Thoroughbred Grand Prix Series

[Carole Hanson]

Hello Simsters! I have recently gotten into watching a bit of Formula 1 and I've had some inspiration to start a little Grand Prix Series in the SIM with a big prize pool at the end of it all. I'm hoping this series will encourage competitive racing at the highest level, and that hopefully it will help people get to know more horses across more divisions. So how does it work? Here's what I've come up with, happy to hear some feedback on it though!

-Races included in the series will be races with a purse of $1 million or more but will NOT include sponsored stakes (right now that is 70 races)
-Only Thoroughbred Flat races will be included (sorry mixer and chaser people!)
-The field must reach AT LEAST 5 horses otherwise the race will NOT count in the series
-Each race will be awarded the same amount of points based on the order of the finish. Horses and Trainers will be receiving the same amount of points for placings, but they will be separate from one another (e.g. Trainer A has Horse 1 and Horse 2 finish 1st and 3rd in a race. Trainer A receives 40 points. Horse 1 receives 25 points. Horse 2 receives 15 points). Here is the points breakdown:
1st: 25 points
2nd: 20 points
3rd: 15 points
4th: 10 points
5th: 5 points
NOTE: If a race has a field of 7 horses or less, the points will be halved for that race (25 becomes 12.5, 20 becomes 10, 15 becomes 7.5 etc.)

PRIZES:
The planned overall prize pool right now is SIM $10 million (all of which I am happy to donate), with the following prize breakdown based on the Trainer Points Rankings:
1st: $5 million
2nd: $2.5 million
3rd: $1 million
4th: $500k
5th: $250k
BONUS PRIZE FOR THE HORSE WITH THE MOST POINTS: $750k+Free SIM Headshot (both prizes going to the owner of course since I can't manipulate a horse's earnings)

This is just a rough idea but like I say, I'm very happy to hear out suggestions. For example, the series is pretty heavily skewed towards DR because they have the most $1 million+ races, and there is only one of those races for a division like AWS. If anyone has good solutions to get around this problem, I'm happy to hear it. I also thought about starting the series this season but we're halfway through the year so it wouldn't necessarily be all that fair, so my thinking right now is to start the series off next season. Any thoughts and opinions welcome and appreciated (yes, even if you want to tell me this is a stinky idea)!

[Garret Folsom]

I love the idea, I think it's awesome.

If you want to make it more equal for all TB flat horses, perhaps instead of limiting it to $1 million dollar races, maybe do a top 7 or 8 purses for each division. That would keep it at around 70 (63 or 72) races, but each division is equally represented.

I'd be willing to look up the races to give you a schedule to follow.

[Carole Hanson]

I love the idea, I think it's awesome.

If you want to make it more equal for all TB flat horses, perhaps instead of limiting it to $1 million dollar races, maybe do a top 7 or 8 purses for each division. That would keep it at around 70 (63 or 72) races, but each division is equally represented.

I'd be willing to look up the races to give you a schedule to follow.

I really like that idea Garret! I suppose the only trouble is if there are multiple races with the same purse in that number 8 spot but it’s definitely a good start!

[Andrew Chillin]

I just want to say it sounds pretty fun

[Garret Folsom]

Yeah, that would be the issue I've found as I started to look at it. You could always pick one of the ones that are tied and just post the entire schedule so that everyone knows what the races are. Are you hoping to keep it around 70 total races?

[Carole Hanson]

Yeah, that would be the issue I've found as I started to look at it. You could always pick one of the ones that are tied and just post the entire schedule so that everyone knows what the races are. Are you hoping to keep it around 70 total races?

I don't really mind how many races, I would love to have a pretty even spread though. I suppose a division like DR could have a few more races because it's less likely to see one dominant horse unlike say for example All Weather, which often has a very very strong horse (though points are shared up to 5th, so I suppose the competitiveness still remains).

[Garret Folsom]

I'll take a look at the schedules and send you what I find.

[Carole Hanson]

Thanks Garret! I’ll have a closer look too whenever I’m more free

[Kelly Haggerty]

I think contests like this that can give top barns something new to shoot for are a great idea. Week 6 seems to have been a letdown for several. A multi-race series would help people feel that they are still in the hunt for something meaningful.

[The Steward]

Sounds awesome to me!

[Carole Hanson]

I think contests like this that can give top barns something new to shoot for are a great idea. Week 6 seems to have been a letdown for several. A multi-race series would help people feel that they are still in the hunt for something meaningful.

Yea the main goal is to give people something to look forward to for the whole season, we tend to have lots of down periods when there’s less of the ‘big’ races but actually there’s still lots of grade 1s happening. Plus, hopefully that will encourage lots of competitiveness in those Grade 1s!

Garret has sent me a very good looking potential schedule which I shall have a closer look at hopefully this Sunday when work isn’t so crazy. I’ll post it here and any feedback from the community on it is more than welcome! (Or Garret you could post your findings here if you’d like, since it’s your awesome research!)

[Brian Leavitt]

Yes yes yes yes all the yes!

[Gwayne's World]

Brian likes the idea. Me too.

Maybe this could be funded by the Steward and become a yearly competition?

Steward funded means, the big stables wouldn't be winning back their own money.

[Carole Hanson]

I’m more than happy to sponsor the first season (my stable isn’t big enough to win this lol so I won’t be winning back my own money) and then if it’s a success perhaps something can be set up? Worth seeing first how it goes I think.

[Gwayne's World]

Carole, on this side of the pond, Nascar is the thing.

Similar point structure to Formula One.

I actually prefer road racing myself.