Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

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The Admin
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Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by The Admin »

Years ago, we rolled out Auto Ship (for SIMperior subscribers) where you choose how many days in advance of a race you want your horses to begin being shipped to the track. Because Auto Shipping only happened once per day, and because horses traveling a far distance would take longer to arrive than horses that were close, you really couldn't depend on when your horses would actually arrive at the track. You may have had to choose more days in advance than you wanted, to accommodate horses that were located far away from the track.

Starting Y45-W5-D7, Auto Shipping will change to be based on the arrival time of your horse at the track. Your horses may automatically ship throughout the day to coordinate their arrival times at a track prior to post time.

An example:
Let's pretend that you have Horse A located in Australia and Horse B located in Kentucky, and you enter them both in a race in Kentucky on Day 5 at 8pm PDT. Your Auto Ship setting is 3-days prior to post. Horse A will begin its journey on Day-2 at approximately 8am, while Horse B's journey will begin on Day 2 at 7pm. Both horses will arrive in Kentucky on Day-2 at 8pm (3 days prior to post time). Your horses will have the same amount of rest time prior to post time.

With the old approach, Horse A would arrive 12 hours later than Horse B and would be more tired and have less rest time prior to post than Horse A's short trip.

Another example:
Pretend it is Day-3. You have Auto Ship set to 3-days prior to post time. You enter Horse A into a Day-5 race. Even though it is too late to ship 3 days in advance, it will auto ship at the next top of the hour or 30 minutes after the hour.

I don't think you will need to modify your 'days in advance' setting as your current setting will behave very similarly to the way it used to. This may not be a big enhancement, but we believe it is an improvement.

Thank you.
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Glenn Escobar
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - enhancement

Post by Glenn Escobar »

Nice improvement. But just to reiterate your final point, if someone has their shipping pre-set to say 3 days, that can remain in place, and now the SIM will just do the math and ship them all at the coordinating departure time so they now arrive 3 days prior rather than depart then?

Good Move.
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The Admin
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - enhancement

Post by The Admin »

Glenn Escobar wrote:Nice improvement. But just to reiterate your final point, if someone has their shipping pre-set to say 3 days, that can remain in place, and now the SIM will just do the math and ship them all at the coordinating departure time so they now arrive 3 days prior rather than depart then?

Good Move.
You are correct. The current system will tend to ship them earlier than the 3 days you specify. The new system will tend to accomplish exactly 3 days. If you depended on the earliness of the old, less accurate way, then you might want to increase your setting by one day.
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Lori Hamill
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by Lori Hamill »

I think this will be a big improvement for my horses. I'd much rather have them resting 3 days before the race than shipping to get there on time. Currently I have them shipped earlier so that they would get to the track with enough time to rest a few days before the race. I may be actually able to knock a day off of my shipping. :) Thank you for this!
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Dan Gordon
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by Dan Gordon »

From a practical standpoint, it will eliminate the logjam at the barns. 3 am EST has been like rush hour at these racetracks which has messed with the sleep of everybody at the stables with 300 horses having to be bathed and groomed between 2-3 am. The night-shift manager at Denny's is tired of cooking 300 Grand Slams at that hour too. Lastly, because everybody is sleep-deprived, the wrong horse is often shipped which really seems to tick off Dr. Hacklu.
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The Admin
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by The Admin »

Dan Gordon wrote:From a practical standpoint, it will eliminate the logjam at the barns. 3 am EST has been like rush hour at these racetracks which has messed with the sleep of everybody at the stables with 300 horses having to be bathed and groomed between 2-3 am. The night-shift manager at Denny's is tired of cooking 300 Grand Slams at that hour too. Lastly, because everybody is sleep-deprived, the wrong horse is often shipped which really seems to tick off Dr. Hacklu.
This is awesome! You reminded us of the realness of our wonder virtual world. Why didn't I think of the benefits to the virtual night shift managers? That is why we changed it.
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Ali Hedgestone
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by Ali Hedgestone »

Admin wrote:
Dan Gordon wrote:From a practical standpoint, it will eliminate the logjam at the barns. 3 am EST has been like rush hour at these racetracks which has messed with the sleep of everybody at the stables with 300 horses having to be bathed and groomed between 2-3 am. The night-shift manager at Denny's is tired of cooking 300 Grand Slams at that hour too. Lastly, because everybody is sleep-deprived, the wrong horse is often shipped which really seems to tick off Dr. Hacklu.
This is awesome! You reminded us of the realness of our wonder virtual world. Why didn't I think of the benefits to the virtual night shift managers? That is why we changed it.
So does this mean that the shipping cost to trainers will be lower since there will not be so many late night meals at the virtual Denny's? :D
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Dan Kauffman
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by Dan Kauffman »

It definitely improves their life expectancy.
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Mr. Lord Rich
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by Mr. Lord Rich »

Ali Hedgestone wrote:
Admin wrote:
Dan Gordon wrote:From a practical standpoint, it will eliminate the logjam at the barns. 3 am EST has been like rush hour at these racetracks which has messed with the sleep of everybody at the stables with 300 horses having to be bathed and groomed between 2-3 am. The night-shift manager at Denny's is tired of cooking 300 Grand Slams at that hour too. Lastly, because everybody is sleep-deprived, the wrong horse is often shipped which really seems to tick off Dr. Hacklu.
This is awesome! You reminded us of the realness of our wonder virtual world. Why didn't I think of the benefits to the virtual night shift managers? That is why we changed it.
So does this mean that the shipping cost to trainers will be lower since there will not be so many late night meals at the virtual Denny's? :D
What about the traffic? I bet it reduces the interstate traffic as well.
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Louise Bayou
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by Louise Bayou »

I don't see why my horses can just take an Uber together and get a discounted shipping fee...
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Henry Maher
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by Henry Maher »

Is my thinking wrong here, post time for week 6 day 1 is 3 days and 19 hours away, I have auto ship set to 3 days and my horses are already on their way to the track (started shipping after midnight Pacific Time) even tho it's only a 1 hour journey.

I was under the impression they would be shipped to arrive exactly 3 dags prior ?
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Garret Folsom
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by Garret Folsom »

Henry Maher wrote:Is my thinking wrong here, post time for week 6 day 1 is 3 days and 19 hours away, I have auto ship set to 3 days and my horses are already on their way to the track (started shipping after midnight Pacific Time) even tho it's only a 1 hour journey.

I was under the impression they would be shipped to arrive exactly 3 dags prior ?
I was thinking the same thing with mine, but then I saw that it doesn't start until Sunday, so I'm guessing that it just isn't activated to work yet. I'm guessing that starting on Sunday, they will start to auto ship
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The Admin
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by The Admin »

The changes go into effect on Day-7 this week. And there is one additional surprise coming that day...
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Mr. Lord Rich
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by Mr. Lord Rich »

Admin wrote:And there is one additional surprise coming that day...
The ability to transform our fillies to colts after birth and vice versa :lol:
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Mats Jonsson
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Re: Auto Ship Horses - Enhancement

Post by Mats Jonsson »

Pete Vella wrote:
Admin wrote:And there is one additional surprise coming that day...
The ability to transform our fillies to colts after birth and vice versa :lol:
Interesting thought :roll:
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