Buying a Horse
Once you have some $DERBY, it’s time to buy your first horse on our marketplace.
This article will provide insight into buying a horse, but if you’d like some simple strategies many players use when buying their first horse, skip ahead to this guide.
Click the “Marketplace” tab on the left side of your screen, and you should see a list of horses that looks something like this:
There’s a lot of information here, but let’s start with the basics. Each horse has:
- A letter Grade
- A Fleet Figure (the little number next to the grade)
- Three sets of Preference stars
- The price
- Age
- Record
- Gender
Grade
Each horse has a Grade. D is weaker than C, B, A, S, SS, and SSS. The lower the grade of a horse, the lower the entry fees and purse sizes it runs for.
Don’t be scared off by low-grade horses, though, as each horse grade can be competitive and potentially profitable within certain races.
EVERY Photo Finish™ LIVE horae has a path to qualifying in a grade-restricted championship race.
CLICK HERE to browse available grade-restricted series race offerings.
The grade is an average of the horse’s hidden attributes shown when it retires and a measurement of the strength of its lineage, not a straightforward prediction of future performance!
To learn more about the hidden attributes, see this article.
Note: Horses in the game currently range from D- to SS-
The best (and worst) horses in the game have yet to be bred.
Fleet Figure
Every time the horse runs a race, its finish time is used to compute a speed figure.
These figures are tuned so horses of different grades running different races are comparable. Two horses that earn 70 in other races are about matched in the quality of those runs.
Benchmark Races
First, you will need to complete three non-handicap races to generate a benchmark rating, which you can use to run in benchmark races.
Preferences
The “stars” show the conditions the horse likes to run in; the more stars, the better. Horses that aren’t suited to the conditions of the race often don’t perform to the best of their potential.
Price
How much will the horse cost in $DERBY?
Remember, 80 $DERBY = $1.00, so if the horse is 800 $DERBY, it’s $10.00.
Age
Remember, 28 real-life days (one season) equals one year in the game. Zero-year-old foals and one-year-old yearlings cannot race.
Once a horse turns two, it can run in juvenile races. You can retire to breed at age three if desired, but retired horses can no longer race. Horses can race until age nine when they are forced to retire.
Thereafter, they can breed until they die at the age of 25. Every horse has a different “peak age” where they perform best on the track, and figuring that out is part of the game’s strategy.
Important note: Horses born in Season 26 and later cannot retire until they are at least four years old. Additionally, these horses will have a randomly determined age at which they stop breeding, which will be clearly displayed.
Record
The numbers that look like 52 (5-8-4) are the horse’s racing record. The first number is the number of races it has raced in total.
The second number is how many races it has won. The third number is how many races it has “placed” (come in second), and the fourth number is the number of races it has “shown” (come in third).
Gender
A “Filly” is a female horse, and a “Colt” or Stud is a male horse.
Fillies and colts race the same; the difference is in the breeding. Females can breed once per season (4 real-life weeks) and get to keep any foals, so they tend to be priced higher than colts.
Studs can breed up to 18x per season and are paid stud fees by mare owners.
For more information on any horse, click on their card to go to their Horse Page. There, you’ll find a wealth of data from bloodline to Fleet Figures (be sure to click on the various tabs).
To delve deeper into what makes a good horse, you can find an in-depth explanation under the Horse FAQ section in Learn to Play.
Purchase A Horse
Deciding which horse to buy can be difficult, just like in real-life horse racing.
First, visit the Horse Buying Strategies section to learn more about shopping for your perfect virtual horse.
We suggest watching past races here: https://photofinish.live/races/history and studying which horses do well and where reading this horse buying strategy guide and talking to the fantastic members of our community via Discord linked below.
We understand this is a lot to take in, but we’ve spent years creating this very in-depth, realistic game we feel is well worth the effort to learn.
Additionally, many current players recommend using Claiming races as a way to acquire your first horse. These races provide an opportunity to get familiar with the game and learn how to evaluate horses while keeping costs manageable.
Join Discord
Need help selecting a horse? Join the community Discord chat, and members from the community will be happy to help.
Pro Tip: Once in the PFL Discord, type in !welcome in general or beginner channel to get further answers to questions they may have. Always avoid DMs.