Philosophical Mistakes in SIM

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 11 years 3 weeks ago

There’s a lot of advice for newbies regarding practical mistakes in SIM, such as racing one’s horses too often and suffering injuries.

This article is focused on how one approaches SIM from an intellectual or philosophical standpoint, and how some outlooks can get one into trouble. The experiences relayed below are based, in large part, on my having mentored at least a half dozen new players.


THE BIGGEST MISTAKE
The biggest general mistake I see new players make is taking an A+B=C attitude toward SIM. The inclination to do this is understandable, given that SIM is a computer program. If one assumes that computers can only think in terms of black-or-white, then it seems logical to assume that if A and B are true, then one is always going to come up with result C. When one doesn't get result C, then the player is flustered and demands to know why result C didn’t happen, after they so carefully put factors A and B into play.

For example, “My horse had the highest speed figure of any horse in the six-furlong race, and my horse was the only one that has won before at six furlongs. How could my horse possibly finish fourth when it was clearly the best horse?”

The short answer is that there’s at least a half dozen other important elements that go into a race, besides favorite distance and prior speed figures.

What’s more, players often don’t want to accept that SIM has random elements programmed in which, in my opinion, do an outstanding job of imitating real life. After all, people in real life tear their hair out all the time, wondering why a horse that was doing so well suddenly isn’t, or why, as a bettor, they were so certain they understood how a race was going to be run, and which horses were going to be right there at the finish, only to have a different set of horses have the final say in the outcome.

Be grateful for those random elements, because, otherwise, SIM would stop at the breeding level. Breed an outstanding mare to an outstanding stallion, and it’s a foregone conclusion that the foal is going to be outstanding. If that was guaranteed to happen, why bother with training to see what you have, let alone running races? Everybody would know which horses were predetermined to win. That would hardly make for much of a game.


TREATING DIFFERENT DIVISIONS AS THE SAME
We would all rather have a “scary good” galloper, than a “wow”, or most especially a mere “wings” or lesser. When breeding, we would all rather be producing from an A nick than a B nick. When working out our horses, we would all rather have a top working horse than a slower working one.

Where the inexperienced player can run into trouble is in assuming that a “wings” dirt router is the same quality as a “wings” turf miler, or a “wings” Appaloosa 400yd horse. One size does not fit all, when it comes to different categories of horses.

Different breed/distance/surface types have existed in SIM for different lengths of time, so some have more generations of selective breeding than others. Even for those categories that have been around the same amount of time, some bloodlines have developed at a faster or slower pace, depending on the popularity of the category with players.

Thoroughbred dirt routers are a big favorite among players, because that’s the category that has the coveted Triple Crown races, and the lucrative Steward’s Cup Classic. I’ve had “wow” galloping dirt routers that don’t amount to much of anything. I’d think you pretty much need a “scary good”/”special animal” horse to have much chance at consistent graded stakes success in the dirt route division. The same goes for Standardbred trotters and pacers, which have only one distance category.

Yet, I’ve had turf milers that have been multiple stakes winners, and Grade 1 placed, despite only being “hard to tell” gallopers. Some of my most outstanding Thoroughbred homebreds have been mere “wings” All Weather horses. I’ve had “wings” Paint routers be among the best in their division, winning many stakes races; yet, in the Paint sprint division, I’ve had “scary good” horses that can’t win a stakes race, because they run into other “scary good” horses that are better.

With some of my mixed breed broodmares, I’m disappointed if I can’t get higher than a B+ nick when hypomating with different stallions. With my All Weather mares, I’m ecstatic with a B+ nick, because B is more the norm for that surface.

The breed/distance/surface category matters, and should be taken into consideration when evaluating a horse. The various tools in SIM need to be interpreted in accordance with the particular category of horse they’re applied to.


A NEW FAVORITE FACTOR
I see a lot of new players get a sudden understanding for a single aspect in SIM, such a speed figures, and then get so focused on that single factor, that they treat it as though it’s the only thing that matters in evaluating a horse or race.

Let’s say, for example, that a player has subscribed to SIMperior, and now has access to Clark Hoss, the horse whisperer, who tells them what kind of track condition the horse prefers, if any. So, this new player finds out his horse in an upcoming race prefers a sloppy track. He scratches the horse from its race on a fast track, puts it in a race on a sloppy track, and it wins.

With that satisfying victory, the player feels that he’s found the missing puzzle piece that explains why he’s won so infrequently in his first few weeks in SIM. So, he asks Clark Hoss about all his horses, makes sure that they’re now entered in races only on their favored track condition, and feels that he has his stable “figured out”. Such an outlook totally ignores the fact that there are many, many other elements that go into determining the outcome of a race than track condition, including random elements.

If a slop-loving horse has one win to its credit, it’s probably going to have more success racing on a fast track in a NW2 (non-winners of two), than on a sloppy track in a NW4 race, as the latter will likely have horses much more experienced at winning. Likewise, a water-loving turf horse is going to be happier shipping 100 miles to its next race on a firm course, than it will be shipping 1500 miles to a race with a soft course it will love. The long ship is likely to over-ride, or at least cancel out, any benefit from the horse racing on its preferred track condition.

Take another example, class. I’ve had a new player, who is from a family involved in racing, that expects a 50k claimer in SIM, dropping to a 10k claimer, to be thoroughly dominating in the 10k race, because that’s what would happen in real life. So, he doesn’t understand why that doesn’t always happen in SIM. I keep trying to explain that SIM horses are owned by all different types of players, which approach that task of entering all sorts of different ways. The 50k horse might not have been racing against true 50k claimers. I will sometimes take a 10k horse and put it in a 50k race, because the high tag of the latter often scares off other entries. So, the 50k race might only have a field of four – none of which are true 50k horses, but are 10k horses owned by heads-up players like me – and so when any of the horses in that 50k race later drop to a 10k tag, it’s really not a drop.

The point being, once again, that one shouldn’t take a black-or-white approach to any single factor, such as class level.


ACTUAL RACE RESULTS VERSUS POTENTIAL
A number of game years ago, a newish player dropped me a message, pointing out a horse he’d picked up for a cheap price. He seemed quite pleased with myself. “What am I missing?” he asked, while detailing all the credentials of the excellent pedigree, which defied the low purchase price.

The horse was a gelding. He’d been racing for a while, and was just an ordinary, everyday horse. Like the vast majority of horses, and just like real life, he’d obviously been a disappointment to his prior owner, and was let go cheap. Despite the excellent pedigree, he hadn’t turned out to be anything special.

I tried to explain to this player that the pedigree no longer mattered, now that the horse was racing. Pedigree, timed workouts, and gallops point to a horse’s potential. Once the horse is racing, actual race results is what counts, and there’s no longer reason to look at the potential the horse had as an unraced youngster.

Granted, you can use pedigree and timed workouts, as well as equipment in workouts, to identify horses that are perhaps racing on the wrong distance/surface, or that haven’t had their correct equipment properly identified. There can also be situations of looking at breeding fillies and giving more credence to the pedigree than the race record. But for situations where the horse is being purchased to be a racehorse, has been trained correctly, and is racing in the correct races, there’s no longer any reason to look at those earlier indicators of potential, when you now have actual race results to speak to the fact of the horse’s quality.

Put another way, if you were in charge of hiring someone at your job, why would you care that the applicant was a straight-A student ten years ago, when that applicant has been fired from nearly every job he’s had, due to poor performance? More likely, you’d choose the applicant that was an average student ten years ago, but whose recent employers have gushed over that applicant’s excellent work, and how sorry they were to lose them.

Indicators of potential are key for selecting young horses that haven’t raced. Yet, they hold little, if any, importance for the experienced racehorse.


RELYING TOO MUCH ON OTHER PLAYERS
Since I mentor new players, I obviously believe in the idea of newbies getting advice from more experienced players. There are way too many nuances in SIM to be covered by official sources, such as the FAQs.

However, I think just about anything a player hears from other players (including me) ought to be taken with a grain of salt, until the player has a chance to verify the accuracy of such second-hand facts with their own experience, or reading about it in the FAQs, or hearing from The Steward regarding a certain subject, in chat or on the Forum.

Experienced players say all sorts of things, in terms of, if you do X in Y circumstances, you’ll get desired result Z. Many of these beliefs are merely opinions, based upon their own experience, and may or may not be actual facts of how best to play SIM. A player might try a certain angle with some factor in SIM, and it works. So, now that angle is a true Fact in their mind. Or, they hear that, in chat, the Steward said such-and-such, so now that new information is a genuine Fact, and they pass along that Fact to others, completely unaware of the context of the chat conversation in which the Fact was stated.

In short, experienced players can have a lot of firm beliefs about playing SIM that are just plain wrong, or that will apply in some circumstances, but not in others. Or, they still believe a Fact that once was quite true, but over the years as SIM has evolved, is no longer true, but they missed the notice that said such Fact no longer applies. Therefore, they continue to pass on incorrect information to other players.

If one is ever bored, I recommend spending one’s time doing a search on the Forum. Type in “The Steward” as the author and then go through each individual Forum heading, doing a search at a time. (If you search the whole Forum at once, you’ll get too many messages.) I’d skim through the results, and stop and read anything The Steward says that applies to how to play SIM, as well as the surrounding posts to get a sense of the context in which her statement was made. You might be surprised at the helpful information you uncover.

Also, I would re-read the FAQs frequently. Obviously, when one is new, the FAQs can be a lot of blahblahblah that the player has a difficult time comprehending. But the more one plays SIM, the more those FAQs start to make sense. Every time you re-read them, you’ll probably notice something important that you never paid attention to before.

The more you can learn about SIM from its source – the Steward and associated venues, such as the FAQs – the better off you’ll be.


REFUSING TO BELIEVE A HORSE IS “DONE”
A common mistake with new players is to think that every horse can be a winner in their barn, no matter what its age, and no matter how poor its race record. When the horse doesn’t win after numerous attempts, the player is frustrated at their own lack of understanding of how to play SIM correctly.

Most often, the horse’s recent poor performance has nothing to do with the ability of its owner. It has to do with each horse being programmed to fizzle out at a certain point. That decline in form can happen suddenly, or gradually. It can happen anywhere from ages two through nine.

There comes a point when a player needs to accept that a horse’s usefulness is over with, and no matter how much the player tinkers with that horse, the horse isn’t ever going to “wake up” and start winning again… or win for the first time, if it was just plain a bad horse to begin with.

It’s time to let go, and move on to horses that the player can actually have some success with.


There are so many facets to SIM, that many players, especially new players, can only focus on a limited number of aspects of the game at a time, in order to keep from being overwhelmed. As one forms opinions on, “I should do this with my horses” and “I shouldn’t do that with my horses”, one should always keep an open mind about how to play, and not fall too much in love with a particular philosophy or belief system.

It seems, that no matter how long one has been playing, there’s always going to be something new to consider.

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