Financial Summary - Expenses

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 9 years 0 weeks ago

There's naturally going to be expenses in the game. But for many of them, there are ways to reduce them to some degree.

BARN RENTAL
This is when you rent any of three alternative barns. Each costs $50,000 per game year cycle. They're a nice convenience for large stables, but are otherwise unnecessary.

BETS
This is obviously for the wagers that you place. However, notice, below, that there's a different category for Exotic Wagers.

BLOODSTOCK AGENT
This is the 10k you spend when you ask Anna Liza Doolittle to tell you the mare quality, or comment on a racehorse or youngster you're thinking of buying. I'm sure this is one of those categories where players are probably shocked at how much they've spent. Successful breeding starts with quality mares, and most players want to know where any mare ranks in the hierarchy of labels (from "blue hen" down to "no potential").

The only tips I can offer for trying to curb the expense is, if you buy a mare that's already been retired, and there isn't any indication in the notes that she's been bloodstock checked (BSA'd), make sure you first check the History tab, before spending the 10k, as it's possible a prior owner might have BSA'd her, but not put the comment in the notes. Also, if you're a SIMperior player, our new 6.0 breeding barns have a column that shows the bloodstock category.

BOARD
All players must pay a weekly board for each horse they own, regardless of the horse’s age or activity status. The only way to avoid board is to have horses stay at a farm owned by you.

A looong time ago, some farms didn't charge any board. Around Year 24, the minimum weekly charge was $5. Now, with SIM 6.0, the minimum charge has been increased to $20. The maximum weekly rate a farm can charge is $200.

Board is charged, per the board rate for the farm or track the horse is at, as of first thing Sunday morning, Pacific time. It comes out of your bank as a lump sum. You can find the rates for all tracks and farms by going to the “Farms & Tracks” page, located under the Racing heading of your home office. In order to pay the minimum necessary board, pay attention to where your horses are located on Saturday evening.

Unlike the Daily Horse Expense (see below), newbies pay for board, and board is charged for foals and pensioned horses. Like the daily fee, board isn’t charged during break.
Board paid for horses at tracks go to the game, while board paid for horses at farms goes to the owners of those farms.
Note that, if a horse is in transit when board is calculated on Sunday morning, its location is considered to be its destination, so the latter is the board rate that is charged for that horse.
Horses cost a minimum of $320 per game year in weekly board ($20/week x 16 weeks).
If you buy a Steward-bred, create a mare (CAM),or create a horse (CAH), those horses will be located at Trial by Summer Stables, which charges the maximum $200 rate. So, one of your first priorities should be to ship such horses to the nearest $20 farm.
Steeplechasers are the SIM’s most expensive horses when it comes to paying board. This is because board is charged Sunday morning, and steeplechasers only race on Mondays. So, most players are going to want their chasers at the track at least a couple of days before they race, which means the ones racing on Monday are going to get charged track board. Steeplechase tracks charge $40-$100 each, with the exception of the Fort Knox claiming track, located in Kentucky, which only charges $15.

BREEDING
This is the stud fees paid for breeding one's mares. (It apparently can't be called Stud Fees, since that category is already used under the Income section.)

If you are eager to breed to a particular stallion, but he has a stud fee high enough that it's difficult to pay, it might be worth it to send the stallion owner a private message, and ask if you can have a reduced fee. They might say yes. Or they might not.


BUYING HORSES
This is obviously your purchases, and is likely one of those eye-opening categories that players don't realize how much they've been spending, until they seem the numbers in black-and-white.

As with stud fees, if you're really eager to buy a horse on the sales list, and the price is too high, it might be worth it to send the owner a private message and ask if they'll let you buy the horse for a discounted price.

CLAIMING HORSES
This is what you've paid to claim horses out of claiming races.

DAILY HORSE EXPENSE
This can sometimes be referred to as the day rate, or as the stall fee. It's $5 per day for every active SIM horse, which means yearlings, racehorses, and breeding stock. (Not foals or pensioned horses.) New players do not have to pay this fee for their horses. The fee is not charged during the break between game years.

The real life equivalent would be paying a trainer to train your horse, though in real life, while the fee is accumulated daily, it usually is paid along with other charges on a monthly bill. Also in real life, the daily fee would be much higher. (I’ve seen a range, in the U.S., of $20/day for small circuits, up to $75/day for major tracks – and that was fifteen years ago.)
The day rate comes out of your bank as a lump sum, first thing each morning, Pacific time. Unless you’re a new player, each active horse you own costs you $560 each game year in stall fees. ($5/day x 7 days/week x 16 weeks).
If you have horses sitting around that you aren’t sure you want to race anymore, and you can’t sell them, and they’re young, it’ll cost you $1000 to send them to greener pastures, which you'd probably rather not pay. Therefore, it’s probably best to pension them, to avoid paying the $5 daily fee, though you will have to pay a weekly board, unless you own your own farm. Know that once you pension a horse, it can’t be un-pensioned. When the horse turns 4yo, you can then send it to Greener Pastures at no charge

ENTRY FEES
Entry fees are only charged for stakes races, and they come out of your bank at post time, as a lump sum for all your entry fees that day. Therefore, you can enter a horse in various stakes races, and scratch repeatedly, without losing the entry fee.

I think this is an easy expense to forget, when one is trying to determine if they've made a profit on a horse. While entry fees in SIM are considerably less than real life, being only 1% of the purse, they can add up for a horse that competes in stakes races at least somewhat regularly.


EXCHANGE EXPENSE
This would be for SIM dollars you pay on the new Exchange, in order to trade for game points from another player.

EXOTIC WAGERS
I assume this is the cost of betting on the Daily Double or Pick Six.

FARM
This category covers both the original cost of a farm ($2 million to build), as well as the quarterly farm fee of $20,000 per farm. Farms are a huge outlay of cash, and even with the weekly minimum board being increased to $20, most farms are fortunate to merely cover the quarterly farm fee. It can take over a decade of game years for board income to cover the actual cost of the farm.

GREENER PASTURES
If you send a 3yo or younger horse to Greener Pastures, it'll cost you $1,000.

Though it's annoying to have a horse hanging around that you no longer want, and are unable to sell, it's technically cheaper, in most cases, to hang onto it and pay the minimum board, while waiting for the horse to turn four, so you can GP it for free.

HORSE WHISPERER
If you're a SIMperior player, you can pay $1,000 ($500 for newbies, $700 for juniors) for Clark Hoss to tell you what kind of track condition your horse prefers. You only have to pay the fee once per horse. If you acquire a horse that doesn't have anything in the notes about track condition, make sure you check the History tab, since any comments by Clark Hoss will be recorded there.

INJURIES
I've seen horses get injuries so minor that they actually don't cost anything at all, though the horse is laid up for a few weeks. However, most injuries cost between $5,000 and $20,000, with the latter being a career ending bowed tendon.

There are two types of injures -- random and trainer error. The random ones have a sub-category of permanent injuries, where the horse is said to have a stall accident, and is retired if it's a racehorse or youngster, and pensioned if its a gelding or breeding animal. Trainer error occurs from racing a horse too often, or otherwise giving it too much exercise with too little rest.

The best way to avoid random injuries is to buy insurance (see below), and the best way to avoid injuries due to training is to make sure your horse is adequately rested between each exercise/race activity. The tool for knowing the status of your horse's tiredness is the veterinarian (see below).


INSURANCE
As mentioned above, insurance protects a horse against random injuries. It also protects stallions and mares from being randomly selected to be sterile for a game year.

Insurance does not protect horses from trainer error.

Insurance is a one-time fee, and the cost is determined the horse's age and breed. One insurance is paid, the horse is insured for life, and if the horse is sold or given away, the coverage transfers to the new owner. Steward-breds are automatically insured, so those buying a Steward-bred at auction do not have to pay for insurance.

If your insured horse is chosen by the computer to receive a random injury, which then doesn't happen because of the insurance, you'll get a message in your inbox, congratulating you on making the wise choice to buy insurance.


JOCKEYS
Jockeys only count in nose finishes. Therefore, they don't get much chatter in SIM.

Each player only has to have one jockey. However, since players can run two horses per race (three for major Grade 1 stakes), it's good to have more dependable jockeys available.

You can pay $30,000 to create a jockey, where you get to determine its name and gender. Or, you can pay $15,000 and choose from amongst the pool available jockeys, which were either fired by other players, or are from abandoned stables. The big advantage to hiring from the jockeys already available is that it's not only cheaper than creating your own, but you can get the jockey agent, Alex Black, to tell you about the jockey's quality before actually hiring him or her.

If you're going to hire from the unemployed jockeys, and check with agent, don't assume that a jockey with a bad race record is a bad jockey, or vice versa. Again, jockeys only count in nose finishes. If a jockey was used by a stable with bad horses, then he's going to have a bad record, even if he's an outstanding rider. Likewise, a jockey that rode for a successful stable is going to have a successful record, even if he or she is an untalented rider.


LEASE
This is the charge for leasing a mare, or (as of Year 41), stallion or racehorse.


NOMINATIONS
This is the fee paid to make horses eligible for prestigious races well in advance of the race. These prestigious races, which only nominated horses can run in, are the Steward's Cup races, the Triple Crown, and the Most American Futurity and Derby for Quarter Horses.

Each of the above events has a $5,000 nomination fee, and the nomination must be paid during a specific week, depending on the event. Then, usually a few weeks later, un-nominated horses can be nominated for a late fee of $50,000. The Steward's Notice box on your Home Office page usually keeps players informed of when nominations and late nominations need to be paid for particular events.

Note that when a horse is nominated to the Steward's Cup, that nomination applies to any of the Steward's cup races, and once nominated, the horse remained eligible to participate in any Steward's Cup race throughout its career.

RENAME HORSES
For a fee of $5,000, you can change a horse's name. However, the horse must not have started in a race, or the name can't be changed.

In situations where you want to change the name merely for the purpose of correcting a misspelling, you can ask The Steward to do that, and you won't get charged for it.


SHIPPING
Shipping in SIM always costs at least a minimum of $100. It can go as high as $1800 for trips halfway around the world.

I wouldn't recommend that players try to keep shipping costs down. I'd rather see players ship their horses to farms between races, because horses recover faster at farms. I'd also prefer to see players feel comfortable about shipping a long distance to a race that matches their horse's needs, than race the horse in a less-than-ideal spot in the name of avoiding a shipping cost. In short, don't be a penny wise and a pound foolish when it comes to shipping.

If you accidentally click the button to ship your horse somewhere, that you then realize you didn't want it to go, you have a two-hour window to "undo" the ship. (Undo actions are located in your My Stuff box at the left of your home page.) If you undo the ship, you'll still get charged for it, but the horse won't suffer any tiredness.


VET
The SIM's resident veterinarian, Dr. Hinede Hacklu, is the SIM character that tells you how rested or tired your horse is. He will do this for a fee of $1,000 per vet check ($500 for new players, $700 for juniors). If your horse requires a second piece of equipment that is health-related, he might randomly reveal such during any given vet check.

I'm certain that, for a lot of players, the quest for finding a piece of equipment has caused vet expenses to soar since Year 30, which is when the equipment module was revamped. Some players have reported having to vet horses 40 times or more, before a second piece of equipment was revealed.

In my own barn, I've been more conservative, but I've still seen situations where vetting a horse 15 times -- for a cost of $15,000 -- caused a horse to be a money loser, when he otherwise would have made a small profit.

Beyond equipment checking, many players report only bothering to vet their best horses, to make sure they're fully recovered from a prior race, before competing in another major stakes race.

Again, Dr. Hacklu's primary purpose is to tell you how rested or tired your horse is. If you're ever not sure if, say, it's okay to give a horse a timed workout since its last race, or if the horse is fully recovered from a long ship to race at his best, you should pay to check with the vet, rather than risking an expensive injury or a subpar performance.

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