Entering Races - Wait, I Have To Pay Attention To The Field?

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

This is the third in my series on entering your horses so they have a good chance at winning or making money.

So you’ve found a nice race for you horse, have you? It fits all the criteria you were looking for, and it’s not that far away. What else could you possibly have to pay attention to?

*Field Sizes
Keep an eye on field sizes. For normal, everyday races, this means that if a field is nearing the dreaded cap at 12 horses, maybe look elsewhere. Because, as most will no doubt already know, the larger the field size the less likely you are to make any money at all. A 12 horse race will have 7 horses return to the barn without a check. Now if you look at a race and notice that while the field itself is large, the quality of runners is very low, then go ahead and enter. But if you’re noticing even 2 or 3 strong runners in the field it might be time to look elsewhere, wait it out for a different race, or hope for a split.

*Field Dynamics
How many of you have looked at the entries of a race and noticed… wow all of these are speed horses? Well now is the time to really look at the race and determine if those speed horses are going to run out of steam once they are mid-way through the race, or if they are the kind who just keeps on going. As much as I wish that it was as easy as entering a closer into a race full of front runners, it really doesn’t work that way. Your closer can lose touch of the field and just have too much work to do when they are asked for their best. Especially if those front runners are the type to keep their momentum going.

This is where being a trainer comes in. You should watch your horses’ races, and those of your potential competitors, to see if the fit is right. How does your horse win? Do they need the lead or can they run right off the leader (if they’re a front runner)? Can they run down horses in the final furlong with ease (for closers)? Do they sit right off the front runners and make a brilliant move to overtake the leaders (for mid-pack runners)? And more importantly, how do they lose? What conditions make it almost certain that your horse will be plummeting out of the money as they run down to the line? These are all things to consider when you are entering any race, and doubly so for one that has a full, or near full, field.

*The Art of Splitting Races
Let’s say you’re looking through the races you can enter and notice “Hey this one has 14 entries”. That means there is a full field of 12, and 2 more horses hanging out in the also eligible list hoping that someone forgets to ship so they can run. These are excellent opportunities for you. If your horse fits the race, go ahead and split it. That is, enter your horse, and the game will automatically split the race into 2 of the exact same race, splitting the current entries between the two. It’s like mitosis, except everyone gets to race and you get to look at smaller field sizes instead of cell anatomy. Now is the time to look at both races. Does one field suit your horse more than the other? Then enter that one. Are they both looking terrible? Well you did your fellow SIMsters a favor, and now you get to continue your quest to look for a nice race for your horse. (Do note that Stakes races and Player Sponsored races do not split)

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