Pegasus Classic

[George Knatz]

“I literally bred virtually every one of her mares in one division and that year’s horses weren’t any better or worse than the year before or after. They are better horses because they come from better mares. I bet I’d have just as good numbers as Em if I had 100 Special to You types in my barn. Those better mares are the product of 50+ seasons of purely playing the breeding game. I do realise that Em has a definite advantage in knowing precisely how the breeding script works but random slide is just as likely to * her as it is with us.”


Em has access to the numbers. Very easy to give them a little boost after you did her the favor of breeding them. Under no circumstances do I believe we as players have the same ability to breed horses as she does regardless of the mares. I understand what you believe, we just don’t believe the same thing.

[Laura Smith]

Just for the record, I love Steward bred horses.

I just look at it as a challenge to breed a nice one on my own.

this. I don't get any more annoyed when a Stew-bred beats one of my horses than when a player-bred does.
I think buying a Stew-bred is an important and major milestone for new players and objective for established players.

My theory for a long time (which of course is more likely to be completely false than it is to be true) is that maybe the slide doesn't affect Stew-breds as much as it does our horses. Really, though, would you want it any other way? Would you want to bid millions on TBS horses knowing they could very possibly be useless claimers? We've gotten so spoiled that after every sale, two pages' worth of forum posts are people who are disappointed to "only" get a stakes. First world problems, much?

[Kenneth Prater]

Just for the record, I love Steward bred horses.

I just look at it as a challenge to breed a nice one on my own.

this. I don't get any more annoyed when a Stew-bred beats one of my horses than when a player-bred does.
I think buying a Stew-bred is an important and major milestone for new players and objective for established players.

My theory for a long time (which of course is more likely to be completely false than it is to be true) is that maybe the slide doesn't affect Stew-breds as much as it does our horses. Really, though, would you want it any other way? Would you want to bid millions on TBS horses knowing they could very possibly be useless claimers? We've gotten so spoiled that after every sale, two pages' worth of forum posts are people who are disappointed to "only" get a stakes. First world problems, much?

Why should it be any different?

[Rebecca Rose Hepburn]

Em has access to the numbers. Very easy to give them a little boost after you did her the favor of breeding them. Under no circumstances do I believe we as players have the same ability to breed horses as she does regardless of the mares. I understand what you believe, we just don’t believe the same thing.

Em wouldn't have given Cleo access to her barn, she would have had Cleo come up with the crosses and bred the horses herself. I have helped her breed turf milers in the past and that's what we did. Sometimes she liked the crosses I came up with better than what she'd thought up. I'm responsible for about two years worth of Stewie bred turf milers and I harbor zero suspicion that she punched up the numbers on any of them. Some were amazing, some were mediocre. Heck, everybody in this thread has bought a Stewie that sucked at one point. If she was really fudging the numbers we wouldn't end up with so many that have stakes gallops and then couldn't win a good stakes race to save their life. I wouldn't have bought a Stewie that was a Different Career who improved all the way to Allowance (Majesutikku).

[Laura Smith]

Just for the record, I love Steward bred horses.

I just look at it as a challenge to breed a nice one on my own.

this. I don't get any more annoyed when a Stew-bred beats one of my horses than when a player-bred does.
I think buying a Stew-bred is an important and major milestone for new players and objective for established players.

My theory for a long time (which of course is more likely to be completely false than it is to be true) is that maybe the slide doesn't affect Stew-breds as much as it does our horses. Really, though, would you want it any other way? Would you want to bid millions on TBS horses knowing they could very possibly be useless claimers? We've gotten so spoiled that after every sale, two pages' worth of forum posts are people who are disappointed to "only" get a stakes. First world problems, much?

Why should it be any different?

Because Em is not playing the game like the rest of us? Her "job" in this specific context is to breed nice things that we want to buy for lots of money, thereby keeping the economy in check.
Also, rrh nailed it.

[Nick Gilmore]

Whoever bred this one...can I get a refund, please?

Seriously, a star galloper, a formidable mare...it happens to us all and I wouldn’t want it any other way. It is a game and there are ups and downs in all aspects. My best revenge will be getting this gal to give me a freak!

I can dream, right?

[Mr. Lord Rich]

Sometimes when something is placed out in the stars it happens.

[Xander Zone]

If you take the steward breds out of the game good luck to any newer player or such on getting a instant good horse !

[Nick Gilmore]

I don’t think a lot of newer players have the bankroll to even benefit from the auctions in the first few years. It’s a major gamble, and you could spend milllions on an allowance galloper even after you save up.

I think a lot of that is a big part of learning the game. None of us could afford a Stewardbred when we started. Perseverance and patience are required to succeed here and it definitely doesn’t happen over night. Even then, success is a relative term. I think I’m relatively successful and I presently have a total of 17 Stewies. Many have much more than that.

There is an old adage in business, ‘you have to spend money to make money’ and it’s so very true here.

[Danny Derby]

Steward-breds probably should never have existed, but since they do there's really no possible way to put the genie back in the bottle.

I'm just of the mindset that it's much more rewarding to breed your own top horses rather than be lucky enough to get a ready made monster, and to compete as a breeder against other players rather than the Steward.

[Glenn Escobar]

Steward-breds probably should never have existed, but since they do there's really no possible way to put the genie back in the bottle.

I'm just of the mindset that it's much more rewarding to breed your own top horses rather than be lucky enough to get a ready made monster, and to compete as a breeder against other players rather than the Steward.

Agree with this. Take them for what they are, acquire them when possible because it's an ongoing arms race as long as they exist, but even more than that I agree with Danny that competing as a breeder against other players is rewarding in its own regard.

[Gwayne's World]

The Steward has also mentioned that the sales were a way to siphon money from the game.

[Gwayne's World]

Nice run Tim, congrats!

[Tim Matthews]

Thanks Gwayne!


"'Hello' says, 'You're my favorite owner!'" @Alysse @The Steward

[James Selby]

Was reading through this topic this morning and this idea popped into my head :

The Steward breeds in all nine divisions of the tbs. A option she could try out, is to bred in six of those divisions and lease out her mares in the other three and switch it around each year. Homebreds would then have a better chance to build up earnings for a possible stud career and still have the options to compete against stewbreds in 3yr+/4yr+ races. The Steward would then have a slightly smaller yearling auction but also now a mare lease auction. The mare lease will properly bring in less income for the Steward but then again with people knowing there will be no stewbreds in that division for that year, and it not affecting the three stewbreds rule, it would make her mare lease auction a lot more valuable.

As I said just a idea, and properly a lot of knock on factors to take into account but doing noting changes noting and stewbreds out numbering the homebreds in the stakes races shall continue.