Announcement

**Getting Lucky Lodge** · 10-06-2011, 11:38 PM

Creates

Item 1. Creating Horses.

The initial 2 horses that are provided free of charge when you register your stable in the game, can be quite good. If I was to guess at a ratio, one in 25 can turn out to be very competitive in higher level races.

Each Christmas, admin usually sends a gift to each active stable by way of a free horse voucher. A couple of these will turn out to be useful (see above ratio).

On your main stable page, under the "Main Stable" tab there is a "Purchase Horse" tab. You can Create a horse, by constructing its name, sex, age (1/2/3yo), and color. Over the seasons, I have found these horses not to be very good compared to the homebreds (future article). About 1 in 50 or more turns out to be a strong competitor. To me it is like a slot machine, you will get little payouts from time to time, but the jackpot is rarely seen.

From time to time, free vouchers will be offered, normally through Forum contests or suchlike. Not many of these have generated a horse of substance but then again, they are free and they can be used for experimenting (humanely) with different jockey/instruction/distance etc. combinations.

**helpful hint** Create yearling and 2yo colts only. From my observation and purchases, the fillies just don't perform as well as the colts do. The same can be said for 3yo's (both sexes).

next article: Workouts

**Getting Lucky Lodge** · 10-07-2011, 04:18 AM

Initial Workouts

Item 2. Initial Workouts

I believe this to be the hub of GLL's success, but it requires a lot of patience repeat a LOT of patience. You could make adjustments to the set-up of your horse from race to race but it would become expensive before you found the right combination. Workouts allow you to gauge (by time) what accessories/jockey instructions/distance/surface may be best to use for no extra cost. I will list the procedure step by step exactly how GLL works it horses. It doesn't matter whether it is Created or a homebred (using your own broodstock and/or public breeders).

When you Create or breed your new horse, all meters will be at maximum, i.e. 100's across the board.

Step 1. Visit the Vet. Most of the time, he will suggest vitamins only. All horses should use vitamins, even if the Vet suggests they are a neutral influence on the horse. You will never get a bad result from using vitamins i.e. whereas bute and lasix are mostly suggested as harmful (in varying degrees), vitamins will either be neutral or varying degress of positive. The Vet is important not for making the horse run faster but for making the meters easier to work with. Without the right meds, the meters will start to go haywire, if you race/workout your horse extensively. They do have some influence on route (long distance) races but that is only with the right horse. The Vet costs 1000 credits (paid only once) but it is a good investment.

Step 2. Initial Set-Up I always set the horses the same for a workout for yearlings and 2yo's.

dirt/CAL/6f/120lbs(colts)118lbs(fillies)/McKay/jockey decides with no accessories (adds):

Why? good question...

dirt: most DD races are on dirt.
CAL: no particular reason, but it is the first track listed on the Workouts page.
6f: a good distance to display if your horse is a sprinter or a closer or something in-between (more about this later). Plus most stables use this as their workout distance, so you can see how your horse measured against others on the same day.
Weight: Colts start their careers on 120lbs, fillies tend to be lighter 116/118lbs. I have found these 2 weights give you a better idea as to the ability of a horse. If you are working a 3yo, add 2 lbs to each (122lbs colts, 120lbs fillies) and if working a 4yo, add another 2lbs i.e. 124lbs for colts, 122lbs for fillies.
McKay: She is a middle-of-the-road jock neither good nor bad. If a horse runs an exceptional workout with her aboard, you can bet that your horse will do a lot better in a race with a more accomplished jock in control.
Jockey Decides: For quite a lot of seasons, I used to push horses in workouts but I later found the JD instruction gave you a better look at best options whereas the push instruction only showed you what it was capable of for the first few furlongs. The JD instruction not only shows you speed out of the gate but also how it finishes off the last 2 furlongs.

Next article: The Meters

**Getting Lucky Lodge** · 10-07-2011, 05:32 PM

The Meters

Item 3. The Meters

Ryan Express has posted an excellent article on this subject and it is worth reading to understand how the meters work.

The GLL way:

The following day after a workout, daily training schedule is dirt/CAL/1-3/8mile/lead pony gallop. Repeat 2nd day. Most horses will be ready to workout again on the 3rd day. If you have visted the vet, followed this schedule and kept workouts to 6f (previous article), the meters will behave themselves and you can complete as many workouts with a horse as you need. You shouldn't need a rest day. The ONLY time a horse needs to be rested for a day, is when one or more of the meters goes negative compared to the previous day i.e. after the first daily train, all meters should be green. If you have one/more meters that stay yellow, the horse needs a rest day, then resume the daily training schedule the following day.

Next article: Workouts Continued

**Getting Lucky Lodge** · 11-08-2011, 06:21 AM

Workouts Continued

Item 4. Workouts Contd.

There are 3 different types of adds (blinkers/shadow-roll/tongue-tie) and there are 8 combinations of these (b/s/t/bs/bt/st/bst and nothing). I have found it only necessary to try 4 combinations (b/s/t and nothing). 90% of the horses prefer nothing or the tongue-tie but blinkers and the shadow-roll are worth trying if the horse's times aren't great or you have plenty of time for works (yearling). If the workout times are nearly identical i.e. horse with shadow-roll runs 1:09.40 and with a tongue-tie 1:09.42, I give it a workout using a combination of the 2. Sometimes this can shave a few points off its workout time e.g. 1:09.30. If it is worse, then I will pick one of the adds and race the horse with that set-up for a couple of races, if no good, change it to the other add,

I haven't found it worthwhile to try to isolate the best jockey for the horse thru workouts. They can vary from season to season and you will find that the top jocks on the season list will perform just as well in works no matter what horse.

If I have a horse that is consistently running the first 2f in 22.60 or greater, then I might work it over a mile on push to see if it suits the horse better. Low 1:36's is a good workout time for the mile.

I haven't experimented with different track surfaces with workouts. This will become apparent as your horse starts racing, whether it prefers turf to dirt or vice versa. Most horses can handle both surfaces with the same ability.

Next item: Race Selection.

**Getting Lucky Lodge** · 11-20-2011, 10:43 PM

Race Selection

Item 5. Race Selection - Non Claiming Maidens

If you are a foreigner like me, then the Claiming Races may be a new concept for you. I will deal with these in more depth in a latter topic. It is important to understand them if you want to be successful at this game because they make up most of the races in Digital Downs. In this item, I will discuss the non-claiming races. A lot of this you will already know from experience with real racetracks but I want to go over them, specifically in Digital Downs format. You enter your horses using the "Nominate" tab on your horse stats page. This will take you to the Condition Page which lists the races your horse is eligible to compete in (up to a month).

Maiden: (for horses that have never won a race). These races are the best entry point to the game with a new horse. They usually only cost a dollar entry fee. There are more expensive ones i.e. higher entry fees. At the start of the season, they can be tough to win because there are many new horses hitting the track at the same time. The maidens can be much easier in the second half of the season. The maximum number of horses in a DD race is 12. When 12 horses are nominated, DD will start a second division of the same race conditions. At the start of the season, this happens quite often but as the season progresses and there are less maidens around, then the fields are much smaller (hence easier to win).

After watching the replay of your horse's race, you can gauge what to do with it next.

If it won, next start, you should consider putting it into an Allowance class, non-winner of 2 races (2 dollar entry fee). If it won easily, you could probably try Alw (NW3 ($3) or NW4 ($4)) if you can't find the right distance in NW2 races. If you are very confident, especially if it ran a slashing time, then a Stakes race isn't out of the question. These cost more to enter (8-10dollars) but the rewards are greater too.

Always watch replays of your horses races. The 3D viewer is best for observing many aspects of the race with different angles. You can easily see if your horse had excuses for a poor performance or it was way out of its depth in this class. The 2D Viewer is limited in comparison to the 3D viewer but can display enough to help you make a decision about your horse's next start.

Next item: Jockey Selection

Digital Downs Discord

Announcement

Inside Edge (Introduction)

Inside Edge (Introduction)

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment