Before You Buy

[Fern Thompson]

This has happened to me several times, so you'd think I would have learned by now......
Before you buy a stakes dirt router for $175,000, (and they go for much, much higher than this, and they're not worth it) remember there's a chance he will change in gallop. It just happened to me (again) so I have at least one allowance who probably won't even win in claims. If you're interested, message me in the game and I will sell him for you at a reasonable price. I'm sure after tonight's races, I'll see that another pricey router is now an allowance.
I will never buy another stakes router. Never.

On another note, I've had a few claimers and productive late bloomers who are now peak claimers and productives. Nice, isn't it?

[Mr. Lord Rich]

Hi Fern, I am assuming it is this one you bought off me during break. https://www.simhorseracing.com/horse.ph ... ID=1368156
He was definitely sold as a Peak stakes galloping horse. Very strange that he would decline to allowance so quickly.
His maiden race, he ran like a stakes, then he seems to have dropped off, but to be honest this happens a lot with stakes dirt routers.

You either get a Crayons who decides he wants to be a stakes horse but run like a super freak or you get something like this.

Please send the horse back to me and I will refund your 175K purchase price.

This is not something I would normally do, but this seems very out of the ordinary for a horse to improve y59 as a 2yo, peak as a stakes and then decline down to allowance.

Sorry this left a sour taste in your mouth, but i honestly think this is not normal and you just had bad luck with this one.

[Fern Thompson]

No, it is not your fault, Pete! I should have mentioned in my post that it was not the owner's fault at all. It was clear that he was a stakes galloper before you sold him. I've always enjoyed buying horses from you, so that is not the problem, but thank you for your generous offer.
I was really surprised that he changed gallops so suddenly. I'll see after tonight's race about the other horse. He has run a little better, so maybe he is still a stakes!

[Mr. Lord Rich]

The offer still stands, you can even keep him, just send me something you don't want 5yo or older for 175K so I can send to AJ.

[Fern Thompson]

Thank you, but I shouldn't do that. Honestly, it's not your fault at all, and $175,000 is a lot less than I've seen so many other routers sold for. The problem is in the game somehow. Too many times I've seen late bloomer solids or productives, (and yesterday, an allowance late bloomer DR filly who became a peak DR allowance filly before I retired her) become peak solids and productives.
Like with everything we do on here, I took a chance with the horse, and the Sim gods changed his gallop.

[Ash Tarasin]

I have seen horses do the normal decline after a few years on peak, but I can't recall having seen this happen in such a young horse. May it be that all horses naturally fluctuate a little between the years? They may peak and be good at three, worse at four, then better again at five? If your horse initially just managed to go above the stakes line and then had a very small decline, it may dip below the stakes threshold and becoming an allowance even if the actual change wasn't very big?

Too many times I've seen late bloomer solids or productives, (and yesterday, an allowance late bloomer DR filly who became a peak DR allowance filly before I retired her) become peak solids and productives.

I'm not perfectly sure I understand you correctly but the lower solids/productives/allowances/stakes doesn't always change gallop comment when they reach peak. They will mature and become better but they won't always manage to reach into the higher gallop comment.

[Fern Thompson]

Thanks for the feedback, Ash. I hadn't thought of them not improving in gallop. I was thinking they usually did. I learn something new every day!

[Sarah J]

I'm not perfectly sure I understand you correctly but the lower solids/productive/allowances/stakes doesn't always change gallop comment when they reach peak. They will mature and become better but they won't always manage to reach into the higher gallop comment.

I may be misunderstanding the point of the maturity comments. If I have a Allowance late bloomer, that then "peaks" out at allowance, why would that horse not just be allowance peak?

Cheers

[Ash Tarasin]

I may be misunderstanding the point of the maturity comments. If I have a Allowance late bloomer, that then "peaks" out at allowance, why would that horse not just be allowance peak?

Only the Steward knows exactly how it works, so this will be simplified, but I'll try to explain what has been known.
Our horses are carrying internal numbers related to their general quality, and these numbers are sorted into the different gallop comments.

Let's imagine these numbers are running from between 0-20, where 0 is not very good and 20 is a horse so good it may not be born yet. Let's also imagine that if a horse end up between 12 and 14 it will be an allowance.

Now, say you have three different allowance horses:

A) Allowance peak with internal number 14.0
B) Allowance Late Bloomer with internal number 13.7
C) Allowance Late Bloomer with internal number 13.8

Let's say that when the both late bloomers have matured they look like this:

A) Allowance peak with internal number 14.0
B) Allowance peak with internal number 14.0
C) Stakes peak with internal number 14.1

The both late bloomers increased their quality with the exact same amount, but Horse C reached into the stakes category and it may appear like it improved more than Horse B.

If we called Horse B a peak horse from the beginning because it didn't manage to reach the stakes category we would miss that this horse would also improve.

I think one of the reasons the three maturity measurements were introduced to the game was because a lot of late bloomers got discarded early, which drained the game of "genetical material", favouring horses with an early peak.

[Kelly Haggerty]

There is also more to this than the gallops. I have an allowance peak horse TR that just placed 2nd in a G2. He runs better and gets better figs than some of my stakes horses. And I have a 3yo TR that was born a freak LB and still has not bloomed as of mini-fest this year. Thus far she struggles to get the job done at all outside of owner-created maiden and NW2.