I hate late bloomers

[LA Pepper]

I really dont understand the love of 'late bloomers' in this game. I find it just an annoying additional need for patience, which I don't have much of. If you have a late bloomer stakes or freak, you have to wait and wait for it to reach peak before you can enjoy the results. In the meantime you have to race it very carefully when its not at its best. You want to enter the big money races and yet the Peaks may beat it badly and then you have a confidence problem.. Im not sure how many losses break its spirit, and whether too many losses permanently breaks its confidence. Thank god for barrier races for that reason. I have a very favorite stakes horse who is a late bloomer( a favorite because its named after a horse I used to have) and I foolishly entered it into a big race recently and it was clobbered. Im kicking myself for not stayin g in the condition races until he peaked. Maybe he wont be any better when he peaks but now I have an unconfident horse I need to build up in less competitive races or barrier trials until he reaches some sort of peak to know if he is a true contender with the big guys. I HATE LATE BLOOMERS. Horses born at peak are ready to run out of the gate at their best.

[Abby Brooks]

I don't think I hate late bloomers, but the way that some function.

I don't like having a horse listed as a freak late bloomer. I'd rather them go from say allowance lb to then freak peak, for example.
I get that their numbers even as a late bloomer indicate as freak, but its just frustrating and confusing

Or more commonly..
allowance late bloomer -> allowance peak.

[Randall Allen]

I may be in the minority, but I don't pay the gallop improvement comments any attention. I have had freak peak horses that finish dead last in maidens and have had late bloomer allowances win listed stakes races early in their career. A better indicator, for me, is how the horse is performing in their last 1-3 races. I adjust the races based on each horse's history, not words on a screen.

[Andrew Chillin]

It’s a tricky thing to navigate. You could have a peak horse dominate 2yo or 3 years and the rest of the competition makes their improvements and they surpass your horse. Then you have to drop down a level to get wins. You can have a late bloomer that struggles or has to run conditions and age restrictions but at 4 it’s ready to run and you can open it up into stakes and maybe graded company. I feel like anything worth racing in stakes is worth micro managing their schedule every week because you have to gauge the competition all the time. Who’s improving and who’s already flattened out. I think it makes the game interesting, therefore I hate comments and horses on a day by day basis. Today it’s this dumb B loser horse, tomorrow it’s all progressives

[Jo Ferris]

I love my late bloomers. I’ve figured out a good system for racing them before they peak, sometimes they don’t improve much, sometimes they do. It’s nice to have that bit of information. The game has always been like this where some horses are improvers just now you can see if they’re peak or not

[Stormy Peak]

I love my late bloomers. I don't want my horses peaking as yearlings or 2 year olds.

Also, I race my freak and stakes late bloomers just like I use to do before we Knew that we had for Late Bloomers, Progressives, and Peaked horses. If I have a stakes or freak... I put them in stake races. : ) Often with good results.

I don't understand just letting a horse SIT in a barn for it's 2 and sometimes 3 year old racing season waiting for it to peak and then go race it....I think people are leaving a lot of money on the table doing that....especially since once they peak, they only get about 1 to 1 1/2 seasons of racing in before they go down hill.

Plus if you just race them and ignore the late bloomer, progressive stuff...that takes care of the impatience part of It in my mind, at least, and your horses can usually acquire points as well as money...so when they do peak, they are not getting bumped out of those really big races if the race fills.

Stormy

[Kent Saunders]

Just like Stormy, Stakes/Freaks are going to race. I don't stress over if their LB's or Progressives. Very few are going to make a "Meaningful" improvement someday. Until then ra,ce where you can make Money!

[Art K Stables]

I think the “problem” of finding a cutoff point to race or wait gets higher each time the game adds a cost to improving the horse, soundness, weather preference, first class shipping, more eq pieces , the companion animal , insurance, all of these costs add up quickly if you have 50 allowance horses in your barn and you don’t want to race them at a disadvantage.. so what do you do, basically draw a line with rare exceptions on what level you can afford to fully equip the horse to win and for me that’s stakes or higher, don’t have a few hundred thousand to throw on allowance horses who will be fortunate to win an allowance race and likely end up in claimers which almost pay the transportation and boarding costs to race them

[Cleo Patra]

I love the maturity comments. They’re a very helpful piece of information given that I only run routers (and two random milers). Even before they were introduced I left a lot of horses sitting in the barn until they were 3 or mid-3 because getting a 12 furlong horse stuck losing at 9 furlongs for several starts absolutely ruins their confidence. Also, everyone runs their most ready and exciting horses as 2yos so it’s hard to find an easy maiden. If you wait until a router turns 3 then your chances of running into the next big superstar are very much reduced.

It also helps me make retirement decisions. Horses have 2-3 seasons of being at peak as a general rule. If I have one go LB to peak as a late 3yo, I know they can keep racing definitely at 5 and maybe even 6. If they peaked as a yearling, I might retire a well bred filly at 3 if I feel she’s not going to achieve much more as a 4yo.

[Anthony Zappulla]

Allowance seems to be the 1st level to have a sizeable gap between productive and stakes and top allowance horses are money makers, claiming races do pay well in certain spots

I'm talking about Thoroughbred racing. Steeplechase and mixers I know its alittle different

[Rochelle Bos]

The only frustrating part to me is almost none of my 2yo nice foals are peak. They don’t peak until they are 4+. Which means they miss the big $$ 2 and 3yo races. Then when they do finally peak, they have the audacity to run the same after they peak

[Craig Mcgee]

Why stress the mess. The gallop comment is what they are galloping right now. So to me that means if they are stakes or better no matter the maturity comment race them in stakes. I only look at the peak,progressive or late bloomer comments when I am thinking of retiring a horse. If they are not yet peak I will give them more chances if not pension or off to breed one of the two. I am also one who goes by the last 3 race rule and enter accordingly.

[Carolyn Eaton]

Freaks I typically run no matter the maturity (especially If their works reflect the gallop comment); stakes runners vary - I will typically give others in their division a 2-4 week head start to get most of the better ones past maiden; allowance late bloomers I'll sit on until 3 yo season.