Welcome to SIMHorseRacing.com!

This is a fantasy horse racing simulation, first created in 1998. It has evolved into a rigorous, intense challenge enjoyed by hundreds of players from all over the world, and is a strategy game rather than a video game. You can find out a bit more aboutthe SIM's background here.

Starting Up As a New Player

Everyone starts out with $100,000 so that they can buy a few horses and be able to pay board and shipping fees right from the begining. You will be able to buy and claim horses right away, and you can also bid on horses at auction. When you achieve two weeks of game play, you will receive $75,000, at six weeks, $50,000 and at 10 weeks, $25,000. You are not able to breed mares until you have completed six entire weeks of play.

Basic rules:

1. Farm/horse/player names must be appropriate. We have several pre-existing blocks against certain words, but obviously we can't block every variation of spelling and language on "bad words." Names will be rejected and/or renamed without your input with no warning if not appropriate. Horses must not be named after other players without their written consent.
2. Every sixteen weeks is a 'year'. A year does not equate to any time in real life. The SIM is an alternate world with a different form of time. Although shipping happens in real time, other things, like the birth of foals, happen instantaneously.
3. The owner of this site is known as The Steward. Any questions or difficulties should be submitted to her through the Contact Us link or in the game via private message. Both are checked daily.
4. At any point in the game, The Steward has the right to remove you from playing. Removal will not happen because of religious, political or social differences, but rather for poor behavior, cursing in the forum/chatroom/private messages, breaking the rules, or if you go inactive. SIMHorseRacing will also expel any person who continuously attacks other players, bends the rules, or generally acts against the spirit of a happy game and community.
5. You may not be a griefer/troll/bully. The (Wikipedia) definition of a griefer is one who deliberately harrasses or irritates other players or the moderators. Griefing will result in a penalty and a second offense will result in expulsion. No promoting other games in the public forum or chat room.
6. You may only play under ONE account. Because you can have an unlimited number of horses, there is no need to play under multiple accounts/names. Players trying to make money by selling horses to "themselves" under multiple names will be given one warning, with the removal of the affected horses and transaction. After the second offense, you will be removed from gameplay. You are not allowed to sell or give horses to "yourself" or other players in your household, even through a middleman. Buying and selling horses to other members in your household is not allowed and will not be tolerated. Violation of this rule will result in dramatic action from the Steward, including removal of the affected horses and transactions. You can not encourage friends to join, then sell them a horse just to raise yourself money. This includes standing a stallion and encouraging friends to sign up and breed to said stallion just to raise yourself money. This will result in the termination of the transactions. Sorry, we don't allow signups from Venezuela.
7. We prefer only one user per household. However, we understand if a husband and wife team, siblings, etc want to both maintain their own stable. If you sign up two users at a household, be prepared to prove that both players are real people and not one player with two accounts.
8. You may swap mares for a year with other players, but not members of your household. Exceptions will be given if the inquiring players go through The Steward.
9. You may lease broodmares for a season to other players, and you can also offer reduced stallion fees to other players. Stallion owners have the ability to gift seasons of their stallions to other players with Game Points.
10. If you want to trade horses with your friends, share earnings, etc, then you need to create a Partnership. Partnerships have their own rules regarding ownership, transferring, and money sharing.
11. You may not share horses or monetary earnings as if the horse is owned by two people without an official registered Partnership - aka if a horse wins you cannot pass half of the earnings on to someone else, or any percentage. This includes stud fees as well. You may give a horse to someone else for a race, however, that person then owns that horse and you are not entitled to any of its earnings. If you buy a horse out of an auction that had a purchase limit, and someone else who bought a horse in the same sale, has it for sale in public via the forum or sales page, you may buy it.
12. SIMHorseRacing.com reserves the sole right to sell horses, accounts and game points for actual money and no other person may do so. Members also do not own any part of SIMHorseRacing.com and as such they have no legal claim to any account or horse on the site. Because members do not own anything on SIMHorseRacing.com they may not give away, or sell any horse on the site for actual money. Member accounts are a gift from SIMHorseRacing.com to its members. They may not be sold for actual or for game money. All SIMages belong to the artist who may use the images freely as he wishes. Game Points are meant to be used only as SIMHorseRacing.com allows, such as, the creation of horses, horse names and races with them based on criteria SIMHorseRacing.com establishes. You can gift them to friends, donate them, and award them as contest prizes, however, you cannot "pay" game points to enter these contests. You can trade them for services such as SIMages and upgraded accounts which are offered by SIMHorseRacing.com and no one else.
13. When you first sign up you have access to Trial Park, which is a racetrack solely for "new players." You are not limited to that track as a new player, however, many new players find success there because of the easier competition. $100,000 will be put in your stable when you sign up and activate your account. With that, you must claim or buy your way into the game (claiming is where you buy a horse from another owner during a race). When you achieve two weeks of game play you will receive $75,000, six weeks, $50,000 and 10 weeks, $25,000. Often times if you post in the forum in the New Player section, people will give you gift horses to help you get started.

Races

1. You will be able to enter your horses two weeks in advance (so you can enter for Weeks 1 and 2 during Week 1, and 2 and 3 during Week 2).
2. A horse may run back every week or even twice in a week, but a horse who runs that often can and probably will get hurt from exhaustion. It is not recomended that a horse run in back to back weeks. Check with the vet to find out how your horse is recovering.
3. Shipping is an important factor in the game. Shipping may have an impact on your horse's condition for a race, especially when shipping across continents, but also to a lesser extent when shipping across North America and Europe. The timing of the shipping in relation to raceday may also impact how much or little the shipping affects the horse's condition. You will have the option to ship the horse when you enter. If you do not choose to do so, you must remember to do this on your own time. If your horse does not arrive on time, it will be scratched automatically.
4. You can enter no more than two horses per race, except for in designated stakes races where you may enter three horses (the Triple Crown and Steward's Cup races).
5. Race entries are based on a points system. Maiden, claiming, and maiden claiming races are entered on a first-come, first-serve basis, meaning anyone who enters first can run. Allowance, condition races, and stakes races are based on points - whoever enters with the highest points up to 12 horses can run.
6. All two-year-olds need two workouts and/or barrier trials before they can run in a race. Horses can be given workouts as yearlings, but keep in mind that a yearling is really a baby still, so any workout given before the start of Week 5 is likely to result in an injury to the horse.

Tracks and Farms

There are many different circuits in which tracks are located, for instance, South Africa Race Course and Kenya Racecourse make up the African circuit. You can race your horse at any track, but keep in mind that shipping around the world is tiring for the horse and is done in real time. If your horse does not arrive at its destination by race time, or if he is not traveling by midnight on raceday, he will be scratched. You are able to enter up to two weeks in advance, so the horse should have plenty of time to reach the track. If you don't want your horse stabled at the track (a little time off will benefit the horse) then you have to find a farm. This is where mares and stallions are boarded, etc. Farms cost $2,000,000 to buy. For those unable to buy a farm, you have to board your resting horses at someone else's farm. You do not have to ask the farm owner before moving your horse to the farm. People who own farms pay $20,000 every fourth week for farm maintenence. Every player pays the board rate of the farm or track their horse is at for every horse in their care once a week.

Breeding

1. You may retire a horse at any time. Once a horse is retired it may not race ever again.
2. A horse must be at least two-years-old to breed. To breed a female horse, click on "Breed This Mare" and then fill out the breeding form. A mare may only be bred once during a year. Bred mares cannot be sold on the sales page.
3. A horse may not be named after a real life horse if the real life horse has won a Grade or Group 1 stakes race, is a champion in any form, has won any major stakes race in the United States or around the world, including those races that were run before the graded system was in place, or produced a Grade 1 race winner. Note that there are real life horses in the SIM, but those are representations of the actual horse with its actual pedigree and race record coming in. These are included to diversify the bloodline of a closed community. There is admittedly gray area here, such as when a major real life horse comes along that should be added to the SIM, but the name already exists within the game. If the Steward "needs" the name, the goal is to work out a suitable deal with the current owner.
4. Every year when the horses turn a year older, 250 mares become barren and 25 stallions become infertile just for that coming year. It is a random process done by the computer meant to control population growth and simulate real life.
5. New players cannot stand a stallion during their entire first year (16 weeks). They may breed mares, but not for the first six weeks. New players do not know enough about SIM Bloodlines, nor do they have enough money to pay for the board of a mare and foal who isn't earning money for two years to be able to breed.

Auctions

When an auction has a limit on the number of horses you may buy, you cannot try to get around those rules by giving money to other players to get horses for you. You may have someone bid in your account if you are out of town, and you may buy horses being pinhooked out of the sale afterwards, but you cannot help in the funding of those horses beforehand.

Injuries

In the event of a horse being injured, the money needed to save that horse for racing or breeding will be automaticaly taken from your account. A horse will be listed as injured and will not be able to be entered until he is healed. Injuries make this game unfortunately more realistic and help control the horse population. You can avoid race injuries by giving the horses plenty of rest between starts, and avoid random injuries by buying insurance.

Going Bankrupt

You may not stay in negative amounts of money. If you do end up negative, it is your job to "sell" your way out by putting your horses up for sale. You will not be able to do much in your account (shipping, breeding, etc) until you bail yourself out. If you're really struggling, we recommend writing articles for our Feature Race Newsletter at $20,000 per story, or asking the Steward once for a donation. She will be more than happy to help.

Leaving the Simulation

If you do not enter and race at least one horse for 45 days in a row, the computer will automatically remove you from the game after sending out two warnings. Your horses will be dispersed into an auction after a final 7 day warnings. In the instance of illness or emergency, we will strive to hold your stable for you if warning is given first. Once your horses are dispersed, you cannot return and ask for all of them back, but you are always welcome to reactivate your account and keep playing!

If you decide to leave the SIMulation, you may choose 30% of your horses to give to whoever you wish (say you have 100 horses, you can give 30 to Player A, or 15 to Player A and 15 to Player B, etc). If you need to leave due to moving, travel, illness, etc, you can gift your entire stable to one member of your household if A. you can prove they are a second person that lives in your household and are not yourself B. they do not already have a SIM account. SIM money cannot be transferred to any other account. Game points can be given. You may disperse your farms, however, no more than 1 per player. The rest of the horses will be dispersed however the Steward sees fit, typically via public auction. Pending auction horses may not be given. In the instance of illness or emergency, we will strive to hold your stable for you if warning is given first.

Why Are Real Horses Involved?

Real horses are an important part of the SIM. The biggest advantage to having real horses is that they help to diversify the bloodlines of a small community. In the past, when the SIM was new, real horses were added as racehorses because the game had to start at "point zero." Learning the SIM pedigrees is hard for new players, so having real bloodlines around helps new players transition to the game's pedigrees. Real horses are added as they retire in real life. The computer owns all of the real "active" stallions.

Steward's Rights

I have the right as the owner of the game to reject any player, horse, or farm names. I have the right to delete any posts that I find to be negative or offensive. I can distribute horses as I see fit if someone leaves. I may amend the rules if a situation arrises and a solution is not clearly stated in the rules. I can remove or suspend a player for any reason.

I also promise, as the Steward, that this game is run fairly and objectively, without bias, and results are run by a computer. I promise that I dedicate as much time as possible into perfecting and streamlining this game for your enjoyment.

About the Steward