Almighty Farms II: The Race is On

[kingfc22]

I was referring more to the point that you made about seeing the same horses over and over.

[thealmighty]

Gotcha.

[thealmighty]

01-02-04: Race 3- Ursulo

Stat Leaders
	Ursulo	Hylas de Suede	Dauphin Des Vieux
Speed	1/13	2/13	3/13
Endur	1/13	2/13	3/13
Accel	2/13	1/13	3/13
Jockey	3/13	2/13	1/13
Conditions
Partly Cloudy		Ground is firm.
Bookies		Choice		Betting Lines	Odds
L. Dominguez		Uptown		Ursulo	5/1
P. Ricardo		Ursulo		Hylas de Suede	9/1
				Big Jump	10/1
My Wager		Amount	Type
		$200,000	Show
	Ursulo comes out of the gate like a whirlwind and takes the lead immediately. However, he can't sustain and drops to second at the 2nd turn. Keeping the pace right behind Hylas de Suede. At the third turn, Ursulo has dropped to 5th, boxed in on the rail, Dauphin De Vieux leading the pack. DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME, with Dauphin and Uptown neck and neck, Ursulo accelerating towards the lead. Ursulo coming on, putting on a gallant push. It's Dauphin De Vieux and Ursulo, Ursulo and Dauphin. And at the wire, Ursulo seems to tire and Dauphin De Vieux wins by a neck.
Race:
WINNER		Dauphin De Vieux
Race Statistics:		Time	Per Km	Almighty Gains
		2:41	1:01	$4,614
My Wager		Amount
Outcome		$232,783
Jockey Race Notes:		Lacked stamina to stay with leaders. Lacked speed down the stretch.

[thealmighty]

Not bad, as Ursulo was up against some 3 year olds, also, in this race.

Another point to kingfc's remark, the after race jockey comments, so far, are the same few remarks over and over. Hope they broaden their horizons in the future.

[thealmighty]

01-02-04: Race 4- Imperatrice

Stat Leaders
	Imperatrice	Zanzara Joy	Dark Cowgirl
Speed	1/14	2/14	3/14
Endur	1/14	2/14	5/14
Accel	4/14	5/14	2/14
Jockey	1/14	3/14	2/14
Conditions
Partly Cloudy		Ground is firm.
Bookies		Choice		Betting Lines	Odds
L. Dominguez		Dark Cowgirl		Dark Cowgirl	5/2
P. Ricardo		Zanzara Joy		Zanzara Joy	9/2
				Imperatrice	37/1
My Wager		Amount	Type
		$200,000	Show
	Imperatrice breaks fast to the lead but drops back just as quickly into third on the outside. She drops to fourth around the 2nd turn, Zanzara Joy leading. Into the 3rd turn, Imperatrice running fifth makes her move, going into second. AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME, Zanzara Joy leading by 2 lengths, Imperatrice coming on strong on the outside. She is one length back and still moving closer, coming up even with Zanzara Joy. Zanzara maintains the pace but Imperatrice cannot. Zanzara Joy holds the lead for the win with Imperatrice 1/2 a length back.
Race:
WINNER		Zanzara Joy
Race Statistics:		Time	Per Km	Almighty Gains
		2:43	1:02	$9,576
My Wager		Amount
Outcome		$445,083
Jockey Race Notes:		Horse was nervous before the race. Lacked speed down the stretch.

[thealmighty]

Thought we should have won that one, given the stats were better than Zanzara Joy in all 3 main categories. Bummer.

[MrBug708]

Ouch

Can't win them all though....

[thealmighty]

01-02-04: Race 5- Feline

Stat Leaders
	Feline	Dauphin Des Vieux	Etoile des Hautvents
Speed	6/16	1/16	4/16
Endur	1/16	2/16	3/16
Accel	1/16	5/16	2/16
Jockey	4/16	1/16	3/16
Conditions
Partly Cloudy		Ground is good. (whatever that means)
Bookies		Choice		Betting Lines	Odds
L. Dominguez		Zanzara Joy		Dauphin Des Vieux	4/1
P. Ricardo		Dauphin Des Vieux		Zanzara Joy	9/2
				Feline	11/1
My Wager		Amount	Type
		$50,000	Show
	Feline breaks out cleanly and moves to the front but drops back around the 1st turn, running third. At the 2nd turn, she is in fourth in a big group, but not in jail on the rail. As the leaders near turn three, Feline takes the lead from Zanzara Joy but Zanzara regains in turn 3 with Feline back to third. AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME, Zanzara's lead shrinking with every meter as Feline begins her charge. It's Feline by a neck. Feline by a length. Feline stretching her lead as they close on the finish. Noone can catch her today, and it's Feline at the wire, coming in two lengths ahead for the win.
Race:
WINNER		Feline
Race Statistics:		Time	Per Km	Almighty Gains
(Almighty Farms)		2:41	1:02	$23,895
My Wager		Amount
Outcome		$76,322
Jockey Race Notes:		Same Shit as always. Stamina, speed, blah blah, but then she won, so who knows.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

Another point to kingfc's remark, the after race jockey comments, so far, are the same few remarks over and over. Hope they broaden their horizons in the future.

I would expect this part to be fairly repetitious. The jockey's comment is usually fairly short blurp, just for notice.

As an aside, great start so far.

[thealmighty]

daed, do you think/know if the comments mean anything? The manual, such as it is (shit) says to pay attention to the jockey comments to learn about the horse, but what is there to learn when each horse and every race, the jock says the same thing?

It's a great start, yes, but if these horses were outperforming mine each race, I would be in serious trouble later, as these are all Listed level- the lowest. If I can't win now, I won't ever, I should think, unless the race AI is totally random...in which case there is no point to my effort, anyway.

[thealmighty]

01-02-04: Race 6- Beautiful Ladonia

Stat Leaders
	Beautiful Ladonia	Joe	Grand Rebel
Speed	1/13	2/13	4/13
Endur	1/13	2/13	3/13
Accel	1/13	3/13	2/13
Jockey	3/13	8/13	4/13
Conditions
Partly Cloudy		Ground is Firm
Bookies		Choice		Betting Lines	Odds
L. Dominguez		Joe		Joe	6/5
P. Ricardo		Joe		Beautiful Ladonia	19/2
				Grand Rebel	11/1
My Wager		Amount	Type	None of the others are even close to her league.
		$2,000,000	Win
	Beautiful Ladonia breaks poorly out of the gate but recovers to move into second around turn one. She stays there down the straight but falters in the turn, falling to fourth. Beautiful Ladonia moves up steadily, into second into turn 3 behind Grand Rebel. AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME, Grand Rebel, Beautiful Ladonia and Joe, 1-2-3, neck and neck as they see the finish in sight. And there goes B. Ladonia, on a tear, into the lead, stretching it out to 2 1/2 lengths. B. Ladonia starts to tire, but Joe won't catch her as they cross the line, she wins by one length.
Race:
WINNER		Beautiful Ladonia
Race Statistics:		Time	Per Km	Almighty Gains
(Almighty Farms)		2:43	1:02	$40,930
My Wager		Amount
Outcome		$20,704,910
Jockey Race Notes:		Took lead and outran others. Quickly well placed out of the wind behind leaders.

[thealmighty]

Guess that takes care of my dwindling money supply for a bit.

Don't understand how a horse can have #1 statistical advantage in every major area and still go off at almost 10/1 odds (but I'll take the dough). BTW, I still would have had about $500k left if she had not won, so I thought it was worth the bet for the odds given.

[klayman]

nice

Edit: I guess one should not place too much faith in the bookies in this game, eh?

[thealmighty]

Here is a comparison of the times registered for each horse.

Horse	Time
Favorite	2:40
Hold	2:42
Ursulo	2:41
Imperatrice	2:43
Feline	2:41
Beautiful Ladonia	2:43

Rather surprising to me as Favorite would seem to be the least likely to have the best time. Could it have anything more to do with the jockey, as Favorite is the only horse whose jockey said they "worked well together" or anything along those lines?

[kingfc22]

Ladonia had outstanding odds. What a payday.

[thealmighty]

Bookies and tout sheets are pretty useless.

One thing I have now seen that I didn't even think about... Racing a horse drops their form in the tank and I have no idea how long it will take to get it back before you can legitimately run them again.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

daed, do you think/know if the comments mean anything? The manual, such as it is (shit) says to pay attention to the jockey comments to learn about the horse, but what is there to learn when each horse and every race, the jock says the same thing?

The comments remind me of the comments field you see in the Past Performance section for each race. If and when he reads this again, QS can probably give a more definite comment as to whether or not they do and, if they do, what they might mean.

One reason that they might all sound the same at the moment might because of the type of horses you bought and their age. With your financial windfall, you might consider buying up a horse with entirely different characteristics for cheap - possibly even just claim one - just to see the comment field. HOPEFULLY, that will generate some different reactions from the jockeys.

[Petey]

I have been following this thread for a while now. Good read. It appears to me that your money worries are over. Just run good young horses against low level competition and rake in the big wagers. Hopefully as your horses run with more competitive horses we may begin to see some of the finer points of the game. (if there really are finer points...)

Anyways thanks for keeping this going Almighty.

[nfg22]

I dont see how ladonia had better stats it shows that she has 1/13 for everything and that she also has the worst jockey.

[thealmighty]

Stat Leaders
	Beautiful Ladonia	Joe	Grand Rebel
Speed	1/13	2/13	4/13
Endur	1/13	2/13	3/13
Accel	1/13	3/13	2/13
Jockey	3/13	8/13	4/13

nfg22, the 1/13 means she has the best rating in that category out of the 13 horses entered in the race. So, she was the top rated horse in all 3 main categories, plus her jockey was the 3rd highest rated of the 13.

[thealmighty]

Thanks again for reading and participating to all concerned.

[thealmighty]

01-09-04 (mm-dd-yy)

---> Work has been completed on the pool we started long ago. This improvement should raise fame and reduce the time a horse cannot train after an injury.

---> I believe we have now completed all infrastructure and improvements available in the game.

---> The value of our horses jumped from $7,374,000 to $11,009,740 with the start of their racing careers. WOW.

---> The dietician dropped by for one of his two visits each year. He made some recommendations to the feed of our horses. Update will follow shortly.

---> With actually posting some gains (winnings) from races, our fame shot up to 61, We are now in the rarefied air of 60th place out of 151.

[thealmighty]

01-09-04: Feed / Health

The nutrition dude came as mentioned and he fixed one of the 6 food groups for each horse. He will not be back for 6 months (07/03/04), so we need to tweak each week to find as many correct settings as we can. The status of our horses are as follows:

1. Ursulo- 5 grass
   • small weight loss
   • slight appetite loss
   • uneven recovery
   • temporary nervousness
   • slight diarrhea

2. Favorite- 1 grass
   
   • weight loss
   • bulimic tendencies
   • poor recovery
   • moody
   • slight diarrhea
3. Imperatrice- 5 beet
   
   • small weight loss
   • bulimic
   • uneven recovery
   • moody
   • slight diarrhea
4. Beautiful Ladonia- 1 hay
   
   • small weight loss
   • good appetite
   • poor recovery
   • temporary nervousness
   • slight diarrhea
5. Hold- 1 grass
   
   • small weight increase
   • bulimic
   • apoplexy
   • nervous
   • diarrhea
6. Feline- 5 hay
   
   • small weight increase
   • good appetite
   • apoplexy
   • temporary nervousness
   • slight diarrhea

[thealmighty]

01-09-04: Feed / Health (cont.)

As mentioned previously, there are 8 types of feed that are mixed together to get the right combination for each particular horse: grass, hay, straw, beets, carrots, oats, bran and cattle cakes (whatever the hell that is). Each type can be combined from 1 to 5 parts to make up the overall mix that a particular horse needs to be fully healthy and train at 100%. If my math is correct, that gives you 390,625 possible combinations to try.

The problem is that you don't know how much of each type to use. There is a dietician who comes a couple times a year. Each appointment he has, he will give you the correct amount of one of the 8 feed types, so it could take 4 years to get the right mix.

Now, we see all 6 horses have a weight type disorder and some degree of diarrhea. 2 have good appetite, both of which had HAY as the feed that the diet dude fixed. With some work, tweaking and a good bit of luck, we can figure out how to fix at least some of these problems so training will be at a higher level.

More to come.

[MrBug708]

I like how hold can't keep anything in, yet gains weight. That horse sounds like a mess....

[thealmighty]

I see what you mean, Bug. Just one more thing that makes no sense.

I tried to look at combinations tonight to see if I could see a relationship between certain foods and a specific illness. Guess what?

Yeah, I see no correlation at all. I mean, diarrhea and bran, sounds like a possibility, but I could see nothing, so I'll just blow it off and hope for the best until the diet dude returns.

[Lokugh]

Just one note about times. Jockeys (in real life...which I realize this game only vaguely resembles) have a huge affect on race times. Horses do not run flat out in races. If the jockey starts their final push coming off the turn, rather than at the top of the stretch (a difference of maybe thirty or forty yards) that can alter the time by two to three seconds, all things being equal.

If a horse is leading by several lengths and does not need to make a final push down the stretch, just needs to hold off contenders, they will run a slower race as well. I think that is what happened to Ladonia.

Lokugh

[thealmighty]

Lokugh, excellent information, thanks. Now we just have to hope the programmers tried for reality in some aspects, since so many others are unfathomable.

[thealmighty]

01-09-04: Race Day

I have now noticed that each horse has a different schedule of possible races based on level and amount of gains accrued. So, from now on, there may be race days when only some, or even just one, of the horses run. Like today.

Horse	Feline		Jockey	Stephan Risdale
Track	Aqueduct		Fame	41
Race	Emperor Circuit		Attitude	Firm
Distance	1600m		Control	76
Purse	$11,430		Experience	38
Declarations*	13812>28569		Salary	$720
Ages	2-3 year olds
Turf	sand
* - interval of gains to qualify for race
Horse	Beautiful Ladonia		Jockey	Kelly Escude
Track	Aqueduct		Fame	46
Race	Emperor Circuit		Attitude	Calm
Distance	1600m		Control	73
Purse	$26,340		Experience	43
Declarations*	32251>77006		Salary	$930
Ages	2-3 year olds
Turf	sand
* - interval of gains to qualify for race

I know these are easy win races with pitiful purses, but these two had the best form still after last weeks races, so I decided to let them go ahead and stretch their legs a bit.

[thealmighty]

01-09-04: Race 1- Feline

Stat Leaders
	Feline	Fleur Vallee Sombre	Emil du Brauda
Speed	1/15	6/15	2/15
Endur	1/15	7/15	3/15
Accel	1/15	3/15	14/15
Jockey	2/15	3/15	10/15
Conditions
Partly Cloudy		Ground is Light
Bookies		Choice		Betting Lines	Odds
L. Dominguez		Feline		Feline	5/2
P. Ricardo		Feline		Fleur Vallee Sombre	8/1
				Emil du Brauda	23/2
My Wager		Amount	Type
		$100,000	Win
	Feline zooms out of the #8 chute and bolts to the lead immediately with Emil du Brauda a distant second. She cannot hold the pace, however, and is caught by Outside around the first turn. Fleur Vallee Sombre challenges Feline into the final turn with Outside fading fast. AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME, Feline moves out, charging forward, asking for a challenge. 2 lengths. 3 lengths in front, then 4 as she leaves the field in her wake. It's Feline by 5 at the wire, Fleur Vallee Sombre in 2nd with Leader a very distant 3rd.
Race:
WINNER		Feline
Race Statistics:		Time	Per Km	Almighty Gains
(Almighty Farms)		1:19	0:49	$5,715
My Wager		Amount
Outcome		$284,682
Jockey Race Notes:		A bit nervous before the start but calmed down before the race.

[nfg22]

Holy Crap a 49 second Kilometer? Thats very fast.

[thealmighty]

nfg22, I don't know how fast it is in the real world, but remember it was a much shorter race, so I assume that accounts for the speed. Or... the game engine is screwed up in one more area.

[thealmighty]

01-09-04: Race 2- Beautiful Ladonia

Stat Leaders
	Beautiful Ladonia	Our	Superman
Speed	1/15	3/15	2/15
Endur	1/15	14/15	6/15
Accel	1/15	4/15	14/15
Jockey	1/15	3/15	7/15
Conditions
Partly Cloudy		Ground is sticky.
Bookies		Choice		Betting Lines	Odds
L. Dominguez		B. Ladonia		B. Ladonia	3/1
P. Ricardo		B. Ladonia		Belles Moon	9/1
				Superman	10/1
My Wager		Amount	Type
		$100,000	Win
	Beautiful Ladonia clears the gate first and charges into the lead with Cold in second and Party Favor third. Through the first turn, it's Beautiful Ladonia by a length and looking fresh with Superman making a run at her. Into the back stretch she increases her lead to a full 2 lengths with Superman fading and Our closing. Cold hits his stride in the 2nd turn but can't close the gap. AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME, Beautiful Ladonia maintains her lead, no, she stretches to 3 lengths at the wire with Cold and Our 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Race:
WINNER		Beautiful Ladonia
Race Statistics:		Time	Per Km	Almighty Gains
(Almighty Farms)		1:19	0:49	$13,170
My Wager		Amount
Outcome		$284,136
Jockey Race Notes:		The horse is quite hot-tempered and difficult to ride. I managed to steady her but it was taxing.

[nfg22]

The thing is per KM should not change, unless speed is high and acceleration is low in which case the time should be higher for a shorter race. 49 seconds a kilometer is like what 70 KM/h ? I didnt do trhe math just estimating, that should be like 40-45 mph, is that the speed of normal horses?

[korme]

I'm now caught up and following, thealmighty. I love the reports.

[thealmighty]

nfg22, I would think per KM would go down with a shorter race as you don't need to hold so much in reserve so the horse can run faster without tiring as much. Of course, even at that, 49 does sound out of whack, but I don't know.

Thanks for reading, Shorty.

[thealmighty]

2 more problems in the game I have found:

1. there was another horse named Ursulo in a race I ran. Ursulo is the name of one of mine...shouldn't be 2 of them. Too small of a name file. And, btw, all these French names are a bit much. If you wanted to ship around the world, at least get name files for the other countries and not just add a few words into the file you have.
2. I have also noticed that there are horses in the race with up to 16 races under their belt. That would be OK, except they are all 2 year olds and it is only january. Horses can't run til they are two, so how can a 2 year old have run in 16 races in half a month.

Oh, well. I will continue until (if) there comes some problem that is more than just poor planning/game writing, or I come across some other type of game killer.

[Lokugh]

Originally Posted by nfg22

The thing is per KM should not change, unless speed is high and acceleration is low in which case the time should be higher for a shorter race. 49 seconds a kilometer is like what 70 KM/h ? I didnt do trhe math just estimating, that should be like 40-45 mph, is that the speed of normal horses?

Up to a point, this is correct. Just like a runner can run faster over forty yards than over 20 yards (if you look at an athletes 20 yard time, it is usually slower than his 40 time divided by two).

However, that point is Quarterhose distance and really does not come into play in thoroughbred racing. In general, the longer the race, the slower the pace per mile (or kilometer). Here are some examples: The world record for the 5 furlong distance is 54.1 seconds (this is as close as horses get to a kilometer race...it is .625 miles as opposed to the .621 miles which is what a kilometer is). The record for the 8 furlong (one mile) distance is 1:32.2 (a horse you never heard of in the '60s). The record for 10 furlongs (~2 kilometers...Kentucky Derby distance...set by Spectacular Bid, but not at the Derby) is 1:57.8. The record for the 12 furlong distance is 2:24 (Secretariat at the Belmont).

Those average speeds, in meters per second:

5 furlongs = 18.58 m/s
8 furlongs = 17.45 m/s
10 furlongs = 16.97 m/s
12 furlongs = 16.76 m/s (Secretariat was a damned stud of a horse though...he could have run even faster in the Belmont but was winning by 31 lengths at the time and didn't need to).

For comparison:

45 mph = 20.11 m/s
40 mph = 17.88 m/s

A thoroughbred horse can hit 45 mph for short distances, but not over any real length. And, yeah, 49 seconds for a kilometer is faster than world record speed (by at least four seconds)...but then we knew this game was fishy sometimes.

Lokugh

[Lokugh]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

[*]I have also noticed that there are horses in the race with up to 16 races under their belt. That would be OK, except they are all 2 year olds and it is only january. Horses can't run til they are two, so how can a 2 year old have run in 16 races in half a month.

Yeah...I noticed you had a horse running two races in one day at one point (he raced against both of your horses on the first race day, I think). That would tend to rack up the races< g >.

Lokugh

[thealmighty]

Damn, Lokugh, would you please begin a rewrite of the coding for this game.

Seriously, I appreciate all your comments and insights very much. Keep it coming.

[thealmighty]

01-16-04: Race Day

Only one race for today, and it is the first steeplechase race I have entered. It will be one of many such races, however, as the number of possible flat-track races is somewhat small by itself.

Horse	Hold		Jockey	Gerald Grosjean
Track	Delaware		Fame	38
Race	Endurance Cup		Attitude	Calm
Distance	2200m		Control	79
Purse	$6,730		Experience	38
Declarations*	5308>11526		Salary	$640
Ages	2 year olds
Turf	sand
* - interval of gains to qualify for race

Don't know if a thoroughbred runs flat and steeplechase both, but they do in this game.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by Lokugh

12 furlongs = 16.76 m/s (Secretariat was a damned stud of a horse though...he could have run even faster in the Belmont but was winning by 31 lengths at the time and didn't need to).

I get goosebumps everytime I watch this race (I taped the ESPN Sports Century's Greatest special on Secretariat and another special on the Triple Crown).

Unfortunate victim: My girlfriend has to sit through my gushing everytime this comes on TV.

[Lokugh]

Originally Posted by daedalus

I get goosebumps everytime I watch this race (I taped the ESPN Sports Century's Greatest special on Secretariat and another special on the Triple Crown).

Unfortunate victim: My girlfriend has to sit through my gushing everytime this comes on TV.

It was an awesome race. War Admiral vs. Seabiscuit might be the greatest RACE of all time, but for sheer in-your-face dominance, nothing beats seeing Secretariat running all alone down the stretch, while the other horses are still in the final turn.

It is even a bigger in-your-face moment when you consider that in so doing, he didn't just beat Sham, then the only other horse ever to run a sub-2:00 race in the Derby (in losing to Secretariat) but he DEMOLISHED Sham. Sham and Secretariat ran head to head for the first six furlongs in 1:09. That's a winning race pace for a six furlong race most days, but it was just the first HALF of the Belmont (the WORLD RECORD for six furlongs is 1:06.6). Sham could not hold the pace, and ended up finishing dead last, some sixty lengths behind Secretariat...the same horse he had matched down the stretch in the Derby just five weeks earlier. Definitely goosebump time

Lokugh

PS: TheAlmighty...if only I could code, I might take a shot at it.

PPS: Yes, I do think Secretariat was the best horse ever to run...just barely beating out Man 'O War. He still holds the record at the Derby, Preakness and Belmont races. Only one other horse, besides Secretariat and Sham has run a sub-2:00 minute race at the Kentucky Derby (Monarchos in 2001) but it was still slower than Secretariat. No other horse has ever approached his time in the Belmont either (Easy Goer ran 2:26 in 1989).

Man 'O War ran in the Belmont in 1920...against one other horse...and won in 2:20, but the race was only 11 furlongs back then, not the 12 furlongs it is today (or was in 1973).

I will be interested to see how your horses do in the Derby, if this game has it.

[thealmighty]

I, too, have watched that SportsCentury episode- about 7 times. Better story, to me, than most any I have seen on a human subject.

As far as the Derby, or triple crown, for that matter, I won't know until my horses turn 3 next january (game time).

[JeffNights]

Not to get off track...but did anybody else get teary-eyed when "SportsCentury" did pieces on Secrateriat and then Alydar???

I know i did.

[thealmighty]

In some cosmic timing kind of thing, the Secretariat episode was on tonight at 7pm CST, and rerun at 10pm CST.

Guess what...I watched it both times.

[thealmighty]

Maybe not cosmic timing kind of thing, maybe Kentucky Derby week on ESPN Classic.

[thealmighty]

01-16-04: Race 1- Hold, steeplechase

Stat Leaders
	Hold	Tedynia d'ombree	Champagne Destiny
Speed	1/15	3/15	7/15
Endur	1/15	4/15	5/15
Accel	1/15	9/15	2/15
Jockey	1/15	9/15	4/13
Conditions
Partly Cloudy		Ground is Firm
Bookies		Choice		Betting Lines	Odds
L. Dominguez		Hold		Hold	3/1
P. Ricardo		Hold		Miami Count	13/1
				Tedynia	15/1
My Wager		Amount	Type
		$250,000	Win
	Hold breaks out cleanly and heads to the rail with Vanneau a Jour alongside. At the first jump, it's Hold by 1/2. At jump 2, Champagne Destiny moves into third. Hold leads by a length at jump 3, and now by 1/2 again at jump 4. The horses begin to bunch around jump 5 with Hold still ahead by a length, Generic Driver moving into second. Over the final hurdle, it's still Hold by a length, with Chief Magesty second and Indian Minur third. AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME, Grosjean putting the whip to use as Hold breaks out, leaving the field behind. He's 3 up, 4, 5 lengths and still more to give. It's Hold by 10 lengths at the wire, Miami Count in second place.
Race:
WINNER		Hold
Race Statistics:		Time	Per Km	Almighty Gains
(Almighty Farms)		2:32	1:09	$3,365
My Wager		Amount
Outcome		$876,482
Jockey Race Notes:		When I urged for more effort the horse didn't give it all. I thought he would be fresher at that point.

[thealmighty]

01-16-04 (mm-dd-yy)

---> Beautiful Ladonia has moved up in classification to Level III as a result of her latest race gains.

---> Fame is at 62. Still 60th place.

---> It appears that 2 weeks is all that may be necessary to regain most of the lost form a horse has after a race, so we may have more racing than I thought at first, though some horses, such as Favorite, for some reason, have few races they can enter at this time.

[thealmighty]

01-23-04: Race Day

Horse	Imperatrice			Jockey	Stephan Risdale
Track	Aqueduct			Fame	41
Race	Camelia Derby			Attitude	Firm
Distance	2200m			Control	76
Purse	$6,920			Experience	38
Declarations*	6947>12976			Salary	$720
Ages	2 year olds
Turf	sand
* - interval of gains to qualify for race.