State Breds as an Avenue to Wealth

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 12 years 3 weeks ago

Anyone who sponsors a race in SIM has an option to restrict the race to horses bred in the state or country where the race is being run. This can open up a lot of opportunities for other players, who also have horses bred in that state or country.

Let’s define what “bred” means in terms of a horse’s origins. In real life, horses are “bred” in the same state or country where they are dropped; ie, foaled. In SIM, horses are “bred” where the stallion stands at the time of conception/birth. So, if I breed my mare to a stallion standing in California, that foal is a CA-bred, and is therefore eligible for races restricted to horses bred in California.

In addition to players being able to sponsor races (using game points) that are restricted to horses bred in a particular region, SIM also cards various restricted races, including stakes races.

It’s very easy to find restricted stakes races. Go to the “Racing” heading of your office page and select “Stakes Schedule”. On the second row of filters, you can see that there’s an option to filter by “State Bred”, and the drop down box includes all states and countries in SIM where races are held. However, if you click on most regions, you’ll find that there aren’t any stakes that are restricted to horses bred in those regions. There are some notable exceptions, however.

The states with the most restricted stakes are California, Florida, and New York. Then there’s Louisiana and Maryland. Regions with just a few restricted stakes are England, Ireland, and Kentucky.

Also, veterans in SIM probably know that player Carolyn Eaton generously sponsors a series of sprints stakes, and a pair of miler stakes, every year for TX-breds.

Why does this matter? Because, just as in real life, races restricted to horses bred in a certain region are usually less competitive than open stakes races. In addition to lower quality, they often have smaller fields. Sometimes, the fields are so small that they attract horses that don’t even qualify for the specific distance or surface of the race. In other words, you might do quite well with an IRE-bred route horse entered in an IRE-bred mile race, because the competition might not be all that stiff.


On Friday, I had two stakes winners in restricted stakes races. Both victories might seem kind of odd at first glance. Here’s why:

1. I have a dirt sprint Steward-bred filly named Dancing in Heaven that is a TX-bred. She has been running in the sprint stakes that Carolyn Eaton sponsors as a 2yo and 3yo. She has won most of them, and has been second when she didn’t win. This past Friday, the 3yo filly race for TX-breds was at a mile. Normally, I wouldn’t dare consider running my sprint filly at a mile. But here’s the kicker: There were no other miler horses entered in the race. (Most likely, the reason is because there haven’t been any dirt miler stallions standing in Texas to produce miler offspring.) My sprint filly beat her three sprint rivals. She had a horrid speed figure of 43, and probably would have lost to even a poor quality miler. But the fact is that she won over the field of other sprinters, and her 37.5k winner’s share has pushed her earnings to 280k, much of those earnings due to the TX-bred stakes series.

2. I have a struggling LA-bred 3yo dirt miler filly named More Lives. She had some placings, but hadn’t won after six starts, even when dropped into maiden claiming company. I had raced her in a 100k LA-bred dirt mile stakes as a 2yo, and she was last of five. This year, at three, I put her in another 100k LA-bred mile stakes with a field of five. I was expecting her to, once again, just follow the other horses around the track and pick up fifth money. She totally stunned me when she broke her maiden in that stakes, winning by 4.5 lengths and picking up a cool 50k. Her speed figure was only a 61, but the horse that finished second only ran a 49. Turns out, all four of her competitors were sprinters, so she won laughing as the only miler in the field.

She then finished seventh in a NW2, and then second in a NW2 for a 25k tag. Last Friday, I ran her in another 100k LA-bred stakes. She ran against two sprinters and one turf miler. So, she won once again, repeating her 61 fig. Even though she’s of dubious quality, she now has 108k in earnings.


It pays to be attentive to where the horses in your barn have been bred, and when any stakes races are being run that are restricted to such horses. Also, when choosing between youngsters on the sales page or at auction, where the horse is bred can be a factor in making a final choice, since it can increase the horse’s potential for greater earnings. Ditto when choosing between stallions, since the location of where a stallion stands can be helpful to the earnings potential of the foal.

Granted, when you’re talking about competitive areas like California and Florida, restricted stakes usually aren’t as soft as, say, those in Texas or Louisiana. But they’re still usually going to be softer than an open stakes.

In real life, the subject of restricted stakes races has always been controversial. Those for it point to how it benefits the horseman residing in their region; those against point to how it makes poorer quality horses into stakes winners. However one might feel about the subject, the fact is that, in SIM, those state-bred races are out there, with juicy stakes money available.

Why not take advantage?

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