Quickstart Guide

  2. Home
  4. Docs
  6. Quickstart Guide
  8. Selecting a Race

Selecting a Race

Step 1: Know Your Horse’s Age

There are four possible age brackets to race in

    • Juvenile
      • only for 2 year old horses, and the only type that 2yr olds can race in
      • Your first goal with a juvenile horse is to figure out its distance preference (DP) so you can quickly learn what range to run the horse optimally.
    • Age 3 ONLY 
      • These are restricted to major qualifying races and the actual major races at the end of the season. These are best of the best racing against each other to qualify for the huge $ in our major races
    • Age 3+
      • Our most common races. All horses aged three or more can race in there. With no further age restrictions
    • Age 6+
      • Aka the Senior circuit
      • By the time most (not all) horses hit 6, they’re seeing a decline in performance, but we want to have a place for all of them to keep racing, so there are specific races for the older racing horses where they’re gate locked to racing against other horses aged 6+

Step 2: Race “On Preference”

Take note of the stars below the horse’s name. Again, these are its “preferences.” As you can see by these horses below, their preferences are right-turning dirt tracks.

One horse likes a FIRM track, while another likes a SOFT track. You usually want to race on preference as it may give you an edge over the competition, at least until you delve deeper into the many strategies.

Step 3: Selecting a Race

Now that we know our horse’s preferences, let’s select a race. The more advanced way is via the races tab at the left but this quickstart guide will focus on how we suggest new players select races.

Go to the horse you want to race and click the “Find Preferred Races” button. This will automatically filter for races that match your horse’s turn and surface preferences.

Step 4: Race Selection

  • Step 4 Race Selection 
  • Go into your horse profile; it’s important to understand how your horse is best equipped to race. Outside of the obvious indicators like star preferences, You will want to check the following.
  • Race History
    • Check race history to see what kind of races a horse has succeeded at versus those they’ve struggled with. 
  • Charts. 
    • Check to see how the horse has fared and hit podiums and wins. You typically will have a strong couple of distances and see the performance tapering off the farther you get from them.
  • Fleet figures. 
    • A look at your historical fleet figure charts as it pertains to weather and distance. Usually, you will see the weather line up with the horse’s preference. (the more stars on soft, the better you usually see the horse do on sloppy or soft tracks versus on fast or good conditions. Look for trend lines to identify horses aging (insert aging link)
  • Bloodlines
    • Especially early in a horse’s racing career, where do the bloodlines look like it would be best to race in? 
      • Broadly to help figure out where to run based on parents’ attributes, and what you expect to have as the underlying attributes of your horse.
      • Start 4f-6f
      • Speed 6f-8f
      • Stamina 8f-10f
      • Finish 10f-12f
        • Pro Tip – Check the parent’s distance preference both in the chart and fleet figures for additional possible insights.
  • Once you know how you want to race, click on the FIND PREFERRED RACES button. It will take you to the racing window.

Step 5: Weather + Surface Conditions

You’ll see a list of upcoming races that fit your horse’s turn and surface preferences, but now we need to find races that fit its track condition (firm or soft) preference. Notice the weather icons and percentages?

If a horse likes soft tracks, most of the time, you want to select one where there is a 60% or higher chance of rain. If your horse likes firm tracks, do the opposite.

Think of conditions this way:

– Fast: biggest advantage for horses that prefer Firm

– Good: slight advantage for horses that prefer Firm

– Yielding: no advantage for any horses

– Soft: slight advantage for horses that prefer Soft

– Sloppy: The biggest advantage for horses that prefer Soft

Step 5: Selecting Race Types

Selecting an optimal race type is critical to your horse’s potential success.

You’ll notice DISTANCES for each race (in furlongs) as each horse has a preferred “Distance Preference.”

You’ll need to race your horse at various distances and pay attention to how it performs in the race, the charts, and its “Fleet Figures” to determine the distance it prefers.

For example, some horses may prefer 4-6 furlong races while others prefer long 10-12 furlong races. And some horses may have a specific furlong they excel at and struggle everywhere else. Every horse is different.

You’ll also notice different race types to choose from. Let’s break those down.

Graded Stakes (I, II, III)

These are the high-stakes races. Grade I is more expensive than Grade III. They cost more to enter, and the purses are big. You probably want to avoid these if you don’t have an S grade horse or higher.

But if you are ready for the big time with your high-grade horse, prepare for some heart-pounding action!

Restricted Stakes

Pro Tip: Use the EXACT GRADE filter or quick filter when looking for Grade Restricted races

These races are similar to stakes races above, except they have certain “restrictions”. They may only allow certain grade horses or racers with a certain maximum rating.

Understanding restrictions is extremely important for most racers, as it’s a great place to find competitive action without being automatically beaten up by the best horses in the game. Click on the “Reqs” button to see the specific restrictions for each race.

Make sure you pay attention, as you can accidentally have your B horse join a grade-restricted race that allows all the way up to S- horses to enter if you’re not careful, or you can enter your horse that’s running 50 Fleet Figures on average up against ones running 80’s.

Maiden

 Pro Tip: Use the EXACT GRADE filter or quick filter when looking for Grade Restricted races

Your horse can race in these until its first win. Be careful: unless the race is Grade Restricted, your B or A horse may run against an S horse that has never won.

Handicap

Stronger horses with high preferences tend to do well in these races. Horses will have weight added to them to even the field a bit. For example, this often allows A horses to compete with S horses.

Allowance

Races with specific registration criteria such as “Must have less than X wins” and criteria that cause your horse to carry extra weight, thus slowing it down to even the field.

All horse grades can do well here, but it’s usually not a good idea to enter if your horse’s grade is below what is listed (for example, racing an A- in an A to S- Allowance).

Claimers

Races where people may “claim” your horse if they like it by paying a race-specific price. Currently, claiming race tiers are 400 to 20,000 DERBY, so pay careful attention to the amounts.

Claiming races are the ultimate even play mechanism; race too strong a horse in a low claim race, and you may get the win, but you will likely have the horse claimed and lose it.

On the other side, if you have a weaker horse and you race it in a higher claimer, it will likely not do well and will likely not get claimed either.

Your prized horse could be claimed. So, only race here if you’re ok with your horse being sold at the claiming price! Check out this community guide to Claiming Races if you want to learn more.

Juvenile

There are races of each type for juveniles (two-year-olds) as they don’t race with any other age group.

Benchmark Restricted Stakes

Benchmark Restricted Stakes are races with a set maximum benchmark limit. 

Horses within a specified performance range can compete with no weight adjustments.

This system allows for fair competition as horses with similar performance can race against each other, and a horse with a lower benchmark can outperform one with a higher benchmark. 

The aim is to provide a competitive field where owners can enter their horses based on benchmarks of their past competitiveness.

Benchmark Allowances

Benchmark Allowances are an even more specialized race that widens the competitive field while providing more races to enter and, hopefully, dominate. 

These races assign additional weights to horses within a specific Benchmark band. This method is used to level the playing field, particularly in races with insufficient horses at the lower end of the benchmark spectrum, to create a competitive race.

Knockout (aka Hardcore) Races

If you’re done with the horse, KO races are for you.

You can try to sell it, but you can also enter it in a KO race. 

KO races are winner-take-all, and the winner gets a chance at the entire KO jackpot.

A sim runs seven coin flips. If you hit heads every time, you win the Jackpot.

All horses that do not win are auto-retired and removed from your stable. They now reside in the Third Time Pasture, where they can live out their days.

Step 6: Register Your Horse

Register your horse in a race you think it’ll do well in, note the time, and come back later to watch it race. If you miss the race, you can always watch a replay. Notice that you can add any race directly to your calendar for ease of use!

TIP: You will receive CROWN (the cryptocurrency token of the ecosystem) as a gift for entering some race. These gifts can add up and improve your profitability drastically. For a blog on how this works, please click here.

Step 7: Analyze Your Results

After the race, it’s time to do some analysis!

The first number you see if your Benchmark rating. This will be used for Benchmark races.

First, if you didn’t watch your race, watch a replay. Observe how your horse runs. Did it start well and then fall back after 8 furlongs? Maybe it needs shorter races. Did it start slow and was starting to pick up steam at the 9-furlong mark as the race ended? Maybe it prefers 10–12 furlong races.

The “charts” tab is your friend for all sorts of data on your horse.

You can also purchase a “race report” for 400 DERBY in the race result screen, providing insight into how your horse ran.

TIP: If you own 5 PFPs and link your account to a verified Discord account, you get race reports for free.

Click on your horse and check the “Fleet Figures” tab. Does it give any hint on how you might better race your horse?

The first number is your average and will be used for Benchmark Races.

This number is especially good for monitoring your horse’s racing over time, as every horse has a hidden “peak age” where they perform best.

The graph on the page visually represents how the horse’s Fleet Figure changes over time.

The Fleet Figure can help you see trends forming so you can make good financial decisions.

This number is especially good for monitoring your horse’s racing over time as every Gen 1 and later horse has a hidden “peak age” where they perform best. For example, you can see the below horse peaked early and was dominant. But as he aged, his fleet figure slowly declined to the point he was no longer very competitive and retired.

The Fleet Figure can help you see trends forming so you can make good financial decisions.

The other three Fleet Figure numbers are where the horse was at the race’s start, middle, and end.

That helps give you hints to its preferred distance. And make no mistake, your horse has a preferred distance! For example, if you’re running a lot of 10–12 furlong races and you see these kinds of numbers:

1,3,7

2,2,8

1,4,11

That tells you that the horse is getting tired toward the end of the race. Try shorter races.

TIP – Once you’ve figured out your horse’s Distance Preference on the list of races page, create and save a filter with its minimum and maximum furlong preference so you can sort for them to make race selection easier.

Step 8: Rest Your Horse

Your horse will now be “exhausted” for 20 hours and cannot race. You can enter it in races during this time as long as the race starts after it’s done being exhausted. After the 20 hours, there is an additional four hours of “recovering.” If you race before it is “fully recovered,” there MAY be a chance of injury. Here’s the breakdown:

  1. They cannot be injured if they are 2–3 years old and you wait the full 24 hours.
  2. If they are four years old and you wait the full 24 hours, the risk of injury is very low.
  3. If they are 5–8 years old and you wait the full 24 hours, there is a small but growing risk of injury.
  4. If you do not wait the full 24 hours, every age of a horse can be injured.
  5. When not fully rested, racing does not affect the horse’s performance on the track; it only affects its injury chances.

If a horse is injured, you have to pay a vet bill and then wait a couple of days for it to be able to race again.

Important note: An injury doesn’t affect a horse’s future performance or their offspring. It may, however, indicate a higher likelihood of getting injured within the genetics

Was this article helpful to you? Yes 1 No

How can we help?