Entering Races - Restrictions Are Your Friend

Original article written by Autumn Blackmill posted 3 months 3 weeks ago

This is the first in a series about entering your horses into races that they can either win or reliably earn a check in.

Technically, entering races is one of the easier things you can do. You just click on a race that is still open for entries, and enter your qualifying horse. Boom. Race entered. Now if you want to win races, or even just make money racing, that’s a whole different story.

*Player Restricted Racing
These are for you, my lovely new players. There are many races for Thoroughbreds that limit entries to just those of New Players, a lesser amount for Junior Players, and even lesser for Intermediate Players. Take advantage of these while you can, because you can pad your bank account in prep for being thrown into the big pond with all of us experienced players.

*State-Bred Restricted Racing
I do love a good state-bred race, even if I tend to forget they exist every couple weeks. State-bred races are those races that are restricted to horses born in that particular state. Why are these so good, you might ask? Well, the competition tends to be much lighter. And if we’re talking about maiden races, it’s all the more better. As those nicer horses break their maidens, you should expect to see the fields drop in sizes. Keeping a horse in state-bred company can be quite lucrative. Even if you aren’t winning, there’s a good chance you’re making money. And eventually, you’re gonna find yourself in the winners circle of a maiden race when all the stronger competition has broken their maidens and left the winning up to you and your steed.

*Age Restricted Racing
These can be just as nice as the state-restricted races. An age restricted race just means that the race only allows horses of a certain age to enter. I try my best to enter my horses into their age group, especially if they are 3 year olds as facing older company can lead to some rather abysmal results even for a previously consistent racer. I also really like finding those 4yo+ maiden races and seeing if I can find something to add in. The fields can be short, and if you play your cards right you can make a bunch of money off of a perpetual maiden.

*Gender restricted racing
Very similar to the age restricted races, these just restrict the gender of the horses who can enter. Unless you have a very nice filly, I tend to keep them with other fillies. If I can find a gelding race, then I’d rather pit my geldings against other geldings. Colts are just gonna have to do with what they get, although there are some that are just for colts and geldings (I like to imagine these have a “No fillies allowed” sign stuck to paddock when they enter). Using these races in tandem with the age restrictions is a good idea. Race your 3yo fillies against other 3yo fillies, etc.

*Win Restricted races
The last of the restrictions I’ll cover, these have to do with the number of wins a horse has. If your horse hasn’t won any races it’s a maiden, and you should be running it with other maiden horses. A horse with 1 win under their belt should be looking for a non-winners of 2 (abbreviated as NW2), and horse with 2 wins should be looking for a NW3, down until we get to NW5 which is the highest restriction available in game. After that your horse will be running in races where there are no restrictions on how many wins your horse has. This type of race, Maidens and Non-Winners of X, are seen in both the Claiming and Allowance ranks. It’s a good idea to use them with the other restrictions, all of them if you can, to give your horse the best shot at winning.

Having gone over all of this, you'll see that entering a 3yo maiden filly into an open allowance race is a recipe for disaster. Entering her into a maiden race is much better. A filly and mare maiden race, even better. A 3yo filly maiden race is nearly optimal. And a State-bred/New Player 3yo filly maiden race might be the absolute best you can do to give your horse a shot at winning or earning a consistent paycheck.

---

Back to New Players articles