential perhaps by winning their first couple of races.The derby needs to have a much more select and quality field not horses that have run loads of times and lost most of them.Also the field sizes need to be smaller not the look of a heritage handicap, I feel this will give the derby a much more special feel not just another race.

I have exclusively been playing the derby trail. I only race 2yo and 3yo.. sell my horses at 4. I am not sure I totally agree with you on the too many losses.. Are you using the Start it Mod? I think it's best for the derby trail game. My biggest thing is that the AI WAY over races horses. They will have 10 2yo starts and 9 3yo starts for a total of 19 starts (sometimes MORE) by Derby day... I see good horses coming in on 8 days rest and goofy stuff like that. These horses would have a shot but my horse is coming in to the derby on 8 races total and 35days of rest.....I'm not convinced that lightly racing a horse does much in the game but I prefer to keep it realistic. I do know for a fact however that OVER racing a horse definitely has an effect in game. The AI is super bad about it. I also think it feeds on itself. You are saying these horses come in with lots of losses but it's probably because their trainer is literally racing them every 8-15 days. They are making the derby as good horses but with low confidence and horrible condition bars lol.

I'd be curious what you have in reply! I am only trying to speak from what I've seen while playing.. It's great to hear from another that plays the derby trail!

Not sure if we are talking crossed purposes,when I say trials I just mean the fixture trail in the standard game which is what I play as I’m don’t mod the game because I’m not that great with computers and don’t what to muck the game up.it would be interesting if other people think the horses that aim for the derby and the derby itself need to have the best horse running and not a load of average over raced ones.