The Break Between Years
Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:44 pm
The Break
The time in between SIM years is called The Break.
During the break, you are not charged the $5 day rate for horses.
What Happens During the Break?
-The first week of break is for breeding. Foals are almost always due one week after the last race day at noon Pacific (this is a Friday by American/European time). Very rarely the due date will be extended to a Saturday.
-Minutes after the foal due date, the year turns over. During this 30-minute long process:
---Horses age one year
---20-25 stallions become infertile for the new season (insured stallions excluded)
---200-300 mares become barren for the new season (insured mares excluded)
---150-200 2 year old horses buck their shins (are injured) prior to the new season (insured horses excluded)
-Either 2 days or 9 days after the year turnover, depending on if it is a long or short break, the new year begins. Races, training, and the Triple Crown Trail contest all start at the same time.
What You Can Do During the Break
-During the break you can breed mares - halfway through the break they age and then you are breeding a new group of foals
-You can retire horses and stand stallions
-You can sell/ship/buy/retire/geld/pension horses
What You Cannot Do During Break
-Post articles
-Enter races
-Train horses in any way
Rest/
Horses do not rest over the break, so if you run Week 16, the 2 weeks between races rule still applies and you should run Week 2.
Resting over the short break is pretty straight forward, but sometimes people forget the extra week in between during the long break. This week still counts as a zero week, in that rest does not happen during this week. Thus, if you ship your horse to a farm right after results on Week 16 Friday, rest from that farm does not start accruing until races open for Week 1 Monday. Because Week 1 Monday is a weird "double" week in that you get to enter for it a week before it happens, so rest accrues slightly slower (think every other day instead of every day) until Week 1 Monday races actually happen. You will know if rest is accruing because when the Day Rate is being charged, rest is being counted.
--That said, sometimes The Steward forgets to turn off the Day Rate during the 7 days of breeding at the end of the year, so she will turn it off during the 7 Days of entering for Week 1, and because of that, rest actually accrues during the breeding period, but not that second week. We try to avoid this scenario, however, because it's just plain confusing.
The time in between SIM years is called The Break.
During the break, you are not charged the $5 day rate for horses.
What Happens During the Break?
-The first week of break is for breeding. Foals are almost always due one week after the last race day at noon Pacific (this is a Friday by American/European time). Very rarely the due date will be extended to a Saturday.
-Minutes after the foal due date, the year turns over. During this 30-minute long process:
---Horses age one year
---20-25 stallions become infertile for the new season (insured stallions excluded)
---200-300 mares become barren for the new season (insured mares excluded)
---150-200 2 year old horses buck their shins (are injured) prior to the new season (insured horses excluded)
-Either 2 days or 9 days after the year turnover, depending on if it is a long or short break, the new year begins. Races, training, and the Triple Crown Trail contest all start at the same time.
What You Can Do During the Break
-During the break you can breed mares - halfway through the break they age and then you are breeding a new group of foals
-You can retire horses and stand stallions
-You can sell/ship/buy/retire/geld/pension horses
What You Cannot Do During Break
-Post articles
-Enter races
-Train horses in any way
Rest/
Horses do not rest over the break, so if you run Week 16, the 2 weeks between races rule still applies and you should run Week 2.
Resting over the short break is pretty straight forward, but sometimes people forget the extra week in between during the long break. This week still counts as a zero week, in that rest does not happen during this week. Thus, if you ship your horse to a farm right after results on Week 16 Friday, rest from that farm does not start accruing until races open for Week 1 Monday. Because Week 1 Monday is a weird "double" week in that you get to enter for it a week before it happens, so rest accrues slightly slower (think every other day instead of every day) until Week 1 Monday races actually happen. You will know if rest is accruing because when the Day Rate is being charged, rest is being counted.
--That said, sometimes The Steward forgets to turn off the Day Rate during the 7 days of breeding at the end of the year, so she will turn it off during the 7 Days of entering for Week 1, and because of that, rest actually accrues during the breeding period, but not that second week. We try to avoid this scenario, however, because it's just plain confusing.