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Breeding FAQ for Newer Players

Original article written by Randall Allen posted 8 years 0 weeks ago

I haven’t written any new player articles in forever and decided to give another one a shot. This article is about frequently asked questions that I have discussed over the years with new players, in regards to breeding.

Which stallion should I use?

I really can’t answer this question for you, but do have some good suggestions. If you have bought some game points you can nick (hypomate) your better quality mares for 250 game points or 25 cents. I obviously wouldn’t recommend you waste money on a No Ability mare, but if you have a Blue Hen, Star or even a well producing Formidable then it might be worth it to check a few nicks. The better the horse nicks then go with that one. Another suggestion is don’t use junky stallions. In other words, don’t use a stallion who has 12,000 in lifetime earnings. You probably won’t get a great horse out of a poor stallions and his resell value will be low. Use a stallion who has earned over $350,000, as recommended by the Steward.

My mare only nicked a B or B+. Now what?

A B or B+ nick is really better than you think. After the nicks got downgraded, the B and B+ nicks are better than you think. In my own experience, some mares that formerly nicked an A were downgraded, sometimes, to a B+. Some mares that nicked an A- were downgraded to a B+ or a B. This is not the case for every mare and there are exceptions of course. If you are new to breeding the B or B+ is really better than you think.

Should I go with a more expensive stallion or a cheaper one?

I encourage people to get Simperior to help answer this question. The $20,000 stallion is probably more expensive than the $5,000 stallion for a reason. Without Simperior you won’t know for sure though. The Stud Book is a feature that is available to Simperior members and I don’t know what I would do without it. It lists the stallions, their earnings per runner, % of winners, % of gallop comments and so much more. If you already have Simperior and Horse A ($20,000 fee) is producing 7% stakes horses and Horse B ($5,000) is producing 0% stakes horses, then it might be worth spending the extra money. If Horse C ($20,000) is producing 0% stakes horses and Horse D ($5,000) is producing 0% stakes horses, then Horse C might be overpriced. Without Simperior you won’t know that information though.

I bred a Star Mare with an expensive stallion and got a claimer or solid. What happened?

Welcome to my world. I have bred several great horses, but have frequently been bitterly disappointed. I leased a mare once for $100,000 and bred this mare to a $70,000 stallion and got a claimer. I honestly don’t know the mechanics behind the game, but it happens just like in real life. My advice is to keep trying, but maybe with a different stallion. I used a Star Mare time and time again with a Horse with the first letter of his name a V. V had great earnings, but produced junk year after year. I kept sending mares to V, due to early mistakes as a breeder. If you don’t have success with one horse, then send the mare to a different horse. If you don’t have success with a stallion, like I did with V, then you don’t have to send any more mares at all to him. Try your luck with another stallion.

I bred 50 horses, got one stakes and 4 allowances. Is this good or not?

Don’t gauge your success of what percent of stakes you bred or percent of allowances that you have bred. Instead gauge your success off this, Did you do better or the same as last year? If you did better then great, you are on your way to being successful. If you did the same, that still isn’t bad. If you did way worse than before, change it up for the next crop. Don’t get bogged down by %, stats or anything else. Overall if you got a few great horses you are doing good.

I bred 10 horses and got 9 different careers. What happened?

To be brutally honest, either your mares are terrible, you are using terrible stallions or maybe you have the worst luck in the world. In most cases, it is normally one of the first two options. Say you have 10 mares that you picked up for $1 off the sales page or in a $500 claiming race. Most are unchecked mares, meaning the Bloodstock Agent hasn’t been utilized. Out of the 10 mares you got 9 different career ones, then those mares are probably no ability mares. Let’s look in the same ballpark, but a different example. Ok you have 10 formidable mares and send them all to Horse F, you got 9 different careers and 1 solid. Horse F’s stud fee is $100 and he only has lifetime earnings of $11,000. Then it should be pretty apparent what happened with those formidable mares, they were sent to the worst stallion in the Sim.

I hope this FAQ was in some way helpful. My best advise to a new or newer player is to not go broke breeding horses. It is better, when you are new, to worry about getting racers on the track to earn money. Breeding and its rewards and heartbreaks can come later on.


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