So I'm about 2 years into the game all I've done is hired some breeding mares and bred them and sold the colts to cover operating costs and expand breeding. I've gotten a couple of horses from Yearling status and they just moved into my barn. I'm trying to determine whether to sell them (I read somewhere that 1 year olds unraced sell for more than new foals) or keep them to try and race them.

I'm in the Horse Stats screen where I can see Potential Speed, Consistency etc. I know the higher the potential the better BUT what are the other things that I should consider MUST HAVE when determining to keep and race a horse?

On the main parameters screen - Speed and Acceleration

Secondary stats - Potential, Extra Speed, Cruising Burst, Finish App., Enthusiasm

Is there really an impact ? I mean, can we say after all this years that Speed Bar and Acc bar mean a better horses with equal potential ?

I've always see this stats on the forum, sometimes horses are just good with poor stats bar, i've never noticed a crazy bar to follow.

Thanks for the answer sirius.

Hi

For me which stats to look out for can be slightly different in a flat or NH save. I breed only for the league so my parameters are at the top of the range. I am one of the top flat trainers in the league.

Flat:
Potential - must be at least 85% absolute and 65% realized potential as a yearling
Extra Speed - must be 90% for sprinters\milers, 85% long distance
Cruising Burst - 65% shorter distances rising to 80% for longer distances.

These 3 bars count for 97% of how a horse performs.
There are some hidden stats which we often refer to as "JuJu" stats. Not very important in the main game but make a big difference when trialing horses in the construction kit.

Consistancy, Finishing and Ground Adaptability are nice to have but 50% in these are enough.
The red bars in the first screen can be deceiving in yearlings. At 3yo I look for the shorter distance horses to have speed and acceleration but as my horses go up in distance these bars drop downwards.


NH:
I don't play a lot of NH but potential, extra speed and cruising burst are again the most important and change according to distance.
It is the NH where I think Confidence and Enthusiasm are important.
Jumping stats bars I am totally confused about. I have had horses with very little jumping stats win G1 races.


When I start a new save I set the auto advance to 3 seasons\years. The reason is so that there are plenty of gamebred stallions in the barn. I think that it is important to find a gamebred stallion with at least one of either potential, extra speed and cruising burst in the first few seasons of the save and that you breed a colt with similar abilities.
This is a Cheat but at the end of my first season I may have 40 mares in the barn so I make a copy of my save and then breed my mares with all the best stallions and check the foals for the stallions that give the desired bars. Because of the randomness of breeding I probably would repeat the turn of the year 4 or 5 times taking a note of the best stallions. I would revert to my saved copy of the game and then breed only with the gamebred stallions that give me the best potential, extra speed and cruising burst.

Hope this helps
Jim