Bye Bye Steward Bred's

[Willowcreek Farms]

I have been playing since year 32. I have never bought from the SB auctions. Tsaritsyn was my first G1 winner in year 49. I bought her for $2556 at auction not because I knew she was a G1 winner in the making but because she had a smashing page in my opinion. I bought her as a BM prospect. I sold her to the Steward because I thought it was the best way to cash in but not after breeding my second G1 winner Chief Lionheart. The Steward leased me her next foal. Who was bred on the SAME cross as Chief Lionheart. (My point being I actually bred my own SB in effect. Bit of a stretch but I hope you get my point). The info is there to be successful you just need to do the research yourself.

What I am trying to say is that if I can do it, anyone can. Did I get lucky...I sure did. But through years of humping it through the claiming game and buying well bred but cheap mares I got to study and learn pedigrees and female families etc, etc. I got lucky but I set myself up for some good luck through hard work and studying the game. For me THAT is what the game means to me. Only 2 G1's to date but man am I proud of them, my years of PATIENCE are paying off and my stable is getting competetive. I have 11% stakes gallopers in my barn (All but one is a homebred) Its highly rewarding to accomplish it yourself rather than having someone else doing the heavy lifting for you.

Thats my two cents worth....

[Mr. Lord Rich]

I was hoping you would have said
“That’s my two cents werth” like your last name.

[Willowcreek Farms]

I was hoping you would have said
“That’s my two cents werth” like your last name.

Not bad...I think that will by my new gimmick/slogan. Maybe I should write some articles "My Two Cents Werth".

[Dylan Christensen]

Sorry Dylan how many Freaks have you bred or home breds that have won a stew cup or any other major G1 ?

I’ve had zero homebred freaks as I’ve bred 3 crops to gallop... I’ve owned 3 steward breds but not because I could actually afford to buy them rather I got “lucky” even though they haven’t done anything. One I bought for $60k on an underbid, a horse I wouldn’t have been able to afford for years otherwise and I proceeded to pinhook him for way more than he would have sold for if he didn’t have that shiny Steward bred mark, the other I got out of lease and she has yet to do anything good, and the last is a yearling I won for free who was bought for $4 million and hasn’t even worked well. I wasn’t planning on buying any steward breds at full price before and I would have stuck by that for a long time because I’ve done just fine in the game so far without them.

[Laura Smith]

With no steward breeds this will absolutely favor the veterans with strong breeding barns.

I'm going to have to disagree with you hard there. Most newer players get a good breeding barn under them before they ever have any chance to get a Stewie. While a Stewie can help I know myself and many others have built breeding barns devoid of Stewie's and while they aren't anywhere near the veteran barns that's to be expected in every aspect when beginning.

Xander is 100% right here. Some people have 10-50 years of lines in their breeding barn. We have 5. That gap will ALWAYS be there. We’ll have 10, they’ll have 15-60. The best we can hope for now is snagging a nice lease in an auction like Danny’s, oh but wait, veteran players don’t lease out their best mares (unless you happen to be VERY lucky) so we get to pick cast offs, IF we can afford them

This is been a HUGE depressing point with the SIM for me, my biggest hope to get a competitive horse was managing to nab a stewie and getting lucky. Now it seems my only chance may be a random slide?

I haven't read the next like three pages of posts following this one, but I had to stop and make a note here.

As I am fond of stating ad nauseam, I have been here for nearly 50 SIM years.

To the best of my fact-finding ability, I have bought 20 ((now-retired and with at least two foals on the ground of galloping age)) female yearlings/foals/2YOs from TBS auctions.
Fifteen of those twenty never, or have not yet, produced anything to earn over six figures OR have a stakes+ gallop.
Only two G1 winners have come from that entire group of 20 expensive mares. Of those two, one was a Stew-bred product of a lease, which hardly counts, lol.

More tellingly: of all the dead or pensioned mares (like 16 i think? I closed the tabs) only ONE still has descendants in my broodmare band. One more has a stakes winning granddaughter for someone else. That's it. No dynasties. No five generations of unbeatable horses stemming from one auction purchase.

I do have mares whose lines have persisted in my barn through three, four, five, six generations, but they aren't Stew-breds.

Want a little more? Of the 14 mares that have ever produced three or more stakes winners for me, only *ONE* has a Stew-bred mare in the first four gens of her tail-female.

The mares I would call my "stable makers," this one in particular, are not only not Stew-breds but often not even descended from them.

Just a counterpoint to those who are really down about losing their "only chance."

[Laura Smith]

Yeah Rochelle, players aren't going to pass on even ONE foal from their best mares no matter the price. And the mare swap thing isn't reasonable because I may value my mare higher than you would making me want something more on your end than what you think you should have to swap. I've run into that problem a couple times where I overvalue mine in the other persons eyes or under value theirs or vice versa. So, you have to catch lightning in a bottle which is possible, just hard to do.

I have done a mare swap with Nikki Everdeen every year for the past like 20 years. We've traded G1 winners back and forth multiple times and we've both gotten G1 winning foals. It's not that hard to make deals.

[Laura Smith]

I’d disagree. I came into the game 27 sim years ago, when Eric and Laura and others were well established. I didn’t have a lot of Stewies for a long time (and my first one was an utter dud) - I had to build up running in claimers and allowance and gradually building up my own horses with research and experimentation, and by investing in divisions like trotters and chasers where less dollars could get better horses. Over time I narrowed the gap and I’m proud to say I’ve become very competitive in the game. Sure, I’ve had some yummy stewards, but my best horses - Devon Fancy, Devon Castle, look like a King (and all of his amazing descendants like King of Stars) - were not steward bred at all. Not a single one of my blue hen mares is a steward bred (and the majority were bred by me and don’t even have a steward bred in their tail female). Do I buy stewards now because I can? Sure. They are fun. But they are hardly the best of my program (with all due respect to Em):

Every single one of my sprint championship winners was a home bred (3 by me), and none of them were out of steward mares. One was out of a 50k purchase, and two were out of mares claimed for 5k and for 10K. That’s 3 grade one winners for a combined broodmare purchase of 65k. Look like a king I got through a trade. You really don’t need a handout to make the game work, but you do need commitment, time, and effort.

When I started I bought those ‘cast offs’ from those more experienced players and did my research to get bargain claimers. I focused on a few divisions and studied them. I put countless hours into the game. I worked hard for the success and it took a very long time.

Will early sim players always have more experience than you? Yes. Will they always be more successful? That’s not at all necessarily true. There are plenty of players who have made their way to the top and weren’t here at the start. The game has always been fair; but it’s never been easy.

Gigi for the wiiiiiiiiiiiin.

[Tammy Stawicki]

To the best of my fact-finding ability, I have bought 20 ((now-retired and with at least two foals on the ground of galloping age)) female yearlings/foals/2YOs from TBS auctions.
Fifteen of those twenty never, or have not yet, produced anything to earn over six figures OR have a stakes+ gallop.
Only two G1 winners have come from that entire group of 20 expensive mares. Of those two, one was a Stew-bred product of a lease, which hardly counts, lol.

More tellingly: of all the dead or pensioned mares (like 16 i think? I closed the tabs) only ONE still has descendants in my broodmare band. One more has a stakes winning granddaughter for someone else. That's it. No dynasties. No five generations of unbeatable horses stemming from one auction purchase.

Glad its not just me.

I participate in mixers and thoroughbreds. I was not involved with either from the start of their existence.

Through the years I have brought a lot of stewardbreds to help build up my thoroughbred broodmare band. My experience has been like Laura's. I had one mare that produced a number of really nice horses for me but it was one mare many years ago. Only one of my current broodmares descends from a stewardbred I have purchased in the past and said mare is a "good" broodmare whose leading earner has made a whopping $18,000. I find it exceedingly difficult to breed nice thoroughbreds. Perhaps this isn't surprising given that I breed turf milers and as mentioned in another stewardbred thread 17 of the last 24 turf mile steward's cup winners have been stewardbreds. I haven't looked through EVERY stakes race but I'm guessing the numbers are similar.

Now lets talk paints. As mentioned I didn't get into paints when they were first debuted. There are also no stewardbreds so I have had to build my stable from horses I got from players. And those players weren't selling their top horses but I did what Gigi said. I brought and leased some decent horses. I bred them, I raced their foals, I bred them, etc. And over time I got some nice horses and these days I have a pretty special broodmare band that consistently produces stakes winners. I did a post a few years back about two steward's cup winners I had that descended back to some of my original paints: https://www.simhorseracing.com/simforum ... 16&t=43743

So I just don't see this gloom and doom prediction that new players won't be able to compete as happening. I see the eliniation of stewardbreds as leveling the playing field.

Now I'm not saying this is going to be a win for everyone. Certainly, those that don't like breeding and want instant success are not going to like this. And there is a group that shall really suffer that I haven't seen mentioned yet. Those that enjoy multipage forum threads. What will generate them without stewardbred derived drama? I mean just look at this forum not counting the logistical threads (race splitting, head shots, small thing) only 2 threads have more than 4 pages and both relate to stewardbreds.

[Randall Allen]

So wow:
First off, Emily said she doesn’t have the time to breed Stewardbreds anymore. I really don’t think anyone should guilt trip her into feeling bad about her decision. It’s not up for a vote, it was announced she is phasing then out. End of story.

Second, the game is and always has been fun. Some changes I loved and others I didn’t, but I have always enjoyed playing the game. The administration really doesn’t even have to keep the game going. Forum thread after forum thread of complaints about every... single... decision would probably even make a monk swear. Cut the owners and decision makers some slack...seriously.

Third, it isn’t the administration’s job to provide you with great horses. The administration’s job is to keep the game working correctly with fixing glitches and stuff. If you want to be successful, put in the work like all the successful barns have.

[Gwayne's World]

So wow:
First off, Emily said she doesn’t have the time to breed Stewardbreds anymore. I really don’t think anyone should guilt trip her into feeling bad about her decision. It’s not up for a vote, it was announced she is phasing then out. End of story.

Second, the game is and always has been fun. Some changes I loved and others I didn’t, but I have always enjoyed playing the game. The administration really doesn’t even have to keep the game going. Forum thread after forum thread of complaints about every... single... decision would probably even make a monk swear. Cut the owners and decision makers some slack...seriously.

Third, it isn’t the administration’s job to provide you with great horses. The administration’s job is to keep the game working correctly with fixing glitches and stuff. If you want to be successful, put in the work like all the successful barns have.

Boy Randall, all that common sense has given me a headache! Refreshing!

[Willowcreek Farms]

So wow:
First off, Emily said she doesn’t have the time to breed Stewardbreds anymore. I really don’t think anyone should guilt trip her into feeling bad about her decision. It’s not up for a vote, it was announced she is phasing then out. End of story.

Second, the game is and always has been fun. Some changes I loved and others I didn’t, but I have always enjoyed playing the game. The administration really doesn’t even have to keep the game going. Forum thread after forum thread of complaints about every... single... decision would probably even make a monk swear. Cut the owners and decision makers some slack...seriously.

Third, it isn’t the administration’s job to provide you with great horses. The administration’s job is to keep the game working correctly with fixing glitches and stuff. If you want to be successful, put in the work like all the successful barns have.

[Dylan Christensen]

Third, it isn’t the administration’s job to provide you with great horses. The administration’s job is to keep the game working correctly with fixing glitches and stuff. If you want to be successful, put in the work like all the successful barns have.

First of all, everything you said is perfectly stated and on top of that the vast majority of objectors have actually been the successful barns. A lot of the newer players haven’t taken issue at all and I think I’ve seen one intermediate player take quite a bit of issue(and I’m sure some others did too that I missed)but it seems most newbies are willing to put in the work, even if no Stew breds means it will take longer(which is debatable). It’s the vets that are going to miss the Steward breds most is at least what I’ve gathered from this.

[Louise Bayou]

Read 7 pages of freaking out??

[Nena Olson]

Everyone Else: Bickering back and forth about not succeeding without Steward Breds

Me & Danny: THERE IS A SET LIMIT AMOUNT ON HOW MANY NICE HORSES THERE ARE PER GAME CROP/YEAR?! I really just want to know how the game knows which horses to nerf down to allowance or productive or whatever. Like... Is it random? Is there a set formula? Does it reconfigure the random slide on all horses whenever a horse is born?

[Lily Wilkins]

Everyone Else: Bickering back and forth about not succeeding without Steward Breds

Me & Danny: THERE IS A SET LIMIT AMOUNT ON HOW MANY NICE HORSES THERE ARE PER GAME CROP/YEAR?! I really just want to know how the game knows which horses to nerf down to allowance or productive or whatever. Like... Is it random? Is there a set formula? Does it reconfigure the random slide on all horses whenever a horse is born?

THIS!! I have been quietly stalking this thread and I am dying to know more about how that works. Like, is leasing nice mares late in the season pointless because they're all going to be nerfed and give you utter junk? Eeek!