Time for Fabman to pick your brains.

I raced two horses today. All things being equal, they raced absolutely awful. I mean, really bad. One got claimed so I won't concern myself with that one although the performance was troubling.

My horse Tornado was set on the same settings and in the same class as two recent previous wins. Same jockey, same instructions, same meds...and....was straight 100's for todays race. Now todays race went 4/5ths of a second faster than his previous win. That's 4 lengths, not the 27 he got beat by today with a speed rating in the mid 60's as opposed to 90 he won at.

What gives Experts?

Thanks.
Brad
Fabman Farms

[Showtime Stables]

I don't know if I qualify as an expert at DD but after almost 2000 races I'm certainly an expert on this inconsistency.

It is by far the most frustrating part of this game and makes a mockery of adds and instructions etc by relegating racing and the overall challenge of the game to an almost unplayable and unpalatable level of randomness at times.

There is too much of a gap between the consistent performers and the rest. The consistent horses run for weeks at top levels with maybe a one race dip every 6 or 7 races whilst the rest seem to perform on the flick of a switch, on, off, on, off ad infinitum.

[Cybertooth]

When the jockeys biorhythm is in a negative cycle, and the horses bio is negative as well...you get a double negative effect in the race performance. Give the horse an extra days rest after the race, then switch to his next favorite jockey and give McKay a break from the horse.

If this does not work, fire the jockey and shoot the horse.

[Fabman Farms]

If an occasional off day is built into the sim, I wouldn't have a real problem with that per se. In my short time here, I haven't seen that before and I was wondering if that was part of the game. Some days we don't feel like going to work. Some days horses don't feel like running.

It just seemed that these two were set up with practically best case scenarios and I got instead, two complete dud races. Watching them both back thru the field like they had not been out of the barn in a month, I figured it was time to ask questions.

[Coachrich Stables]

I have to disagree with the resident expert, and say this is exactly what makes the game realistic. Horses as well as jockeys have good and bad cycles. As cyber suggested if you catch both on the downturn, you're in for trouble.

Also, look closer at Tornado's past performances and you'll see that a clunker every 5 or 6 races fits right into the pattern. Granted, today was his worst race, but not by much. Note the Sept 16 effort with a 71 SR and beaten by 22 lengths.

It's all part of the game

Coachrich

[Showtime Stables]

Actually I'll modify my post a little.

When I say it's by far and away the most frustrating part of the game, I should have said it's the only frustrating part.

Didn't want anyone thinking I didn't like the game per se.

I respect Coach's views a lot. However I still think it's too much like tick-tock clockwork to be realistic in my opinion.

[Phyl Farm Inc.]

I owned Tornado for awhile and he was one horse that would do that to me very often. He was very frustrating at times but at other times a delight. I guess you'd say I know exactly what you're talking about. Ask Thunder some day how annoyed that horse made me at times. I guess it's all part of racing. Good Luck with him...

[Thunder Downunder]

If there was gambling involved in this game, I would suspect that we have a sinister doping ring in operation.

But seriously, I believe Cyber is on the right track. I have found a lot of the horses like variety in their regular trains, in their workouts and in their races, otherwise they will put in those unexplainable runs. The champs (Jump Street, Pension Plan, Hopped Up, Rocket Ship etc.) don't seem to worry about variety though and that makes it tough to compete against them on the same level.

I am babysitting Eating Dust Stables' top performers while he is away on vacation and there is one that was rating low-mid 90's consistently. I gave it a couple of workouts and raced it twice and the best rating I can get is mid-60's. The other horses in my stable don't seem to mind me training them but this #!&#&!@! just won't perform for me even with the same set-up. There are factors to this game that I don't like, but then again "Life wasn't meant to be easy".

[Windy Crest]

The other big hurdle I have is horses who consistantly trial well, but can't seem to put it on the track, even with same ads, same meters, same jockey, same distance--they trial at fantastic numbers, put them in a race, and I can about count on last place. Even tho if they were running up to their capabilities, the could have easily walked away with a win. Those I just can't figure at all. Everything is there--I just need to find that last key to putting it into a race rather than a test.

[Cannorth Stables]

Realistic horse racing here @ DD's downs or what?

Lately, there has been several horses that have required a major overhaul with abbs.
This is on horses that have been doing okay with wo's and @ the track for a number of races with coming in the top 3 positions, and more so coming in 1st.

These same horses refuse to even run decently with those same abbs @ the track as previously or in their wo's.
I removed the abbs entirely for their races @ the track and now they are placing firsts.
The wo's with ALL the tested abbs is run in decent times, therfore, one would think that these are the preferences to go with @ the track.

I guess I learned something NEW again. Now with all the abbs removed, some of these horses are doing okay again. Where as, when the abbs are applied again as before with their best times, it's as if they have weights tied to their feet. They refuse to make any decent time with the previous selected abbs, which they had made good time on. Seems to get more realistic by the minute here.

Right on, now we have a head game going on. Trying to figure out the horses abb requirement changes. It's sooooooooo challenging, but we enjoy every moment of it, or should I say, near every moment of it. lol

As Cyber also mentioned above, after giving time off for some horses, which were doing good, on the same abbs, are at, or nearly at their previous performances @ the track. It seems like that there are many different scenarios that change over time for some horses.


Is it that even the horse abb preferences change after a period of time?

A live & learn situation.


Cheers

[Windy Crest]

Gotta wonder-I know they change with age, I've had some get faster, some slower, never thought to change the adds on them and see if that was it. I do have a few that seem to run best with nothing on them at all, but not many.