The Enormous Mixer/Harness Overhaul

[Chris Everett]

The sale is nice but im pretty sure access for it is going to be null for me because the timing frankly sucks for me Otherwise im pretty glad for the additions to the mixers all the same.

[April Eddy]

I'm sure this is a really stupid question but... exactly where will these horses be offered for sale on Saturday and Sunday? Will they be on the regular sales page? Do we just randomly look for them throughout those days???

[The Steward]

Good question - they will be on the sales page. They will have names like Appy 39482034984

[J K Rowling]

moved down to 4 per day instead of 5

But I want all of them

[Laura Cameron]

and will range in quality from "claimer" to "wow" level

Respectfully: if the goal is to actually improve/diversify these breeds (and that may not be the goal, if not, fair enough) why not release (a small number of) actually good horses? I can only speak for Pacers, but I have scary good Pacers that can't win a NW2. Wows break their maiden if they're lucky, and I don't even race my wings unless their workouts indicate they're closer to being wows - even then, they can't compete. Anything lower than wings, forget about it.

Buying presumably unpedigreed horses that have a 60-80% or higher chance of never even winning a maiden race is honestly not that attractive to me.

[J K Rowling]

I agree with Laura. I'm just going to BS all of them and grab the wows. No point in creating claimers when they're just going to go straight back to AJ.

[The Steward]

and will range in quality from "claimer" to "wow" level

Respectfully: if the goal is to actually improve/diversify these breeds (and that may not be the goal, if not, fair enough) why not release (a small number of) actually good horses? I can only speak for Pacers, but I have scary good Pacers that can't win a NW2. Wows break their maiden if they're lucky, and I don't even race my wings unless their workouts indicate they're closer to being wows - even then, they can't compete. Anything lower than wings, forget about it.

Buying presumably unpedigreed horses that have a 60-80% or higher chance of never even winning a maiden race is honestly not that attractive to me.

The horses will all have sires, so they will only be half unpedigreed
The goal is definitely not to improve the breeds, but definitely to diversify the breeds. They should all nick interestingly with currently existing lines and the other new lines being inputted.
With all the new claiming races and new circuits, hopefully your scary good Pacers will be able to win NW2... that's definitely a goal.

[Laura Cameron]

Cool, thanks for the reply. If they're partially pedigreed then I'm in for some fillies, even if they're claimers!

Glad to see something being done about the racing situation too. IMO a wings horse should be able to win a MSW within ~5 tries and then earn money in claimers, at least...not run out of the money in maiden claimers as 3yos+ like they usually do now.

[The Steward]

Cool, thanks for the reply. If they're partially pedigreed then I'm in for some fillies, even if they're claimers!

Glad to see something being done about the racing situation too. IMO a wings horse should be able to win a MSW within ~5 tries and then earn money in claimers, at least...not run out of the money in maiden claimers as 3yos+ like they usually do now.

I think it will take a few years (2?) to sort out, but it will get sorted.

I also wanted to add "As for the claimers, there's a method to the madness" just to be a little mysterious!

[Laura Smith]

Will the horses be bloodstock-able, or will the BSA give a "I can't tell you about this horse" comment?
I think it would be honestly more useful to not be able to BSA them -- nicer if everyone has an equal chance; stops people from cherrypicking the nice ones (if you have the cash to check through a bunch of horses until you find four wows, why not wait and buy a nice one that someone pinhooks later?) and honestly, from the perspective of someone who's likely to work at least a 14-hour shift each day horses are posted... I wouldn't mind if there might be something decent left by Monday.

That said, I will probably still keep and breed even the ones that can't outrun me. The divisions I race in are mostly so inbred I expect three-eyed horses to start appearing in SIMages any day now. Diversity is very welcome.

[Laura Cameron]

I also think it would be nice if they were non-bloodstock-able. I think the BSA sometimes takes a lot of the fun and excitement out of things like this. Plus I won't be sitting around all weekend waiting to pounce on the latest batch, either.

[Louise Bayou]

Game Patriot...... Squeee

[Regina Moore]

They should all nick interestingly with currently existing lines and the other new lines being inputted.

I also wanted to add "As for the claimers, there's a method to the madness" just to be a little mysterious!

Geez, just when I'd decided I wasn't going to buy any of these horses -- I got nothing but awful horses from the last two "seed horses" sales -- you go and make it sound intriguing, and that I might miss out on something important.

[Nick Gilmore]

That said, I will probably still keep and breed even the ones that can't outrun me. The divisions I race in are mostly so inbred I expect three-eyed horses to start appearing in SIMages any day now. Diversity is very welcome.

[Kaine Saracen]

New for Y38:
-Pacer circuit in Australia
-Trotter circuit in Belgium
-Sam Austin Park with lots of various "needed" races that had been sponsored this year
-New Mixer claiming track debuting (like Mixer Alaska - this doesn't include Harness)

Does the overhaul include bringing harness racing distances into line with events outside the US since we'll now have tracks here or will it continue to be a solely US perspective?

Standardbred racehorses compete in two gaits, pacing and trotting, and trotters may enter pacing events, but not vice versa. Pacers contest 80% to 90% of Australian harness races. Races are conducted in an anti-clockwise direction generally over distances from 1,609 metres (1 mile) to 2,650 metres, although some races such as the A G Hunter Cup are run over longer distances.

Oh and will the sires update include Australian sires as well?