Freaks gone

[Brandon Schultz]

Dear Everyone,

I'm sorry your horses suck now. I'll happily take any of your freaks that "downgraded" to stakes or stakes that downgraded to allowance. Especially if they were fast before they "downgraded." I do this out of the kindness of my heart so that you don't have to be disappointed in the horses anymore.

Sincerely,
Brandon

[Andrew Chillin]

Dear Everyone,

I'm sorry your horses suck now. I'll happily take any of your freaks that "downgraded" to stakes or stakes that downgraded to allowance. Especially if they were fast before they "downgraded." I do this out of the kindness of my heart so that you don't have to be disappointed in the horses anymore.

Sincerely,
Brandon

Same

Sincerely,
Andrew

[Dave Trainer]

Don't think of them as downgraded, think of them as having a different label. Like when your favourite brand of something changes its name, its still the same product.

[The Steward]

Don't think of them as downgraded, think of them as having a different label. Like when your favourite brand of something changes its name, its still the same product.

Awww I love this - The Horses Formerly Known as Freaks

[Mr. Lord Rich]

instead of adjusting gallops we should have just added a new comment "pretend freak" and then people could have still kept their freaks

[Rochelle Bos]

instead of adjusting gallops we should have just added a new comment "pretend freak" and then people could have still kept their freaks

Or make one above freak and call them Unicorns

[Andrea Bouwkamp]

My freak dirt router, who was on a 3 race win streak is now stakes. Bummer. She had really nice speed figures too. I am scared to race her now. Expecting huge losses.
What I don’t understand is horses will downgrade or upgrade without a gallop now?
On a good note, I got another TB freak. A yearling turf miler who is a late bloomer too.
I also have more Chase Freaks as well.

Andrea... your horses Did Not Change.

They have the exact same talents they had when listed as a freak, stakes, allowance on down to different career...it's just that the bar was raised a tiny bit to qualify for being called what ever it takes from a claimer on up to a freak. Those that were on the close boarder of freak and stakes, or stakes and allowance...etc...are now shown on the lower part of the scale. Again...your horses talent hasn't changed...it should run the same speed figures and win or lose the same stakes that it would have if you had entered it this year with the 'freak' tag on it.

Also, you will still have to gallop your horses... the new adjustment done with for the scale corrected horses that already had a prior gallop history so the owners wouldn't have to re-gallop them to see where they placed on the new scale.
(I believe a few divisions like Standardbred were excluded from this because they went through a similar adjustment not too long ago)

Stormy

Stormy, yes they did!
My ex freak(a G3 winner), who was running 90 sfs just ran dead last in a stake now running a 44 sf. She is done. I would have been fine if she had run a competitive race but a 44 SF suggests that she majorly downgraded. That is not the only horse either. I have about had it with this game. I am going to dump about half my stock. I cannot use the chat room(I have NEVER been able to). Does giving to GP still cost? This is supposed to be fun but for me it’s not.

[Art K Stables]

44 sf doesnt mean a thing, sratings are only indicative near the top.. to take anything on a single race is an overreaction. And you know it.

[Mr. Lord Rich]

Put down the phone/mouse, take a breath.
Everything will be ok. We have all been there. It’s a cycle. Ups and downs.

Don’t do anything drastic because a few of your horses had a subpar effort in a race. I get it that you are not having fun when they lose. No one would.

It will turn around. Just give it a little more time.

[Stormy Peak]

Andrea... are you seriously suggesting that the Steward is lying about all of this? She has repeatedly said that the horses talent levels did not change - the adjustment was to the way the scales read that talent and showed you the results. The horses were not changed.

Please link to the horse in question. There could be other things that would have happened regardless of the scale adjustment.

The horse could have just thrown a clunker !!! It happens.
Even my great mare Roughian ran 9th in a race at the start of Year 56 - it was the first time she failed to make any money in a race, but I didn't toss her out of my racing stable...she went on to win a $2 Million Dollar race in her very next start.

Also, other normal things could have accounted for why your horse didn't do well in that race, such as whether or not the horse naturally went past it's peak/age...or if it is race or even travel weary (if one isn't using 1st class).

I think this new scale is more realistic - why hasn't your freak won anything better than a GIII? Was it a 2-year old when that happened or was that it's first stakes race?

I honestly wish you would take a deep breath and reconsider what you are doing if you are doing it mostly because of 1 clunker race. Please don't use that as an excuse to think that your horses were tampered with...that The Steward is lying. It's rather disrespectful in my opinion. Again, she has repeatedly said the horses were not touched...they are exactly the same horses with the same talent - it's was the scale that was adjusted.

You worked hard to build up your stable and to just throw it all away for that would be a shame.

I think there are parts of this game that Everyone here has some severe dislike for...
I personally, and after all these years it's been implemented HATE with All My Being the insurance BS.
Rich stables can afford $75k each to make sure they can protect a freak or two... or even a freak and a stakes.
But poor stable who just got lucky enough to breed say a freak and a stakes, can't come up with $150,000 if all they have in their account is $100,000 - and just to protect their freak would take 3/4 th of their total account.
I never ever thought that insurance was a fair thing...it's much more of a burden for those stables with only a few hundred thousand in their account compared to a stable with several million in their account.

As for sending horses to greener pastures. Yes there is still a fee for younger horses.
And in this case...I think it's serving one of it's purposes in making people think twice before trashing their stables!

But the other purposes it was trying to serve, was to get people to actually hold onto and race their youngsters or even reduce the amount of foals and/or avoid breeding just for the sake of it...breeding low end pedigree mares to stallions of the same quality and ending up with junk...then tossing it away when they realize no one will buy it and it's probably going to run dead last even in low end claiming races. Those who have the money might still go ahead and send them to AJ...in which case...that benefits the Sim in the money drain department.

To avoid the greener pastures fee. I believe that Rochelle Zahacy is still taking in unwanted horses from people. You can write to her and ask her about the details...but I believe she wants them shipped to her farm and also ?be career free, so if need be she can pension them as either rodeo or event horses.

Andrea, I can remember when you joined and I tried to give you some sound advice...and I think I even gave you GPs so you could buy your silks. -- it's been 7 years, so sorry if I'm wrong there...I've given a good number of people silks since then and can't remember all of them.

The thing is... this is a good game, people here are usually helpful, honest, and enjoy seeing people succeed. I've been happy for you whenever I saw one of your horses doing well, because I do remember some of the letters we exchanged when you were still fairly new here.

If I can I would love to offer you this one more small bit of advice.
Try not to grind your teeth too much on the things you don't like about the game and focus instead on all the other things you do like/love about the game.

When I think about insurance too much...yeah... I fume....so my solution is to not dwell on it any longer than I need too...such as just before and after I hit the 'pay insurance' button for a freak yearling, lol. After that... I focus on all the other great things that have made this game easier.

I love the GP/Sim money exchange...as someone with very little money in real life....as I'm sure some here are also like that...it's nice to be able to trade in some Sim dollars for a few GPs if needed.
One can even write articles and spend the article money on GPs if they are a Sim poor and RL poor. This is an option we never had before in the Sim and when it was implemented I was so happy it almost balanced out my hated for the insurance...lol.

I love that we can choose gender for our foals, as well as color and markings. I love 1st class shipping, I also love the free jockey advice you can get after a race...and the for a small free GP fee...being able to buy a hint...and even the $10K fee in getting full disclosure for the jockey after so many races.

I know people get burned out on the game at times...and maybe this is it for you. Maybe a short break might be a good way to see. You might find out in 6 months that you want back in. It would be a shame to have to come back to a barn devastated due to tossing out good horses because you were frustrated. You might be able to get an assistant trainer to help you out for a Sim year or even a half a year in real life. Take a breather and then come back and see if the game is still more of a frustration than something fun.

I've had to use an assistant trainer twice now, when I got overwhelmed with real life issues and I had a huge amount of horses that needed entered. It really helped my mental outlook...and I never thought I would use the assistant trainer feature...but I found out it was another thing that I love about the Sim.

Best of luck with what ever you decide to do.

Stormy

[Jack Christensen]

My freak dirt router, who was on a 3 race win streak is now stakes. Bummer. She had really nice speed figures too. I am scared to race her now. Expecting huge losses.
What I don’t understand is horses will downgrade or upgrade without a gallop now?
On a good note, I got another TB freak. A yearling turf miler who is a late bloomer too.
I also have more Chase Freaks as well.

Andrea... your horses Did Not Change.

They have the exact same talents they had when listed as a freak, stakes, allowance on down to different career...it's just that the bar was raised a tiny bit to qualify for being called what ever it takes from a claimer on up to a freak. Those that were on the close boarder of freak and stakes, or stakes and allowance...etc...are now shown on the lower part of the scale. Again...your horses talent hasn't changed...it should run the same speed figures and win or lose the same stakes that it would have if you had entered it this year with the 'freak' tag on it.

Also, you will still have to gallop your horses... the new adjustment done with for the scale corrected horses that already had a prior gallop history so the owners wouldn't have to re-gallop them to see where they placed on the new scale.
(I believe a few divisions like Standardbred were excluded from this because they went through a similar adjustment not too long ago)

Stormy

Stormy, yes they did!
My ex freak(a G3 winner), who was running 90 sfs just ran dead last in a stake now running a 44 sf. She is done. I would have been fine if she had run a competitive race but a 44 SF suggests that she majorly downgraded. That is not the only horse either. I have about had it with this game. I am going to dump about half my stock. I cannot use the chat room(I have NEVER been able to). Does giving to GP still cost? This is supposed to be fun but for me it’s not.

Chill out, selling half your horses over one of your better horses running an off race is a decision you will regret.

[Shannon Hunt]

https://www.simhorseracing.com/horse.ph ... ID=1183371

Ran a 27 in the Louisville Derby last year. Came back with a 94 in the next race. Sometimes they have a bad day. In a race of 12 top horses, one of them will still place last, doesn't make it a bad horse. And aside from comment adjustment, most horses do start slowing down eventually regardless, just a part of the aging process. Everyone peaks at different points in time. But no slow-downs occurred as a direct result of the comment adjustment update. Any horse who slowed down would still have done so even if the comments didn't update.

[Tammy Stawicki]

It is worth remembering all that there were 2 changes that occurred.

1) The scale of the gallops was changed for all horses, so while their raw ability might not have changed their gallop comment may have given the scale adjustments.

This of course made it look like a lot of horses changed in ability when in reality they have not. And while in the moment it's sad to see those downgrades and get fewer freak/stakes yearlings in the long run it's for the best as they are going to run the same regardless and we know have a better feel for their true ability

2) As has always happened at year turnover some horses got randomly better/worse.

So it is indeed possible a horse that dropped in gallop comment did also drop in ability. This is something that has always happened it's just harder to pull apart this year which change happened if your horses gallop comment changed. I don't know where I got this number from but I feel like at some point the steward said horses are at their peak for only about 1 1/2 years. So if you have a great 2/3yo at some point the others are going to catch up. Sucks for the owner of that great horse, but at the same time not particularly fun for the other players to never be able to beat that great horse so I see it as a spreading of the wealth to try and keep the game more enjoyable for the masses.

Now I'm sure we all have horses that have also just had the occasional weird fluke bad race so that could certainly also be playing a role. Only time will tell, but I certainly wouldnt' get rid of a horse that had showed promise off of just one bad race.

As for all the don't do anything drastic I think sometimes a good cull is important. I pretty regularly go through and look at my horses to think do I still want to be racing this horse? Do I still want to be breeding this horse? I lease mares every year and have been doing more mare selling of late as well. I think it's important to keep your horse numbers at a level where you are getting a payoff/work ratio that keeps the game enjoyable. If Andrea is not in that place right now then I think it does make sense for her to take stock of her barn and make adjustments.

[Art K Stables]

I think it’s too easy to have high expectations and think you have it all figured out and then you have a horse or 3 who frustrate you, and all the good stuff gets forgotten about.. lower expectations and you’ll be less disappointed, having said that Ollie wolf had a peak allowance baby and if she does it again I’ll pension her immediately

[Andrew Chillin]

I think it’s too easy to have high expectations and think you have it all figured out and then you have a horse or 3 who frustrate you, and all the good stuff gets forgotten about.. lower expectations and you’ll be less disappointed, having said that Ollie wolf had a peak allowance baby and if she does it again I’ll pension her immediately

Next one will be allowance...late bloomer