Having taken some time out to read the Pre Race card this week, it was noticeable that scratch instructions are getting more and more intricate as the players try to give their horses a good chance by letting them run on ground they like and pulling them out of ground they wont act on, or for other reasons like too many runners for a horse that dislikes crowds etc.
Some players keep it simple, for example:
Scratch if No
Simple – if the horse’s preference for the surface is no – then its scratched and not raced that week.
There are plenty of variations on that theme – “scratch if no” “if more than 4 runners” “scratch if (x) horse is running”. Easy and straightforward and understand by all.
Then it gets a bit more complicated. When the new automated entry system was introduced the Racing Steward allowed people to have a bit more freedom with their instructions. Personally I feel a bad move by her (and not something that happens very often!).
Lets take some of the examples seen recently.
Move to 1234, 5678, 9876 if No or No!. Scr.
If no- move to 1234 if more than 12,scratch if No
if soft or mud, or 2345 scr if hard or mud
And it goes on. The permutations are endless and the Steward must sit there sometimes literally pulling her hair out trying to decipher what the players are trying to tell her to do and of course it means that the races cannot be run quickly and efficiently as it involves her moving up and down the page, in and out of races, flicking between pages etc.
What should be a straightforward run/don’t run can turn out to require an expert from
So what I propose is this – and yes it is controversial and yes it will upset some players but when its conditions for the sake of conditions then I say its time to stop.
Lets make some new rules.
- A horse can only be “moved” to one other race
- Surface descriptions can only be “fast / hard/ soft/ muddy”
- Surface preferences can only be “OK” or “No”
- If a horse is entered twice using the automated entry system then its automatically scratched from both races
- A horse cannot be scratched if another horse is named – it either will beat it or it wont
And to make sure these rules are kept to – a fine to the stable breaking the rules to the tune of the cost of the entry fee of their first nominated race. Sometimes the only way to get through to persistent offenders is to hit them where it hurts – ie money! For those with several millions it probably wouldn’t matter but it might make everyone think twice!
So c’mon on people – play fair and give up on the crazy conditions. If you are going to write in the conditions make sure they are easy to read and not an essay!
4 comments:
Three cheers for Nancy. Hip Hip Horray. Hip Hip Horray. Hip Hip Horray.
Can't say I'm all that keen on these new rule ideas. Some horses are so picky surface-wise that you need to be able to enter three races in a week in the hopes of finding that not-too-hard-yet-not-too-soft track. Cutting alternatives from 2 to 1 just makes it that much harder.
Scratch instructions relating weather conditions should be done based on surface prefs, not surface descriptions. Apart from the fact that there's no such thing as muddy turf (so "Scratch if Muddy" in a turf race means nothing), the descriptions and prefs don't line up. Some horses can be Yes!, Yes or OK on "Fast" ground. I generally say "Scratch if Mud/No-", with the "No-" being for Laurie and the "Mud" being for people in the tipping comp who otherwise couldn't tell whether no means wet or no means dry.
And you can't really limit prefs to Ok or No only. Last week I entered Town Crier with "Scratch if less than Yes". She's supposedly Good on Hard Turf and prefers Soft Turf, but I didn't want her running on the Good Hard Turf when there was Prefers Hard Dirt this week.
How do you enter two races in a RL week if you can't nominate your horse twice? Some RL weeks cover 21 game days; it's perfectly reasonable to run twice (maybe even thrice at the outside) in 21 days.
As for dodging certain horses, well, I don't really care. I think I've done it once or twice, but that'd be it.
Paragraph 1 - I've never had any problems. If the horse is picky and scratches a lot, so be it. Laurie shouldn't have to pay the price. Honestly, when you look at some of those races and the complicated scratch conditions, then consider the trickle down effects they have on a second race, and even a third, it's an absurd amount of mental gymnastics that Laurie has to deal with.
Paragraph 2 - No idea what you're trying to say here. I read it 3 times and still am not sure what point you're trying to make.
Paragraph 3 - Good example of an unnecessary scratch condition. Sounds like you're being way too picky on surface to me.
Paragraph 4 - You CAN nominate you're horse twice IF YOU WANT THEM TO RACE IN MORE THAN ONE RACE. What Laurie doesn't want is you to nominate a horse twice when you only intend to race once, and she is supposed to figure that out through convoluted scratch conditions.
I bet if the scratch instructions page allowed for more characters it would be a little easier to translate what some of these people are trying to say.
As for the other issues, you shouldn't be able to scratch if horse "X" is running. If you are scared of horse "X" then don't enter a race that horse "X" might be in.
As for surfaces, I run into that problem a lot because I have horses that refuse to run on hard/firm surfaces and I end up scratching them. Sometimes I even have a multi-surface horse who hates hard dirt but also hates soft turf so I will say something like SCR if hard to xxxx and SCR if soft - but that is rare.
SCR if NO shouldn't even be an option. Look at the KY Derby in real life. So many horses come to Churchill Downs looking like winners and then they hit that surface and BOOM they get crushed. Guess they should have used their SCR if NO option? That's ridiculus. If they don't like a track it's up to the owner/trainer to make note of that for the future. It's called trial and error.
This won't fix itself. As this game gets bigger it will get harder and harder for Laurie to keep up.
Simulated Sports just upgraded to yet another new server this weekend because the game is so huge that the old server just couldn't keep up. Mike has SEVERAL people who help him run the game. He couldn't possible do it himself. Laurie is headed in that direction as well.
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