Questions & Answers

[The Horse Whisperer]

Thought a bit of house-keeping was in order to try and keep your questions in one thread and not scattered all over the place.

Today's question:

Q: How can l tell if a horse is a sprinter or a router ?

A. I assume you mean if you can tell from workouts? I cannot emphasize enough that workouts are only rough guides. My best guide is the first 2f of a horse's workout. I use the following bench times to give me an idea what the horse is capable of.

22.0 or less: Definitely a sprinter probably 4f-5f best distance.
22.0-22.20: Sprint capable. 5f-7f.
22.20-22.40 Getting towards a middle distance runner 6f-9f
22.40-22.60 8f-10f
22.60+ Long router 10f-11f.

Please note the above are for the push instruction. Also note that 12f isn't listed, that is because you should never push over this distance. I can't remember ever having a horse that won on the push instruction at this distance.

Races are won and lost with the instructions. Doesn't matter how good a horse is, if he has the wrong instruction he will struggle even against mediocre opposition. We will get into this in the near future in great depth because in my mind, knowing how to use the instructions without knowing anything else will lift your win percentage alone.

[Polaris Bloodstock]

Mr Whisperer...just a small note, i claimed a horse called TWIN ROCKER some time ago, a died in the wool router. He has been claimed just the other day off me, but he had to be in PUSH all the time...1 1/2mile as well...he won a couple for me at that distance on PUSH...i would say they are one in a million, but that typr of horse are in the system...thanks for some of your wonderful insight within the boundaries of this thread...

[The Horse Whisperer]

Mr Polaris.

I guess my bold statement to never push a horse over 12f didn't cover all situations, including the example you mentioned. Without having seen the instruction on all horses in the race, maybe all horses were on push? We will never know but I do concede that there may be slow horses out there and in the future that do in fact, need to pushed to 12f and beyond. Maybe I have been more fortunate over the years.

THW

[The Horse Whisperer]

Todays question:

1. During add testing...Do you make any allowance in work times for meters under 100? ( not including speed or fitness)

As most works are short distances, I don't worry about the level of the STM/STR/END meters as long as they are 95 or more, in working out calculations. If I have a similar time with an add (within 5 points) I will use the add that had the worse 3 meters at the time of the workout, to save time.

[The Horse Whisperer]

Q. How important is jockey selection?

Fairly important. Given that the bulk of horses in the game have similar hidden attributes, the right jockey selection can give your horse the boost needed to rise above the rest. I like to use different jockeys for different instructions. I have my push jockeys, my jockey decides jocks and so on. It doesn't mean that a jock can't win using another instruction than I normally use him with, but when nominating horses I have a rough idea what instruction I am going to use with it.

When selecting jockeys, I mainly stick to the top 5 when nominating but look at the jockey table from time to time to see if there are any movers (high percentage win/start) with at least 20 starts for the season. If you have time. look back thru the results and see whether the jock is winning sprints/routes/turf/dirt/CAL/BEL and maybe put him as your 3rd selection from time to time.

If you do hit on a rarely used jock that is coming into form, you will only have exclusive use of him/her for a short time. Other stables will pick up on it fairly quickly but by that time you should have worked out which races to use the jock and which not to.

A lot of races, it won't matter who is riding the horse, you may have nominated him in a race where your horse is above the rest but that doesn't mean that it will run exactly the same with the same jock next start. It will depend on the draw, the class of the other horses in the race, how much speed early etc. My point is, be flexible with each race.

THW

[The Horse Whisperer]

The race is 5f. These are my horses splits: 21:80. 44:47. 58:09 . I drew the rail. The question is: What's the proper instruction?

This horse has a lot of early pace. I assume this is its first race. Congratulations on drawing pole.

Steady is the best option. This will keep the horse's speed in check but allow him enough speed to keep other front-runners traveling wide around the turn. Horses behind the pace have to find a gap but your horse should have plenty in reserve to hold off any late challengers.

Good luck.

[The Horse Whisperer]

Q. How often do you pick or change your final instruction pre race

I nominate a horse with the same instruction & setup that I used successfully over that distance. However when the field is listed, I look at 2 things.
The draw my horse got and how much speed is on his inside. Remember from our Experiment #2, we have to try to predict which 3 horses are going forward and which are going to drop back. I try to calculate where my horse will be after 2f when the horses from the outside start moving across. If I feel that my horse will end up sitting outside 2 inside horses then I will change the instruction to try to get in behind them, rather than be wide on the turn and fade. In this case, we try to slow our horse down marginally in the first 2f. We can do this by changing his previous instruction or there is another way. If you have worked your horse enough, you will see that different adds speed up or slow down your horse's 2f split. If you have a work that is slightly slower or faster 2f split but roughly the same time at the end of the work, you can change adds. It is all about getting your horse on the fence and you have to take each race as it comes and not only handicap the field but work out what set-up you need to achieve the result you want. Doesn't work everytime but it will give you better results than having your horse running wide every race and praying for the pole position.

[The Horse Whisperer]

Quiet day in the inbox, so I will ask myself a question.

Q. What does the '+' and the number mean after the jockey, e.g. Oliver D 117 +1 when the race field is posted?

A. A very good question. This means that you have selected a jockey whose weight is higher than what the horse was allocated for the race. The number tells you how many extra pounds your horse will carry if the jockey isn't changed. In our example, Oliver weighs 117lbs but your horse is allocated 116lbs. Your trade off is, do I accept the extra weight because I have the jockey I want or do I opt for a lighter jockey and run with a pound less?

[The Horse Whisperer]

Q. How long should i give a horse to show something on the track before considering the geld?

A. There is no definite answer to this, but I think you knew this already. Personally, I would give it 3 starts in a Maiden or Maiden Claimer and if the colt is finishing 3 lengths or worse behind the winner each time, I would consider gelding it or if it is only competitive in the lower claimers (less than 10K), you won't lose much by gelding it as a last resort. It might have been ok in the breeding shed but so could thousands of others and I haven't seen many maiden sires become great breeders <cue Mr Polaris>.

Now here's a better question:

Q. Which colts are more likely to improve by gelding?

This is a great question and there is a good answer. This is based on my experience over the years and I only hit on it in the last few seasons.

We go back to a horse's initial work. If its first 2f split is 22.60 or greater and its final time is 1:09.30 or better, this is a good candidate for gelding. After gelding, the first split (varies with different horses) quickens it up on average 30 points to around 22.30 and it seems to have a ripple effect bringing the workout time down to under 1:09. Or if you work 5f, low 58s.
However I wouldn't consider gelding until I had seen it perform in races first. As an entire, it may be very competitive in middle to long route races. Back to the first question, if it isn't performing well in 20K Claimers or higher, after a few starts, then I would geld. Better to have income from racing than the hope that he may be good as a breeder.

Some further points.

The 22.60/1:09.30, 58.60/58.20 are my benchmarks, that doesn't mean that horses around these numbers won't do better as geldings. You may come up with your benchmarks and find better or similar results.

I have never had success with gelding a horse that runs its first split in 22.30 or quicker, in fact, most times they work/race worse.

Gelding can improve closers but not sprinters.

[Polaris Bloodstock]

thanks Whisperer....you threads are a wonderful insight into DD..

[The Horse Whisperer]

Thank you Mr Polaris. It is good to see I have at least one satisfied reader.

THW

[The Horse Whisperer]

Q. Is there any value in using the Multi-Work function?

A. If you have 50 or more horses in your stable, the Multi-Train option is a must. As most horses will require the 11f lpg daily, you can train all horses that need a daily train, setting the defaults and with the click of a button, all selected horses are trained for the day. Saves a lot of time.

The Multi-Work function (on the same page) allows you to work 4 horses maximum at the same time. Some stables believe that after they have finished working out the best set-up for their horses, running them in a Multi-Work can show heart because it is similar conditions to a race.

I used it quite a lot seasons ago but found that it didn't really give you a definite idea of the ability of your horses. The main reason is that you cannot set a jockey or instruction when multi-working them. I assume that jockey decides is the default instruction which isn't used as much as the other instructions in a race. Therefore I found it gave more a sense of false hope than useable data come raceday. However, if you have a number of yearlings who have finished their works and the new season is a couple of weeks or more away, it can be fun to watch them compete against each other.

Another fun thing with it, if there is a competition in the Forum where weight doesn't matter. You work one horse with the Multi-work and set the weight to 'jockey weight'. The horse only carries 100lbs but you cannot select a jockey or an instruction.

[The Horse Whisperer]

Q. I read in the chat room that horses perform better or worse simply because which stable owns them?

This would be understandable if one trainer was better than the other and made the right moves with the horses, but by the conversation I got the impression that sometimes it is solely based on which stable owns the horse. Is there any merit to this statement?

A. In the early seasons, I remember a player asking the then admin, if horses improved simply by changing stables, i.e. no setup changes. Admin replied that there was a component in the program that did improve some horses who changed stables. The expertise of the new stable had no bearing on the improvement other than what you stated above.

Over the seasons, I have seen a few horses improve as they were claimed or bought but because the game is so complex, I have assumed that the gaining stable found the key to the transferred horse.

Other than that statement by the outgoing admin, I haven't heard that this component is still a part of the game or not and if it is, I don't think it has a huge effect on changing the game. I believe it is one of those random things that occur now and then.

Maybe the current admin, when he has time, can give us more information about it.

[The Horse Whisperer]

Still getting questions about the age change from yearling to 2yo affecting workouts. Admin has answered this in the Forum.

My only comment is to say that if you have seen a difference, then it is up to you to diagnose the data and adjust your set-ups accordingly. If you feel that there has been a change, it has been across the board and won't affect the racing at all.

The stables that are affected by any changes are the ones that are more interested in the breeding/selling aspects of the game, not the racing.

[The Horse Whisperer]

Q. What about multi training your yearlings or new 2 year old against older raced horses. Can you gain any knowledge from this ?

Not something that I have done but it falls into the same category as I said previously. You have no control over the jockey or the instruction, which are important factors of racing. My disclaimer is that I don't know everything about the game and I would suggest that if you think there could be value in it, then try it. I would be interested in your findings.