Wow! Amazing guys! So much to process there, especially this JuJu rating magic trickery

Before I restart a new game, I have several questions.

Does it matter if you go manual training or auto? ( I usually go with the auto lazy option) - The main thing you can do with manual training is make your horses finish stronger I think. Watch Josh's horses finish if it's tight. If they are in a tight finish, the last 50 yards they always power away. I might be wrong but I'm sure he's said he trains them for that somehow. I'd say that's likely the only real benefit. You can concentrate on little things like that (that will make a difference). I dont think anyone else trains manual though.

Does it matter if the difficulty level is set to hard or easy? (I usually set this to hard) - no, set it to easy, you get more money to start with, an it makes no difference

I don't know if this is right or wrong, but I tend to always start my new games off trying to establish good sprinting bloodlines, and then from there creep up the distance, usually to a max of 1m4f, I don't really have interest in longer races. Will this hold me back from finding the juju horse? Assuming the best way of finding it is to fill my breeding barn full of mares and breed to every stallion no matter the bred distance. - I always agreed with John on this one, breeding up is always easier as it seems to happen naturally as the horses in breeding get older. My new game has changed my mind. I've always had decent sprinters, even when I was struggling in the league. And it always came from concentrating on sprinters an working up. However, this new batch of sprinters this season are a cut above anything I've had before in the league, an they were all bred from 10f horses in my game. My JUJU horse was a 10f this time in the game, and I bred down from there. I think you just need to find that JUJU horse in the game an go from there, don't worry about distances at the start. I never bred anything distance specific till about 25-30 seasons into this game. I'm only 45 seasons in now. ALWAYS be trialling from the very start no matter what. It takes minutes early on in a game, an it's the only way to find the true JUJU horse. Be breeding for stats seperately to that, but make sure you trial everything just to see which horse beats the rest by a 3 to 4 lengths in the CK. That is the most important bit. Some people dont trial early, but they're more likely to miss it an just start a new game when they dont find it. Every game will give you these horses. Just easy to miss if you dont trial straight away. Early on, I'll be stopping the game mid season to go an check what certain horses do in the CK. Not proper intense trials. You only have to run a few races an it will be obvious.

Once I have started a new game, to help find the juju horse, should I only trail horses from my new game, or can I mix them in with current game exports? Like, how obvious is this horse going to be? A total OMG this horse is amazing and beating everything in a canter by 6 lengths? - Ha, think I answered that one above going off on a tangent , yes trial everything, an yes, you'll see it very obviously. Then you can split your breeding into stats based, an JUJU based till you get all the stats you want. Then mix

Are there multiple juju horses for different distances? Yes, but likely at different levels. I find that you et a few early on that are better than the rest, probably about a 6 or 7 on the JUJU scale out of 10, use these!!. Around 15-20 seasons in, you'll get one or 2 that off the scale an really propel your game. I dont stop looking an hammering the trialling till about season 25-30, once it's obvious I have the JUJU, I start to mix with the stats based ones I've been ignoring an just breeding with for stats only.

At the start of a new season I usually go through each new 2yo and all those with low potential I just remove from game immediately, is this wise while looking for the juju? yes, I still do this, but do it at 1, not 2. 2yos are impossible to tell from stats really as they all change. At 1, it shows you the potential they actually have. I dont even bother with the 2yo sales early on. Everything is done at 1, an 3+ for me. I name all my horses as yearlings, an cull depending on stats there.

Once I've got the 2yo's I'll be keeping I skip forward a couple of weeks to mid January and then I export them and run a few trials at 5,6 & 7 furlongs to get a shortlist of the top 10 or so horses I'll keep for the season, the rest I usually sell or ditch, occasionally I'll keep the odd one if it has good stats. - Never cull horses based on 2yo trialling. Its completely different to 3yo an 4yo form. By all means trial at 2, so you can get a 2yo line going. But base any culling on 1yo stats, then 3yo trialling.

I tend to export all my stable (2yo-4yo's) around the same time every year, and then run trails at Ascot from 5f-1m4f and on gd-sft & gd-frm. I usually do this in June, after each horse has had a couple of runs. Is there a perfect time of year to export horses for trails? (I understand if this is asking too much info, trade secrets and all that) - I export all mine on 25th August, usually after 4 runs that season. I've never really noticed much of a difference in exporting at different times, but the earliest I've done is 15th July, so not much scope between the 2.

Does it matter how many races a horse has under it's belt before exporting? I go for 4, you have to give the horse enough races to fill it's potential. So you want the green potential bar to be all dark green, not any of it left light green. 3 or 4 races usually does this

Thanks chaps!

Steve

Just realised, if your name starts with 'J' you seem to be born with the 'JUJU'

Thanks very much Vinny! Looking at your results this season so far I'd say you're up there with the best of them training wise, so I appreciate you taking the time to go through each question with a detailed response! This should help me massively I think now going forward, its as though I've been shown the light! LOL

On a slightly different topic. I've seen a download for the increment bar thingy m bob, I tried the link but it isn't working for me. If anyone could point me towards another link or which graphics files in the game folder I'd need to 'tweak' so I can better read the stats bars. That would be great!

Thanks chaps!

Steve

Drop a post to Sirus in here, I think it's his work.

Sorry one more question on the JUJU

When looking for these horses, do they show up initially as a 2YO's? Or can they appear only as a 3YO? Or is it mixed?

More questions relating to the JUJU

Obviously at the start of a new game the quality of the mares you pick up at auctions are pretty bad. Can you afford to be picky here waiting for better mares to show up? Or shall I just ram the breeding barn full (asap) of anything and everything until I have enough mares to breed with every stallion?

Regards the gamebred stallions. After breeding with them once and then trailing the offspring, if no JUJU is found do you ignore that stallion the following year or keep trying year after year? I guess some of it comes back to the potential rating as a yearling? Maybe I've answered my own question there....

Steve

When running trials in the CK, especially early on in a game, do trainers here watch the entire race start to finish? Normal speed or fast speed? Or do you just skip straight to the result? If I'm just trying to find the JUJU then early on I'm not really interested in the shape of the race (pace).

On my previous saves I usually ran all my trials in fast speed and watched whole race, but that's why I only really focused on sprints and mile horses, I couldn't be bothered to watch a 1m6f for example Later on to save time I'd just skip to the result and read the notes for each runner to see who where the prominent horses and who where my hold up horses. But something in the back of my mind always questioned whether the result would have been different if I watched the race start to finish. Does it make any difference? hmmm