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Subject: SSHR Week 1523 Already?
Posted by: Madman
- Donor [21020124] Sun, Sep 22, 2002, 19:20
I've been in the process of moving, changing jobs, changing careers, dealing with family issues, etc., etc., and haven't been able to post much lately (a trend that unfortunately may continue into the near future to a lesser extent). But I have a chance to catch up now, so I thought I'd update everyone on how my barns are doing. Hopefully we aren't losing participation... checking out the few remaining Gurupies makes me worry a bit.
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1) State of the Sim ... what has been going on? A few months ago, Mike posted that big changes were coming... What has happened? Unless you follow the message boards (which I haven't), changes could just sneak through. Has anyone caught anything?
2) recent breeding ... Breeding last night, I just bred Crimson Prospetor in rotciv stables. Cost was 602 points for a Red Ransom x Mr. Prospector x Nijinsky II. I bred over failed homebred Silent Prince (who was a female despite mistaken name). She had only run 5 races, but I haven't had the time to acquire new glue to breed over, and was ancy to spend some points when I saw Mr. P. etc., all available for reasonable prices.
Amazingly, Crimson Prospector came up sharp! Hope that's a good omen -- it almost never happens to me.
3) Update on past breeding ... my homebred classes are starting to come together a little bit. I'm excited about the performance of Ice Princess a 3 year old female who has now gone undefeated in her last 3 starts. She still hasn't broken 100, but she has won easily, including a 98.8 on turf over 7f.
In general, Madman999 barn is really starting to look good. In addition to Ice Princess in the 3yo F class, it sports Enigmatic and Irish Green II and Red Summer as 2 year olds. Enigmatic was the horse bred by Chocolate Dump's pedigree and true to its name, it is hard to figure out. She won a $31K maiden in 83.7 this week, however, so there is some small hope for her.
Irish Green II has sported an 86.1, but finished second in 82.8 over 8f in an allowance race this week. That's still good enough to convince me that I can win some allowance races with this one... not to mention turf potential that is as yet untested.
Red Summer has suffered from neglect. Since I haven't been able to login regularly, getting horses Sharp has been a problem. I'm going to run him RTG this week, just to break the cycle. Hopefully he will have improved like most 2 year olds who have sat around for two months... if so, he's right in that same class.
None of these three are Kentucky hopefuls, but they are at least respectable. The newest homebred in that group -- High Priestess -- looks like a dud after one 1 race, but we can hope for better when we switch to turf or routes.
Rotciv barn is continuing to look sharp with both homebreds and claimers. Val's Desert continues to improve with age, sporting his 3rd consecutive 108+ speed rating, and snagging an open allowance win -- something that is hard to do in sprints...
Ms. Secretive has lost her tag, but has gone 100+ (my fastest homebred ever) and finished 2nd in an allowance race this week, so I'm hoping she'll eeke out a couple of more wins despite her bargain breeding.
$6 million dollar horse Black Tie Senor is respectable if you ignore his cost, hovering in the upper 70's the last two races. Saxon Dusk has only gone once, but cranked a nice 76 speed rating RTG in her first run. Etc., etc. The only bomb is Afternoon Storm, but breeding indicates he just may need a surface switch. Crossing fingers.
Madman4 and Madman3 are not faring so well. All of the reliable horses in Madman4 have stopped performing, for the most part. Agrippina is long gone, but replacement Steady State is still stuck on his maiden, although he has gone mid 80's. Key West is mediocre and running out of time. In short, this barn needs some attention and help.
Madman3 is only a bit better. Pleasant Gulch is a non-entity, as is Wood Nymph. In Quest of Gold showed some potential in the early summer before injury and he is now back and going to race this week. Etc., etc.
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All in all, I have no guaranteed aces in the making, although Ice Princess has potential. This game is challenging.
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Any interest in some sort of Gurupie race or races? I'd be willing to sponser something toward Novemberish / Decemberish if we can drum up some interest. I don't want to do it if it is just an intramural race between my own horses, however. The size, timing, and structure of the competition is open to suggestion. But I mentioned a long time ago that after I get settled a bit that I would be willing to do some of this sort of thing. Lo and behold, it may be happening. Unbelievable.
I'm not looking to pump $25-$50 into it unless we get some serious interest, but $5-$10 or something to sponsor an annual Gurupie Challenge race or something is more what I'm thinking. Unless SSHR participation from Gurupies explodes, that is ...
Well, I'm rambling now. Carry on. Comments appreciated.
(P.S. got an email from zgreat last week. Haven't heard back... I think he's gone from the game for good.) |
| 1 | cab
Donor
ID: 388182310
Mon, Sep 23, 2002, 10:25
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My participation in the racing has diminished a lot lately...Not because I am bored with it or anything but mainly because I am visiting the staes for a while :) and my access to computers is limited...In fact for the past few weeks I haven't entered many horses at and some stables I haven't looked at all for a while...I think I am going to cut back to 3 stables soon...
Whats been happenning in the sim?...I have no idea either!...A gurupie race sounds good, Madman!
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| 2 | Toral
Sustainer
ID: 2111201313
Mon, Sep 23, 2002, 10:57
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Good to hear from you cab.
I've been slogging away as usual. In fact I attained a silly minor goal of mine last week -- I have 4 stables and always wanted to have at least 20 horses running one week. Last week I made it on the nose, and had 5 winners, which ain't bad. Haven't posted because with the end of baseball, the start of football, and hockey coming up, this is the busiest time of year for fantasy ner -- enthusiasts.
Only thing interesting this week was Nail Endangering, a 3-year-old filly, turf router, who had been stalled moving up the allowance ladder. As a change-of-pace I tossed her on dirt. Vroooooooooom! 104, which would have won the stake at that distance last week. So I can try to win a stake with her.
Madman, I had that same idea about Gurupie races, so I'd be happy to pitch in $5-$10 as well. My idea is 2 juvenile stakes, one each for the guys and gals, to establish the 2-year-old Gurupie champions. Let's put our breeding skills (cough, cough, in my case) to the test annually.
Madman
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| 3 | Toral
Sustainer
ID: 2111201313
Mon, Sep 23, 2002, 10:59
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Actually, my name is Toral, not Madman.
Whatever
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| 4 | Madman
Donor
ID: 35316313
Tue, Sep 24, 2002, 19:40
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Two 2 year old races sounds good. Questions:
1) What type of conditions should they be? Allowance? Stakes? Turf? Dirt? Distance? 4 races would make it easier to cover all the bases ... but I'm not sure we have enough horses to stretch between 4 races ...
2) The Guru is from Connecticut, right? Should we have the races there?
3) When? I was thinking between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Or should we wait until the beginning of the 3 year old season and have it as a sort of "derby prep" in case we ever have one of those? Actually, we shouldn't probably do that. If we have a great horse, we'll need to be in graded stakes races when the horse is a 3 year old to pile up points. So I think this calendar year is better.
4) Name? Banner? I'm a bit worried about advertising for this site, as per previous arguments made by gurupies when discussing how to expand membership here. But we could ... ideas?
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| 5 | StLCards
Sustainer
ID: 23730222
Sat, Sep 28, 2002, 00:47
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CT sounds good to me. Allowance with no conditions listed. I think Stakes costs more to buy. 2yo. One male and one female would be preferrable for me. I have a couple of decent females. We could try 2yo maiden and breed some new horses, but you wouldn't know if you would get male or female and male would have an obvious advantage. Not sure about the advertising.
I have been pressed for time and haven't followed the message boards in a long while to know what they are like. I barely have time to enter horses. With this new points thing, I have a hard time drawing into races now. Haven't set the "train for" option in quite awhile so I barely have any horses sharp each week anyway. Saturday night is really my best time to enter horses, but of course the races aren't posted for the next week by then.
Last week's races were dismal for my stables :(
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| 6 | Madman
Donor
ID: 21020124
Sat, Sep 28, 2002, 09:37
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StlCards -- new points thing??? I've been out of it too. Has a new points thing happened since he changed the Activity Points calculation to when you login to your stable? Or is that the new one you are talking about?
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| 7 | StLCards
Sustainer
ID: 23730222
Sat, Sep 28, 2002, 13:34
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that's the one, where you get points by logging in. That gets me like 2pts a week. 1 when I enter horses and one when I check results. Going to watch the races now. Not much hope though.
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| 8 | StLCards
Sustainer
ID: 23730222
Sat, Sep 28, 2002, 13:40
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actually I only log in once a week since I use TJC to watch the races. Another terrible week. 3 horses and 3 way back.
Didn't choose any jockeys which makes a big difference. Hopefully I will set my train for this week before tomorrow.
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| 9 | Toral
Sustainer
ID: 2111201313
Sat, Sep 28, 2002, 14:19
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1. I'd like to see the races be stakes. Never bought a race -- how much extra are we talking about?
2. Distance -- Mamdna's idea so his pick. I like 6 f myself.
3. Surface -- let's list our best 2-year-olds by gender and best surface and see what seems like it will be the best race. Like if 0f the 4 of us in this thread, 3 have best fillies that prefer one surface and 1 the other, pick the former surface for the filly race -- idea: get the best matchup. I'm busy today but I'll try to list mine tomorrow.
I see this developing as 3 2-year-olds in each race from each person who has posted in this thread. Fletch doesn't seem to be raciong right now judging from the GSR standings but he appears, there's another 2 slots for him or something.
Toral
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| 10 | StLCards
Sustainer
ID: 23730222
Sat, Sep 28, 2002, 14:31
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I'll buy one race.
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| 11 | Madman
Donor
ID: 21020124
Sat, Sep 28, 2002, 16:38
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StlCards -- yeah, know what you mean. I've been having real trouble logging in myself. I just discovered something cool, however. If you click on the "Previous" screen link from the "My Stable" page, this counts as "logging in". This doesn't sound like a big-time discovery, but I think it is... Why? Because now I know the HTML to get my stables click points :) :)
The only other thing I need to know is how to set Excel on a 1 hour timer without messing everything else up. I could do that with a small VB program, I suppose. Ideas?
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COST:
I looks to me like it costs $3.00 to buy an Allowance race, $5 for a Stakes. HOWEVER, to make it owner-restricted (which we would want to do), it costs another $5. There is a strange listing on the price guide that suggests that a $75K Stakes race costs $10 (before password protection). I'm guessing this is more "Mike can't write instructions" crap, and that the real cost of buying a Stakes race now would be $15.
If it only cost $10 for a Stakes race, I'd do it; but I'd rather buy 2 allowance races for $16 than one Stakes race for $15.
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Distance -- how about 6.5f or 7f? I think 6 or shorter really plays into the hands of sprinters. IRL, there aren't too many 8f races for 2 year olds in Nov/Dec, yes? So a sprint would still be in order. But 6.5-7.5 would allow for the endurance horses to at least have a fighting chance.
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My Horses
FILLIES:
1. Enigmatic -- Dirt. 83.7 over 8f, 71.7 over 6.5.
2. Saxon Dusk -- only 1 race -- 76.7 over 6.5f Dirt.
3. High Priestess -- 1 race, 58.8 over 7f D.
4. Wood Nymph -- yeeouch; Infamous Sunday -- yeeoch.
COLTS:
1. Irish Green II -- 86.1 6.5f Dirt, untried on turf.
2. In Quest of Gold -- 70.6f Turf, 8f.
3. Black Tie Senor -- 79.2 8f, Dirt, untried on turf.
4. Afternoon Storm -- 6.5f TURF, 70.7 (win, 1 try).
5. Red Summer --78.1 6f, DIRT.
In Quest of Gold (Turf), Crimson Prospector (OUCH, NOT DIRT).
SUMMARY:
Fillies -- seem adequate on Dirt. Colts -- I have a mix, but still a slight dirt bias (Capital letters means strong bias).
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StlCards -- if you want to sponsor a race as well, maybe we could have a 3 year old race? Or an "overall" champion at 8f or something?
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| 12 | Madman
Donor
ID: 21020124
Sat, Sep 28, 2002, 16:50
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I just did a test run for week 1607 in Connecticut. The cost is $8.00 for an Allowance race, and $15 for a Stakes race.
FYI.
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| 13 | StLCards
Sustainer
ID: 23730222
Sun, Sep 29, 2002, 02:10
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Fillies
Horse----------Races-W-P-S, dist&surf/max or ave. speed
Dixie's Prized Event, 3-0-0-0 5-6turf-dirt/60SP
Private Ballet, 3-0-0-0 5.5T/57SP, 5.5D/42SP
The Golden Knight, 2-0-0-1, 4.5T/66SP
Tellana Salt, 5-0-0-1, 5-7.5D-T/43-47SP
River of Gold Again, 6-3-2-1, 6D/83SP
Friendly One, 4-0-0-0, 5-7D/47-50SP
Blushing Niner, 3-2-0-0, 6D/84SP
Colts
Native Niner, 1-0-0-0(.97effort), 5D/48SP
Ancient King, 5-0-0-1, 6T/62SP, 7D/56SP
Green Avenue, 2-0-0-0, 5-5.5D/63-65SP
Frontier Hawk(IRE), 3-0-0-0, 6D-T/45-46SP
Fast Flying(AUS)II, 2-0-0-1, 5.5-6.5D/64-72SP
Dance List(IRE), 4-0-1-0, 6.5D/65SP
So I've got 2 decent ladies, but not much else so far.
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| 14 | Madman
Donor
ID: 21020124
Sun, Sep 29, 2002, 10:59
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Madman Stable Update
1) I got screwed by the late update -- I just logged in hoping to do a bargain breed before deadline this afternoon, and I'm too late. The horse I wanted to breed over was a $6 auction horse (27619) and wasn't in my barns. Drat.
2) GOOD NEWS: Unbelievably, I acquired 3 solid claim horses this week. What the heck??? All 4 of my barns are suddenly full!?!?! Even better, I dumped "Silence in Skogby" for $20,000 from Madman4... The new additions:
Gold Ant 4 year old, probably the weakest of the three. He's gone 100 over 8f on turf, and is stilll kind of young. He has about 6 weeks left on a $4K tag, so you know where he's starting. :)
Speedy Whatson He just ran 102 over 8f on dirt, and has a $3.5K tag through February!! Surface versatile, he's gone 93+ on turf over 9f, as well. Unbelievable. With only 1 NMCOS, he should be productive for awhile.
Madman999 -- Hidious Harley (Crappy spelling) ... he went 110 way back in 1138... granted, that was likely a fluke. But his dam-side breeding is awesome (Deputy Minister x Nijinsky II)... More to the point, he's rarely gone any distance other than 8f. The computer doesn't usually have that extreme a spike for a horse's ability at a single distance. Therefore, he can either run farther than he's shown so far, or he can sprint. He hasn't been tried very effectively at the shorter stuff, and turf may also be an option -- he won his only allowance test on turf, and has just been smoked on two stakes runs ...
Dunno. There's always a gamble with claimers -- there is a reason why they are in claimers, of course. But these are the first decent 3 horses that I've acquired in claimers since ... since ... maybe Val's Desert back in December!! Seriously??? I think so. I spent a lot more time trying to breed cheapies like Ms. Secretive and Meteor Shower earlier this year ...
Unbelievable. Again, the strategy that worked -- pay $20K or more for the claimer that has a $5K or under tag ... I just can't seem to buy horses for under $5K, for obvious reasons.
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StlCards -- I'd kill for a couple of those fillies. Between you and me, it looks like the Gurupie Filly crop is looking pretty strong. I guess that means if Toral has some quality colts that he's got an easy win coming! :)
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| 15 | Toral
Sustainer
ID: 2111201313
Mon, Sep 30, 2002, 18:24
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My fastest 2-year-old speed is 77, so my stables will play only a minor role in determining what surface the best matchups are on. I'll list only the best 3 of each sex.
Fillies (bests -- seeming preferred surface):
bold indicates possible stake caliber maybe;
Gold River II --76 dirt;
Red Tory Theory --75 turf;
Full Honours -- 69 turf;
Colts
Rusty Scabbard Now 77 dirt;
Reification 72 turf;
Telephones Appeal -- 60 dirt.
Clear as mud.
I'd be happy to chip in the $14 to make the allowances into stakes.
Toral
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| 16 | Toral
Sustainer
ID: 2111201313
Mon, Sep 30, 2002, 19:09
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Reviewing the field, looks like dirt/dirt. 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5 -- all fine with me. Let he who came up with the idea pick. My horses can finish out of the money on any of these surfaces!
The idea of "championship allowances" makes me feel cheap. If the various motheaten groups that have stakes can do so so can the pride of Gurupiedom. So I repeat, I'll buy one of the two stakes, or transfer the difference in cost to whoever buys them by Paypal or just mail cash.
We need to make sure the Guru won't sue us if we use the RotoGuru logo in our banner ;)
I don't see having people from "over there" wander onto the site as a problem anymore. Things have been quiet.
Re State of the Sim -- nothing has changed as far as I know.
Toral
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| 17 | Madman at work
ID: 398591212
Wed, Oct 02, 2002, 13:29
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Ok, ok. Stakes it is :)
Actually, before I go 100% with this, will the computer reject Stakes horses with password protections if the horses don't qualify for Stakes grade races?????? I have no idea. Anyone have experience with this?
If not, we'll have to see if we can find an owner-restricted stakes race and see if all the entries made it through.
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Is Cab still around and playing? I'll try to check the SSS to see how his horses have been doing lately.
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What WEEK do we wish to do this? I was thinking 1607... kind of right between Thanksgiving and X-Mas. Probably the last race our 2 year olds would run in the 2 year old season. This also gives us time to test our horses a couple more times, and delay the surface decision for a bit...
But we could do it earlier if we wanted.
Another reason it should be a Stakes race is that some of our horses might -- either this year or next -- be good enough to try for a Derby or other prominent 3 year old race... I think an owner-restricted Stakes race gives the winner 3 division points instead of 1 for an allowance ... I may be wrong about this, however.
hmmm. Wonder how much a Graded Stakes costs?? Nevermind. Can't password protect those.
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Post a reply to this message: (But first, how about checking out this sponsor?)
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