What's New in Year 33

[The Steward]

Just a few small changes for Year 33, no real big deals:

1. Pensioning of stallions has been turned "off" for future breaks, just like injuries, so if your old guy makes it through the year you no longer have to worry about him becoming infertile during the breeding time. Also, the pensioning script now only happens to 13 year olds and up rather than 11 year olds and up.

2. Article Submissions: These will now be limited (automatically by the computer) to 4 per week. They will be reset at the end of each week. Thus, you can still make up to $80k a week but you can no longer make hundreds of thousands per week.

3. Because so many people have said they've "never" had a horse improve or decline as they age, we've slightly increased the number of horses this happens to per year with the hope that it won't just affect "big" (large) stables anymore and you can have even more hope that your HTT's will jump up, etc. Since so few people gallop after racing anyway, it may or may not be noticeable!

[Carolyn Eaton]

I'll generally regallop 2yo's - definitely makes me want to do that!

[Ara Davies]

I've said this before, but Alexei went from a "great gallop" in week 16 of his yearling year to "scary" in week 5 of his 2yo year so if that happened to another horse I'd be pretty stoked

Also having stallions stick around a bit longer is awesome since it gets really annoying when they keep being pensioned just about the time they've had enough crops to really show how good they are.

[Tammy Stawicki]

oh i have lots of examples of horses getting worse with age.

[Nena Olson]

oh i have lots of examples of horses getting worse with age.

Me too. I have horses who were wow yearlings and then wing 2yos... hate LOL

[Emily White]

Sad day on the article thing. It is a good rule, though. I guess my horses will have to step it up and actually make some dough now!

[Marzy Dotes]

Me too Emily! Though I'm in favor for the rule change for several reasons even though I did go on a bender last season or before of about $200,000. It's a pretty good compromise and hopefully people will be happy with it.

Keep writing though because I love reading your stuff! 8)

I have some horses downgrade. From yearlings to two (mostly during Y30 for some reason) and when they get older. I think I had one QH year 25 that went from HTT (yearling) to winged (two--when winged was the highest) and then back to HTT at five. That's not a reliable accounting b/c I don't gallop horses hardly at all after they're yearlings because usually at two you start seeing some indication of where they're at that point.

What I guess I see more often is horses that probably gallop the same but maybe grow into their gallops. Like wings who can't run out of a paper bag early on but are wonderful runners at about 3-5. That's been common in turf routers for me and a dirt router or two.

[Scott Eiland]

Something got left off the list! My salary for doing silly podcasts DOUBLED.

[Regina Moore]

I have some horses downgrade. From yearlings to two (mostly during Y30 for some reason)

That also happened to me and lots of other players -- because the gallop numbers got reset, as I recall. I just remember Em warning ahead of time that "a lot of players are going to be disappointed".

I try to gallop once a year to monitor the comment. Usually, no change ever takes place, but there's the occasional 5yo+ where I find it very useful, because the horse might go from wow to wings, or from wings to HTT. I treat it as a signal that I need to place the horse more carefully because he's probably not going to be as successful in higher quality races than in the past. It really is a great informative tool.

[Carole Hanson]

I once had a 2yo go from wow to wings as a 3yo. He's now a gelding and I shall re-gallop him this year.

[Marzy Dotes]

I think in Y30 I had three go from wow to winged (B Ball Dashin stayed at wow) out of four and for one of them a dirt miler, she still did very well including in stakes competition and was one of my favorites to race (and now breed). One CAH was stakes and went to wings, didn't really race well but seems to be a really good breeding mare with a nice yearling.

I do sometimes gallop at about five to see if they're winding down a bit. I've seen that a bit more often. But usually there's some signs of it already in racing too.

[Cleo Patra]

Something got left off the list! My salary for doing silly podcasts DOUBLED.

2 x $0 is still $0...

[Nena Olson]

Something got left off the list! My salary for doing silly podcasts DOUBLED.

2 x $0 is still $0...

If this had a like button, I'd use it

[Abe Froman]

1. Pensioning of stallions has been turned "off" for future breaks, just like injuries, so if your old guy makes it through the year you no longer have to worry about him becoming infertile during the breeding time. Also, the pensioning script now only happens to 13 year olds and up rather than 11 year olds and up.

While it isn't a big deal as I know his days are doomed, but if we are on break, and stallions shouldn't be pensioned on breaks, why did Dbacks just bite it?

[Nena Olson]

Tons of stallions have pensioned this week. Maybe they meant after foals were due.