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To Err is Human
Original article written by Marzy Dotes posted 12 years 3 weeks agoI knew the moment that I had pushed the button to train this quarter horse that I had made a terrible mistake.
Before I had drunk a cup of coffee to ward off fatigue, I decided to do some training but alas, I had trained the wrong offspring of one of my favorite broodmares. By the time I realized it, it was too late. Instead of having horse number so and so do a work, I instead issued that directive to her half brother Fiona’s Son.
So the blue roan colt with the cute bald face went out and did 300 yards in less than 17 seconds. Whatever euphoria would have erupted from that work dissipated when I remembered that he was due to run in his debut race later that day.
Oops.
I wondered what would happen to him now. Would he be injured as a result of my training mistake or would he be spared? At any rate regardless of the answer to that question he would probably be too tired to run well.
So he ran his race and somehow survived it without injury. He wasn’t too energetic but finished “evenly” in ninth place in a field of 12 more rested and probably more talented contenders. The vet looked him over a couple of days later and declared him completely sound (phew) but had this advice to give.
“I wouldn't recommend another race too soon with this horse.”
Well okay, that makes sense but what was really embarrassing about this most recent gaffe? This happened within a few days of writing an article on how not to injure your horse. But a lapse of attention or focus on something else while you’re clicking button can sometimes have costly and long-lasting consequences.
The point is that I’ve been playing the game about seven seasons and I still make mistakes. That wasn’t even my only one that week. So if you’re new and making mistakes in some ways, you’re ahead of the learning curve.
Mistakes are an important part of learning anything and that’s how most people learn. They learn what to do in large part by learning what not to do. For most new people, it’s overtraining and/or racing their horses to the point of exhaustion and often injury. They’ll take a horse, gallop it, train in the paddock, jog it a few times, work it every day and then throw it in a race. At some point in the process, the horse will often “break” costing money to mend and being sidelined sometimes for several weeks depending on the injury. If you really overdo it, the horse might wind up with a permanent injury that even buying insurance can’t prevent.
The best thing to do is to do a lot of reading and research on the forums and the frequently asked questions sections. Also if you have questions and everyone does, feel free to ask them in the forum or come to the chat and ask people there. More than likely you’ll find people there who’ve made those mistakes and will be more than happy to share the knowledge they learned. It doesn’t mean you will stop making them or even stop occasionally revisiting the same ones but over the long run, it’ll help you improve.
It’s not always easy to do this because sometimes we think we’re the only ones who’ve ever over trained a horse or shipped one to the wrong place and only realized it after pressing the button. But anyone who says he or she doesn’t make mistakes and roll their eyes at those who do is just an individual with very selective memory because perfection is a trait just not found in human beings. If it were, then where’s the fun in that? Most of us can just tell you about our own experiences making those same mistakes and tell you how we dealt with it, what we learned and add that it’ll get better.
Sometimes a few mistakes are made at one time as in injuring more than one horse in a small barn with a limited expense account. Sometimes an owner might worry that they’ll be in the red or won’t have enough money to pay off their expenses. For newer players and junior players, they don’t pay all the same bills or they pay reduced prices but there are still those vet bills when you injure horses. If you’re short in cash, you can look in the “contest” section of the forum for opportunities to win SIM cash but you can also write articles for the Feature Race News. The pay is very good and it’s a very useful tool for learning as well. You can pick up some knowledge through research that helps you avoid making the same mistakes along with cash that leaves you with the feeling that you’re solving your own cash flow problem. The simplest articles are race previews or reviews but you get the most out of writing them, the more research that you do on the entries.
While researching, you can study the entries including their sire and dam bloodlines, their race records, equipment adjustments and the importance of good race placement. Look at each horse and decide whether or not the race is a good spot. Does it have the bloodlines to run successfully at that distance or on that surface? Did it receive enough rest or did it do a two week turnaround and ship halfway around the world? How has the horse’s performance been impacted by what equipment it’s using and has the quality of its performances changed? What was its training schedule before it started racing? Do some trainers answer these questions through their actions differently than others?
The profiles of the horses are chock full of information not only about each horse but also that which is useful to learn to be a better player when making decisions about your own horses.
It’s been very helpful for newer players who get in that rut. But it’s like anything else; it’s what you put into it that will determine how useful a tool it turns out to be.
Another common mistake made by newer players and I did this one myself was blowing too much of a limited bank account on horses that couldn’t pay their own way on the racing circuit. Some of those impulsive purchases are in my pasture now and I can’t figure out now in hindsight why I bought them but part of the problem was failing to do the research. After all, if the sire’s a dud at stud and the dam’s dead before the age of 12 (not to mention mixing turf bloodlines with dirt often doesn’t mix well), then that’s a pretty good sign that the filly’s not going to be good. Sure enough, one like that galloped “not impressed” and worked slower than a turtle. If it hadn’t been for the racing opportunities in Alaska, she probably never would have won a race. So you need to do your homework on a prospective purchase before hitting the “buy” button.
Sometimes the temptation is to buy foals, yearlings, broodmares or horses that are unable to compete on the racetrack. While picking up yearlings is fun, it’s important to remember that they can only drain your bank account not add to it for at least the rest of the current season. And if they are miler or dirt router type runners or certain types of mixers, they won’t be able to run in the races that they most favor until at least the halfway point of the next season. Foals can take up to nearly two or even three racing seasons before they can race on the track and bring in money. Arabians and Chasers are unable to race in their types of races until they are three years old.
It’s far better to look for horses that are able to hit the ground running and earn you money racing right away. If you’re a new player, there’s a special list of affordably priced horses for you to purchase including some very nice ones if there is a barn dispersal. Look for horses if you can that earn money each time they go out to the racetrack. Although they’re often underrated, the best friend for a newer player is often the hardy gelding that likes to run hard and earn money. There’s good racing action at both Trial Park (open to newer players) and Junior High (for junior players) where the racing competition’s often a bit softer and there’s opportunities including the Dare to Dream yearling program. Take advantage of those venues while you can access them.
It’s useful to try to focus on getting useful horses even claimers especially with the newer racing venue in Alaska where there’s plenty of races in different distances and surfaces for horses who might not have much success at other tracks. It’ll provide useful experience at race placement because often some of the claimers up in Alaska turn out to be more competitive than others so there’s some trial and error. Don’t worry if you don’t have high quality horses including stakes horses.
For most players, finding one of those or purchasing it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, patience and earning money to be able to access the better quality horses. It took me almost all of my first season to raise money through article writing to be able to purchase my first stakes performer at auction. In large part because her mixed up bloodlines kept the final bid much lower than what she ultimately earned on the racetrack.
Sometimes people offer you quality horses from their own barn and if you’re lucky enough to get one of those, be gracious and accept it with a thank you. It’s better not to ask or demand people to give you good horses because that isn’t often very well received especially if it’s your first contact with other people. If you aren’t lucky enough to receive good horses from more experienced players, don’t sweat it. While it’s awesome that people are generous enough to help new players, it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t happen to you. There’s often free horses offered up on the new players forum and often there’s quality in that mix.
All of my free horses that I received while I was a newer player came off of the generosity of people posting on that forum. In fact, some of them were another type of undervalued horse, “the perpetual maiden” who may not find the finish line first but consistently come back to the barn with money in hand. Horses like Barroom Hero and Sheik Ramone proved to be very valuable contributors while they raced for me and now, they both are enjoying themselves in their careers shying from snakes and performing in shows.
High quality horses are very nice indeed but looking back, I don’t think I’d swap either of the above horses and the stakes filly I finally did buy for anything better because of how much I learned from racing them. Because the knowledge you gain from racing a horse can often prove to be more valuable than the horse itself. When you do get a stakes quality horse in your barn that often requires a higher level of long-range planning with its racing schedule than might a claimer.
One of the lessons that’s part of campaigning any horse is being realistic about its ability level meaning that if he’s zero for four starts but still hits the board, don’t throw him into a graded stakes race first time out unless in some cases the horse is “filler” material in shortly subscribed races.
Just do your homework on the forum pages for free horses like you would on the sales pages and look for horses that bring back the cash when they race even if they’re perpetual maidens.
Always keep your eyes open because you don’t need to pay a fortune for a horse that can wind up being an awesome performer in your barn. I can’t count how many times I purchased horses for $1,000, $100 or even $1 who have earned that money back many times over. Take Grey Scale for example, a gelding I picked up for $1,000 on the sales page at the end of my first season. He wasn’t very fast but he brought home earnings in three out of his four races and in one of them he actually beat the future Baltimore Crown winner Thriller. I raced him on the dirt and also the all weather and he more than paid his expenses even though he never reached the winner’s circle. It took him about 17 races to finally break his maiden on the all weather surface and like many horses that struggle to get that first win, he crashed at his first attempt at the conditional level with a 10th place finish.
But as it turned out he wasn’t done yet. Because when you have a horse in your barn sometimes it’s important to explore different angles with them. So I researched his bloodlines and found out that both his sire Cozumel and his maternal grandsire Enforcer produced horses that proved to be good chasers. So I jump tested him and he scored “natural” which sealed his fate. He became a chaser and hit the board in 15 of his 18 starts so far winning six of them and proved to be a stakes quality performer even winning one at the age of nine. In the process, he’s earned over $288,000.
That’s not uncommon in chasing because even though breeding has really taken off, there’s still those horses with jumping ability in them that has to be discovered. So if you have an older horse that isn’t having much fun even running in claimer races before you cull him from your roster it might be useful to try a jump test especially if his family on his sire or dam side has produced quite a few winners. It’s always very rewarding to have embraced an opportunity to make a success out of a horse simply from exploring your options and it provides a powerful learning experience. It doesn’t work out that way all the time and there might be other opportunities missed, but it’s part of what makes the game fun to play.
Even after he retires to go terrorize kids in the lesson barn, Grey Scale will serve as a useful reminder when I’m discouraged about my progress that as long as there’s success stories as well.
There’s nothing in this article that’s really complicated and for everyone their experiences and definitely their learning curve might be different. It’s important to realize that you’ll probably never reach an experience level where you stop making mistakes like purchasing the $200,000 claimer who’s slow as molasses or forgetting that there’s no rest for the horses in between racing season when racing horses. But you’ll find that if you learn from the ones you do make and change your course of action, then you’ll improve as a player and probably have more fun in the process.
As for the colt above, I plan to give him a few mints and then plenty of rest before sending him out to the racetrack again. And when it comes to training my horses, to do so after drinking my morning coffee and not before I’ve had my first cup.