New Player Walkthrough Part 3: Buying Horses

Original article written by Madelene Gilbert posted 15 years 0 weeks ago

Buying Horses:

You’ve just gotten $100,000 and it’s starting to burn a hole in your pocket. You need to buy some racing stock and fast so you can start earning some money. Time to head on over to the Buy Horses page.

First of all, read the “Help with Buying Horses” link right under the page title. This will help explain what kinds of horses to look for and which ones to avoid. It’s a good introduction to the sales page.

Next, you’ll notice there are several search links that will help you narrow down your field. “Racehorses” are any horses that are eligible to run on the flat, while “steeplechasers” are horses that are, well, steeplechasers. The “ages” should be fairly straight forward. “Trial By Summer Sale” is a little confusing, but don’t worry about it now. That will be explained later in detail. All you need to know now is that it’s the link to the Shields-bred auctions held once or twice a year. Otherwise, it’s inactive and you don’t need to bother with it. The “Recently Added/Modified” is always nice since you get to see which horses have been added to the sales page within the past 12 hours or so. Check this out often, as you might have a chance to snap up a decent horse before someone else finds it.

Last but not least is a “special” link just for New Players. It only shows up during your New Player status, so make use of it for as long and as often as you can. This page is restricted to only new players, and all horses on this list are priced below $10,000. This is where you should start looking for horses to buy.

Now, I can’t tell you how to spend your money. That’s entirely up to you. However, you're stable isn't going to be effective if you buy an $85,000 yearling. One, because you can't race yearlings yet and two, because you've just spent most of your budget and now have less money to spend on raceable horses to earn that money back. A lot of new players make the mistake of "This horse costs a lot and therefore must be really good". I'm sure the horse would be good, but there's a chance you can find an even better horse for just a fraction of that first sales price on the New Player sales page. Yes, even for only $1,000! (It's been done before!)

Here are a few sales page tips for starting players that will get you a good sized stable in a short time on a budget.

1. Buy horses that will earn you money RIGHT NOW. That means stay away from mares, stallions, yearlings, foals, unworked 2 yr olds and retired/pensioned horses. At least, for the time being. You can get into breeding once you’ve established a steady income. These horses can’t run on the track and therefore won’t be earning you money. In fact, they’ll be costing you money as you’ll have to pay board fees (more info later).

2. Be wary of “Maiden Steeplechasers”, especially if they’ve run multiple times on the chase course and not won. Sure, they might have won on the flat. But flat racing doesn't guarantee success as a steeplechaser, and there's no way to reverse to flat racing. The best thing to do with a horse like this (should you be stuck with one) is to send it to Greener Pastures; a non-winning gelding over fences is just racking up boarding and shipping fees.

3. Older geldings on the flat are usually your best bet. You can find them cheap and in large quantities. However, you don’t want an old plodder. Look for horses that have placed or won within their past few starts. If his/her best finish was 5th and 2 SIM years ago, chances are they won’t suddenly make you money on the track.
On a side note, if you’re feeling adventurous buy a couple of flat track geldings and then turn them into chasers. You never know how they’ll do. I would recommend looking at the sire and checking to see if he has winners on the chasing course before buying. Steeplechasing is the "next frontier" so to speak in the SIM and a great place for new players to start.

4. Once you get used to equipment and judging distance/surface, look for horses that have been run on either the wrong surface, at the wrong distance or with the wrong equipment. Sometimes people get frustrated with horses they can’t figure out and throw them on the sales page for cheap. Usually they just need a slight adjustment to their running in order to be check winners.

5. Look for Alexandra Jaysman owned horses. These horses are owned by the computer, and are placed on the New Players sales page for only $1,000. Most of these are older geldings, but every so often you come across a good horse. A lot of these Jaysman dispersals come from closeout stables. When owners leave the game, any horses in their stables goes to Jaysman, which then in turn go on the NP sales page. Keep an eye out for these dispersals, as you might have a chance to snag a really really really nice horse. Take a look at I Already Rule, owned by Lisa Strummer. He’s a classic example from a new player dispersal, and Lisa’s not the only newbie who’s found a champion.
Jaysman horses are usually distributed once a week at midnight on the same night.

Note on older geldings: Eventually there will be an “eventing” simulation added to the game. You’ll be able to show your retired geldings in events, such as dressage, show jumping and cross country. Just something to keep in mind.


Claiming Horses:

Claiming is another way to essentially buy horses that might not otherwise appear on the sales page. Claiming races, as explained before, come with a price tag attached to the race. When an owner enters a horse into a claiming race, they are putting that horse up for sale for that claiming amount. Another owner may come around and then claim that horse, or agree to pay for the horse after the race. The first owner then receives the winnings (if any) and the claiming price for a horse. For new players, this is another great way to earn money and buy new horses.

You can find claiming races by doing a search for current entries. If there’s a particular kind of horse you’re looking for, such as surface/distance, track/circuit, etc, you can set those search parameters as well. The claiming price will be listed in the race description right before the purse money. Note that the claiming price is NOT how much the purse money is. Rather, it is something of a gauge as to how “difficult” the race will be. For instance, horses entered in a $100,000 claiming race will probably be of higher quality than those entered in a $12,500 race. This is important to remember. If you are entering a horse, take this into consideration as to your horse’s abilities, especially if you WANT the horse to be claimed. If you are in the market for claiming a horse, note that the higher the price, the better chance you’ll get a better horse.

In order to claim a horse, simply click on the link for the race to get to the main race profile page. There you will see a complete list of all the horses entered in it. To the right of the horse’s name, there is a button called “Claim this horse”. Just click on it, and you’ve entered a claim for that horse. If no one else has beaten you to it, that horse should be added to your stable immediately following the race, and the money taken out of your account. Note that if the funds are not there when the race is finished, you loose the claim. This is also explained in the walkthrough.

You can keep track of your claims from your My Stable page. The “My Claims” link is under the “My Entries” link in the first column.


A lot of new players ask “How many horses should I have in my stable? What kind should they be?”
Well, I can’t really tell you how many horses you should start out with. That’s really up to you, as there’s no limit and no expectations. Most of the time stable size is self-inflicted based on how the person plays. I would say start with as many as you are comfortable with and then grow from there. Some new players have hundreds (literally) and some only keep about 40 or 50. It’s up to you. If you start feeling overwhelmed or can’t keep up, then it’s probably time to thin the herd, so to speak.
I mentioned before in the tips about what kind of horses you should be looking for. For your first couple or so, look for racing horses aged 2 and up. 3 yr olds and older horses are probably more manageable than 2 yr olds, as they are more fragile and need more rest than older horses do. More rest means fewer races run per year, especially considering long distance or router type 2 yr olds shouldn’t be run until later in their 2 yr old year. So that’s also something to consider when buying your first few horses.

Now the most important thing to remember when buying horses is to keep some money leftover in your account. These horses aren’t free and they will cost you upkeep. When all is said and done, I recommend keeping at least $20,000 in reserve in your bank account and $30-$40,000 is much safer.

“Why should you be keeping that much?” you ask. Part 4 talks about different types of horse expenses that will pop up throughout the year for which you should be prepared.

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