Racing

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2010 Auction

Chapter 6 - Racing

Selecting Races

Choosing which races to enter your horses in is a major part of the game. There are several tools available in PF to help you select the right races to give your horses the best chance to win. The first of these is the race calendar, described in Chapter 5. The calendar lists all the races for the current racing year, so that you can plan out in advance where you want to aim your horses during the season.

The horses’ ARs are another resource. The AR is a guideline that will give you general information, but they are not set in stone or absolute. While an AR may indicate that a horse is a miler, it may also perform well at shorter or longer distances. Figuring out each horse’s ideal distance, track condition, and grade level is a matter of experimentation and racing the horse, then evaluating how it did.

The race card is another tool to aid in selection. It displays all the races for the current week, and the horses already entered in them. It is updated every time someone adds, edits, or deletes an entry, and will give you a good idea of the size and quality of the fields.

Past Performances

As a beginner, how do you know what kind of races to enter your horses in? Start with the horse’s AR as a general guideline. If the horse has been raced before, you can also check its past performances to see how it did. These are provided on the website. Log into your stable page, and click on any of your horses to view its info page. On the info page is a complete record of the horse’s past performances. You can use this information to determine what surface, distance, and grade of race it might perform best in.

Triple Crowns

In PF as in real racing, there are certain races throughout the season designated as part of a Triple Crown. These races tend to attract the best horses in the game, and winning a TC is not easy. If a horse does win all three races in a TC, its owner will receive a bonus of one million dollars ($1,000,000). The various races that comprise the Triple Crowns are listed below.

The American 3YO TC: Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes

The American 3YO Filly TC: Kentucky Oaks, Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, Coaching Club American Oaks.

The Handicap TC: Metropolitan Handicap, Brooklyn Handicap, Suburban Handicap

Canadian 3YO TC: Queen’s Plate Stakes, Prince Of Wales Stakes, Breeders Stakes

Canadian 3YO Filly TC: Canadian Oaks, Bison City Stakes, Wonder Where Stakes

English 3YO TC: 2000 Guineas, The Derby, St. Leger

NYRA Filly TC: Acorn Stakes, Mother Goose Stakes, Coaching Club American Oaks

Sprinter TC: Lightning Stakes, Oakleigh Plate, Newmarket Handicap

2YO TC: Hopeful Stakes, Futurity Stakes, Champagne Stakes

2YO Filly TC: Spinaway Stakes, Matron Stakes, Frizette Stakes

Note that it is theoretically possible for a horse to win more than one TC, or for more than one horse owned by one stable to win TCs. For EACH TC won by a stable, that stable will receive a one million dollar bonus.

Large Fields

The maximum number of horses that can run in a race is 20. If there are more then 20 horses entered, the field will be trimmed to 20 using the following rules:

       1. Any horses whose scratch instructions would voluntarily move them to another race or scratch them are removed first.
       2. Multiple entries by the same stable will have extra entries beyond the first removed. For all Grade 1, TC, Derby prep, and major series races (Dubai, Hong Kong, etc) extra entries will be removed based on lifetime earnings, with lower earnings horses removed first. For all other races, entries will be removed based on time of entry, with horses entering last being removed first.
       3. For all Grade 1, TC, Derby prep, and major series races, remaining entries will be ordered by lifetime earnings, and the top 20 earners will run, with others being dropped from the field.
       4. For all other races, if it is an open race (where both colts and fillies may enter), fillies will be removed next, based on time of entry, with later entered fillies removed first.
       5. If the field is still too large after the removal of fillies, remaining entries will be ordered by time of entry, and the first 20 entries will run, with others being dropped from the field.

Obviously, to have the best chance to get into a race where a large field is expected, enter early.

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