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Your Friend, The Search Page - Races

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 8 years 4 weeks ago

The right side of the Search page is for finding races. The races that can be found is any race that has been run in SIM's past history, all the way through the races that are currently taking entries -- ie, races that will be run within the next fourteen days, since horses can be entered up to two weeks before race day.

NOTE: If you want to look at races farther in the future than two weeks, just to see what will be available, use the "Circuits" page under the Racing heading of your home office menu. That page lists every carded race for the entire game year. Again, you can't enter any race that is more than two weeks away from today.

One crucial box on the right side of the Search page is the one at the very bottom that says "Show Entries/Results". For any race search, if you don't click that box, you'll get a list of race descriptions that meet the search criteria. If you click the box, and the races in your search haven't been run yet, you'll see all the horses that are currently entered in each race. If you click that box, and the races in your search were already run, then you will see the results for each of those races.

So, in most cases, you'll want to click that box at the bottom, so you can see the horses in each race, rather than just a race description.


THE DATE FIELD
The Date field defaults to "Current Entries". Therefore, if you don't change the date field, any other criteria you search for will bring up the races that are currently taking entries -- ie, that will be run in the upcoming fourteen days. In most cases, this is probably ideal; hence, the default. However, if you're trying to narrow your search to just the races that are coming up in the current week, or otherwise looking for races already run (such as for historic research for a Feature Race article), you'll want to change the Date field.


PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS - EXAMPLE #1
Normally, I like to enter my horses from each horse's individual page. However, I might decide, for example, to look for races that other players might have sponsored since I last entered my horses. Races can be sponsored up to five days before the race is run, so some last-minute sponsored races might not have been available when I entered my horses.

In the center of the right column is a line called "Type". One of the options is "Sponsored", so I click that. Of course, I also click the box at the very bottom of the column, and I get a list of all sponsored races that are taking entries for the next two weeks, as well as all the horses already entered in those races.

Perhaps this search result includes a few races restricted to Advanced players. I'm a Veteran player, and I can't run my horses in a race just for Advanced players. If I go back to the Search page, I can click the button, toward the bottom, on the "Player Type" line. Thankfully, one of the options is "All for my eligibility". If I click that, then only races I am eligible to enter horses in will be included in my results.

Any time you view a race that is taking entries, you can click the magnifying glass on the upper right, and it'll show all the horses in your barn that fit the criteria for that race. So, you can enter your horse from that list, as opposed to going back to the horse's page, and trying to find the race from there.


PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS - EXAMPLE #2
Let's say I have a 4yo turf sprint gelding. His best races have been at five furlongs, but most sprint races are at six to seven furlongs. Rather than having to scroll through lots of six and seven furlong races from his individual horse page, I might instead go to the Search page to narrow my options.

I leave the Date field at "Current Entries".
For the Distance field, I choose "five furlongs".
For Surface, I choose "turf".
For Gender, I choose "male".
For Age, I choose "Four Year Olds and Up"

As always, I click the box at the bottom, and then the "Race Search" button. I'll get all the races, if any, that meet that criteria. Say that some are claiming races, and I like my gelding enough that I don't want to risk him being claimed. I can go back to the Search page, and below the Condition section, click "Non-Claiming". Now, only stakes and allowance races will show in my results. If I wanted, I could use the Conditions boxes to narrow further by type of race.

If I get few results, I might want to go back and change the Age field to "Three Year Olds and Up", so I'll be presented with more choices.

Also, if my gelding is located in Japan, and I'm reluctant to ship far, I can use the "Circuit" field near the top of the right column, and select "Asia".


PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS - EXAMPLE #3
Let's say I decide I want to upgrade my All Weather miler broodmare band. Looking on the sales list doesn't present any satisfying possibilities. So, I decide to peruse the claiming races instead, to see if there's some racing fillies that I would like to claim.

For the Distance field, I choose "Mile".
For Surface, I choose "All Weather".
For Gender, I choose "female".
For the line for Claiming, I click "Claiming".

I click the box at the bottom, and then the "Race Search" button. I get a list of all the one mile All Weather claiming races for fillies, so I can now scroll through and start clicking on the entries, to see if I want to claim any of them.


PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS - EXAMPLE #4
This is currently Week 12 of Year 41, which is one of the two weeks when the SIM cards Game Point Sired stakes races for two-year-olds. Since I usually make a point of breeding to at least a couple foals by Game Point sires for each division (those sires owned by the Steward, so that the stud fee is paid in game points, rather than SIM dollars), I have an entrant in the vast majority of Game Point Sired races.

So, let's say it's Tuesday, and I want to check in on how those stakes races are shaping up for the remainder of the week.

All I need to do is click the "Game Point Sired" box in the Conditions section. I can also choose the "Stakes" box, since there might be other races for Game Point Sired horses that have been sponsored by other players.

From that simple selection (plus, of course, checking the box at the bottom of the column), I can now scroll through all the Game Point Sired stakes races, and how my horses compare to the other entries.


All the above are just examples. There are numerous other ways you can use the right side of the Search page to find specific races for a specific purpose.

The Search page is your friend.


THE MOST IMPORTANT USE OF ALL
There's one very important way to use the right side of the Search page that I've left out, and that's because it's so important, that it deserves its own article.



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