Understanding Classes and Conditions

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 10 years 2 weeks ago

NOTE: This article assumes that the player already understands that horses should only race at their correct distance and surface, and that horses shouldn’t race more often than every two weeks.


One of the biggest pitfalls of newish players is entering their horses in races that the horse has little chance of winning. It’s difficult to discuss, in a general way, how to enter horses in appropriate races, because so many factors can influence that decision, for any particular horse. Still, I would like to present a framework for understanding different types of races, and some approaches one can take to entering.

In horse racing, there’s classes of races, and then there’s conditions of races. Classes refer to an assumed quality level. Conditions refer to a proven success level, in terms of how many wins a horse has yet to achieve.

Here’s a structural breakdown of classes in SIM, from best to worst.


STAKES
Graded Stakes -- broken down further into Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3. Grade 1 stakes are the highest class of race that there is.

Listed Stakes – Any non-graded stakes, including an unofficial subclass known as restricted stakes. A restricted race is one that is only for horses bred in a certain state or country, only for horses owned by a certain level of player (eg, New Players), only for horses sired by Game Point stallions, etc. From the standpoint of points earned, restricted races are considered to be on the same level as regular listed stakes.

Still, a restricted stakes would generally be less difficult than an ordinary listed stakes, which would be less difficult than a graded stakes.


ALLOWANCE RACES
Classified Allowance – only for stakes winners. These aren’t very common in SIM.

Allowance Race – for any horse that meets the conditions, if any

Starter Allowance – only for horses that ran in a claiming race their last start. These races aren’t very common in SIM.


CLAIMING RACES -- where horses can be purchased out of the race by another player, for the price of the claiming amount. Know that the claiming price is different from the purse amount.

$100,000 – highest claiming price in SIM

down to

$500 --- lowest claiming price in SIM



CONDITIONS
Allowance and claiming races often have conditions, which refer to how many wins the entrants have yet to achieve.

A maiden race is for horses that have never won, so most horses begin their careers in a maiden race.

A NW2 is for non-winners of two races.

A NW3 is for non-winners of three races.

A NW4 is for non-winners of four races.

A NW5 is for non-winners of five races.

If a race doesn’t have any conditions, then it’s informally known as an open race. An open race can often consist of horses with many wins and high earnings in their careers, even if they are now of advanced age and not very competitive.


COMBINING CLASS WITH CONDITIONS
Maiden Special Weight is a fancy term for an allowance race that is for maiden horses. The layman would call it “maiden allowance”. Put another way, it’s a maiden race that isn’t for claiming horses. So, usually the better horses start their careers in MSW.

A $15,000 maiden claimer would be for horses that have never won a race, and they’re running with a $15,000 price or “claiming” tag, where another player can buy the horse for that amount.

Generally, claiming races are of a lesser class than allowance races, but one should be careful to not get too black-or-white about class levels, especially when combining the class level with a condition. In many cases, I would consider a $10,000 open claiming race to be a tougher race than a $32,000 NW2 claiming race. Even though the latter are horses running for a higher tag (and theoretically worth more), those horses have only won one race. Whereas, the $10,000 open claimer is likely to have tough old geldings with many wins to their credit. Sometimes former stakes horses later end up running in cheap claiming races.

Another factor determining the quality of field is the time of game year. Since 2yo sprinters can start racing Week 1 of a game year, if they still haven’t won by midway through their 4yo season, they’re obviously pretty lousy horses. Yet, on the Alaska circuit, there are $65,000 maiden claimers for 4yo+ horses. Obviously, those horses aren’t worth $65,000, if they still haven’t won a race after more than two seasons of racing. So, I would consider such a race to be vastly inferior to, say, a $25,000 claimer for NW3, for 3yos only. Those horses have already won two races, while still being only midway through their 3yo season.

Yet another factor affecting field quality is player expertise. Players who aren’t very knowledgeable about real-life racing can’t be expected to enter their horses in the same races that a professional real-life trainer would choose. So, sometimes a field can have some seemingly illogical entries, because of the way some players choose to enter their horses.


USING CLASSES AND CONDITIONS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
A horse’s confidence is a factor in SIM. While I’m not aware that players have ever been told the finer intricacies of confidence, I am certain that a lot of losing races detracts from confidence (the Steward has made reference to “ruined” horses), and it’s a confirmed fact that a win boosts confidence. So, while players would obviously prefer to win races, rather than lose them, know that winning also benefits the horse, in terms of its confidence.

Choosing the right race is, admittedly, more art than science. It’s not something a new player is likely to have a feel for. Even avid real-life racing fans often don’t appreciate the consideration given by real-life trainers, in terms of what particular race might be most appropriate for a horse, because of factors X, Y, and Z.

There are some general guidelines, however, that I would suggest as a starting place, when entering one’s horses. When I was part of a large real-life racing partnership, and was someone who followed major racing, I was surprised, once I became an owner, at all the things I *hadn’t* known about racing ordinary horses. One racetrack wisdom our managing partner mentioned, that I’d never heard, was “Put yourself in the best company possible, and your horses in the worst company possible.” That means, don’t put your horses against competition any more difficult than is absolutely necessary. You’ll lose plenty of races under the best of circumstances, without putting your horses in races that are even harder to win.

Any horse that has never won a race should be racing in maiden races, period. Whether that’s a maiden special weight, or a maiden claimer, depends on the anticipated quality of horse, and how reluctant the owner might be to lose the horse to a possible claim. There’s no reason to race a horse against proven winners, when there’s plenty of races available that are for maidens only. While it’s not impossible for a maiden to beat winners, it is an uphill battle. Why make success more difficult for your horse, when it isn’t necessary?

If you start out in maiden special weight, and the horse loses a couple of times, I would drop it into a maiden claimer, in most cases. Why have him keep losing against an allowance class of horse?

Once the horse wins a maiden race, the next logical race is a NW2. That will keep him racing against other horses that also have only won one race. Again, whether that’s an allowance NW2 or a claiming NW2 depends on the level of maiden race he just won.

Once the horse has won two races, then the next logical step is a NW3.

NW4 and especially NW5 races are harder to find, than NW2 and NW3. After a horse has three wins, then you might try open competition. That would be simply running in, say, a 25k claiming race, which doesn’t have any conditions. Or in a race that simply says “Allowance” and doesn’t have any conditions. However, open allowance races can sometimes have lucrative purses, which means that the horses competing in them are often stakes level horses, looking for an easy victory.

When can a horse move out of the allowance/claiming ranks and try a stakes race? That can depend on a number of factors beyond the scope of this article, but one hard criteria I’d adhere to is that I would not move a horse up to stakes competition, unless it’s coming off a win in allowance or a high level claimer (say, a tag of 50k or higher). If the horse can’t win an allowance or high level claimer, how can it be expected to win a stakes?

Also, I always prefer to put a 3yo in a race just for 3yo, rather than 3yo+, whenever possible. I also always run females only against other females, except in unusual circumstances. Again, make it as easy as possible for your horse to win.


BEING A GOOD TRAINER
I feel that probably the single most important criteria for being a good SIM trainer is entering your horse based upon his proven record, rather than upon how good you *wish* that he was.

A competitive sport like horse racing is full of disappointment. Everyone else wants to win as badly as you. You’re going to have lots of disappointments, even when you’ve made all the right decisions, so why compound your failures by purposely putting your horse in a higher class of race than he’s shown he’s capable of? That not only gives you yet another loss, but it’s harmful to the horse’s confidence.


USEFUL FILTERS
I suspect that one of the biggest reasons players put their horses in illogical races, beyond not understanding race classes and conditions, is because players are overwhelmed by all the race choices for any particular horse. In such a situation, I strongly recommend becoming a SIMperior player. One of the many advantages to a SIMperior subscription is that you can assign each horse a “type” (dirt sprinter, turf miler, etc.) When you go to enter the horse from his page, only races for his type will show up. That will greatly reduce the number of races you have to browse through.

Also, take advantage of the filters at the top of the entries page when entering from the horse’s page. For example, for a maiden, the first thing I do is change the Condition filter to “Maiden”. Therefore, only maiden races will show that match the horse’s type. That greatly reduces the number of races to choose from.


FURTHER READING
The FAQ on “Enter Races/Points System”: http://www.simhorseracing.com/simforum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=11278

FAQ on “Types of Races”: http://www.simhorseracing.com/simforum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=10970

FAQ on “What is Claiming”: http://www.simhorseracing.com/simforum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=11155

---

Back to New Players articles