A Hodgepodge of Newbie Advice

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 8 years 1 week ago

Much of the advice presented below is discussed in greater detail in various articles I've written.

Racehorses are assets. Rather, some 90-95% are. That means that they are your gateway to profits. The vast majority of SIM racehorses can earn more than their upkeep over the course of their career. What usually prevents horses from being profitable is buying them for a price that is higher than what the horse can earn back. Another major roadblock is putting horses in races that are impossible for them to win or finish well. Determining in which race to enter a horse is at least as important as the raw quality of the horse. A third roadblock to being profitable is if the horse had "gone bad", as explained in the next paragraph.

SIM horses have a finite racing life. Though horses can race through their 9yo season, they usually "go bad" well before then. Some horses will break their maiden right away, then place in a stakes, and then not be able to run well at any point thereafter. Some can be competitive for a few game years, and then gradually tail off. Some don't show much ability their first game year or two, and then peak and are consistent and competitive for a game year or two, and then decline. As a newbie, keep in mind that there's a reason the seller is selling. If you see a horse for sale cheap that's had some impressive races in its past, but has struggled in recent races, chances are that the horse has peaked, and will never again be as good as he once was.

Never feel that you *have* to buy a certain horse at a certain time, because it's the only chance you'll ever have to buy a horse that good, for that low of a price. One thing you can count on in SIM is that there's *always* horses available for sale. There's always players willing to make deals. Trust me -- you'll have chances for many, many "once in a SIMtime opportunities" throughout your years of playing SIM. No horse is worth going broke, or borrowing money from another player, in order to acquire it.

Don't be afraid to question advice from veteran players. As one who has mentored a lot of players, I'm a strong believer in using your fellow players as resources of information. However, just because a more experienced player says, "You should do X in situation Y, in order to get desired result Z" doesn't mean that it's necessarily true, or the best approach. Some "facts" about playing SIM are simply rumors that have been passed along from player to player over the years, and have never been officially validated. Also, sometimes players who no longer have much time for SIM, will pass along advice that might have been applicable in prior game years, but as SIM has evolved over the years, is no longer true. Keep an open mind when things don't make sense to you, and don't be afraid to question advice given (including from me!), or develop your own interpretation of the FAQs and comments from The Steward, etc.

Small fields, of five horses or less, are a guarantee of purse money, since purse money is always paid back to fifth place. Even horses that have "gone bad" are going to earn purse money in small fields. When you're eager to build up your SIM bank balance, being heads-up about field size is a good idea.

Shipping your horse to a nearby farm to rest between races is the best thing you can do for your horse's well-being.

Every horse in SIM should be evaluated in light of its type. Some breed/distance/surface divisions are much tougher than others. For example, an "allowance" galloper that is a turf miler might be a multiple stakes winner; whereas, an "allowance" galloper that is a Thoroughbred dirt router will probably be fortunate to simply break its maiden before the end of its 3yo season. A B+ breeding nick is nothing special in Paint sprinters, yet is desirable in All Weather milers, but bad news in steeplechasers. A "blue hen" mare can be difficult to find in the Appaloosa mid distance category, but not so hard to find in Standardbred Pacers.

There are primarily three ways that players go broke in SIM. One is via costly injuries, which tends to happen to new players, via racing/exercising their horses too much, with insufficient rest. Another is to keep buying horses, when one has yet to see if they're able to earn purse money from the horses they already own. The third way is via spending all one's money on breeding horses. Breeding is fun for most, and some players admit to enjoying it more than racing. But the problem with spending one's efforts more on breeding than racing is that a lack of purse money means that one is going to have a difficult time affording mares and paying stud fees. Even if one does well at breeding, they aren't going to reap the benefits of the foals until at least two game years later. How is one going to earn money in the meantime? I've known experienced players who have had a few million in their SIM bank, and then be in a desperate financial situation after breeding season was over, because they bred so many foals, while having an insufficient number of racehorses earning purse money to support their breeding activities.

Thoroughbred turf sprinters and dirt sprinters are fun and easy categories. The 2yos start racing Week 1 of their juvenile season (whereas, young milers don't start racing until mid year, and routers even later), so one can get plenty of action from them. There's no shortage of races for sprinters. They have a longer time to break their maiden, so that 3yo+ maiden races in the latter half of the game year, and 4yo+ maiden races early in the game year, often have few entries, because most from their crop have already won. It's next to impossible for a turf or dirt sprinter to never win a race, if it races through the end of its 4yo season.

Don't forget that SIM is about racing more than just Thoroughbreds. There's six other breeds, plus Thoroughbreds can be turned into steeplechasers from the age of three. That means there's a total of eight different breeds, and most have various distance categories within their breed. The stock breeds in particular -- Appaloosas, Paints, and Quarter Horses -- have the biggest profitability, in terms of high returns from relatively little investment. While successful Thoroughbreds on the flat can earn far, far more money than any other breed, the ones with the most potential to be successful also cost far more than other breeds. (However, know that only Thoroughbreds can race at Trial Park.)

Be open-minded about each horse's possibilities and limitations. SIM has various label hierarchies. Labels are tools that give information that can help one evaluate a horse or a potential breeding. It is utterly stunning to me, the number of players that use labels as a black-or-white The Last Word on what any particular horse can accomplish. Let the horse show you what it is capable of via its racing performance, once it is racing, and enter it in future races accordingly, rather than narrowly stereotyping it according to its gallop label or workout time or pedigree, or what you *wish* the horse was.

SIM is wonderfully like real life, in that nothing is guaranteed. Even though the SIM is a computer program, it has various random elements, that equate to what I call the "God" factor. Unexpected wonderful things happen, as well as some huge disappointments when one is the most confident of success. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that, if factors A and B are in place, then it automatically means you're entitled to result C. Real life can never be counted on to follow a formula, and neither can the SIM.

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to become a SIMperior player. A subscription costs game points, and game points cost real money, but I've never known a player to say that the cost wasn't worth it. In addition to benefits that can help you manage your stable and be a more efficient player, SIMperior status also gives access to speed figures and the Stud Book.

If you buy game points, know that roughly once every five months, SIM has a Game Point and a Half Day. On this day, players get 1500 game points for every U.S. dollar spent, rather than the normal 1000 game points. Therefore, one should try to buy the bulk of their game points on GPHD, since the more one buys on those days, the more "free" game points they receive. GPHD is always on a Tuesday. To see when the next one is going to be, check the Calendar under the "Community" heading of your home office. (As of this writing, the next one is December 15th.)

SIM is a game that is most satisfying for those with a long-term outlook. Few new players are going to have a Grade 1 stakes winner within their first game years. The more devoted one is to long-term success, the more one can enjoy each new incremental milestone achieved in the short term.

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