Horse Rankings / Rating Points:

The ratings will be used to determine which horses get into stakes races. When looking at a horse, you will see a grid similar to the one below beside the pedigree of your horse :

Horse Name : Shady

5 year Old Horse

The first number in each cell is the horses rank in that horse’s respective division. For instance, this horse in considered the 115^th best dirt sprint horse in the game. He has earned 37 rating points over the last year. 4 weeks from now, if the horse does not earn any more ratings points, we will be down to 33 rating points.

Rank is how your horse compares to other horses in it’s division (2 year olds, 3 year olds, older horses by male and female) based on rating points. A Rank is only assigned to you horse if it has earned $40,000 or more. Rank is not used when determining if a horse draws into a race. Rating points are based on how well your horse has performed in the last year at different distances and on different surfaces over the last year. Each time your horses finishes in the money of an allowance or stakes race, it is awarded points. Points earned over a year ago are removed. Rating Points ARE used when determining if a horse draws into a stakes race.

Sprint is defined as any race under a mile. Classic is defined as races run between a mile and 10.5 furlongs. Long is defined as races run at 11 furlongs or greater.

First off, determine which category a race falls under. Then apply the modifiers as listed below the chart for and apply to each of the 6 categories. Rounding of fractions is always done downward.

Filly/Mare Modifier : ½

Turf / Dirt modifier : 1/8

Race Category Modifier : ¼ per jump (a jump is considered a movement up or down is distance. For instance, the modifier for moving from Classic to either Sprint or Long would be one jump with a modifier of ¼, while moving from Sprint to Long would be 2 jumps with a modifier of 1/16 (1/4 * ¼).

For example, let’s say we have a filly that we are running in an allowance race for the first time. Prior to the week, her Division Ratings Matrix will look like :

Although her rank will change, we are not concerned with it in this example. For this reason, we will leave it as a x for the rest of this description.

Let’s say our filly won a 7 furlong turf allowance race restricted to female horses. Using the above table, we would notice that we start out with a root of 4 points (Allowance win). We would immediately hit this with the overall modifier of ½, since this was a filly race. Our root is down to 2 (4 x ½ = 2).

From there, we will begin populating the entire Division Ratings matrix.

Root : 2

Sprint Dirt = 2 * (1/8) * (1) = 1/4 (rounds down to 0)

Classic Dirt = 2 * (1/8) * (1/4) = 1/16 (rounds down to 0)

Long Dirt = 2 * (1/8) * (1/4 * ¼) = 1/32 (rounds down to 0)

Turf Sprint = 2* (1) * (1) = 2

Classic Turf = 2 * (1) * (1/4) = 1/2 (rounds down to 0)

Long Turf = 2 * (1) * (1/4 * ¼) = 1/8 (rounds down to 0)

So, after this victory, our filly’s Division Ratings matrix would look like :

For her next race, let’s assume that she makes a fantastic leap and finishes second in an OPEN grade 2 race at 8 furlongs on the dirt. For this, our root would be 32 (G2, second place). We do not use the filly/mare modifier, since this race was open.

Root : 32

Sprint Dirt : 32 * (1) * (1/4) = 8

Classic Dirt : 32 * (1) * (1) = 32

Long Dirt = 32 * (1) * (1/4) = 8

Sprint Turf = 32 * (1/8) * (1/4) = 1

Classic turf = 32 * (1/8) * (1) = 4

Long Turf = 32 * (1/8) * (1/4) = 1

So, after this second place finish, our filly’s Division Ratings matrix would look like :

Ratings points are used when choosing the horses to allow into a stakes race. Let’s say that we now want to enter our filly into a 12 furlong turf race, but there are 14 other horses entering and only 14 spots. We would look at our horses’ Turf Long rating points. She has only earned 1 so, if other all the other horses had more than 1 Turf Long rating points, our horse would be denied entry.

In case of a tie, a horses’ overall average earning is used. If they are still tied, the tie breaker is resolved randomly.

This is done to allow horses that have shown great success at other distances and surfaces to draw into more races. As in real life, preference is given to classy horses when choosing a field. That is why a horse that has run primarily at classic distances and performed very well will be rated somewhat high in the Sprint and Long divisions as well. It would be safe to assume that Funny Cide would be allowed into most sprint races based on his Classic Distance performance in real life.

The reason I split these into sections instead of using the overall ranking is to improve the quality of our better stakes races. In the past, horses that were showing good 3 year old classic distance form were eliminated from our SimDerby because other horses that had performed well at sprints or only on the turf sneak in. The same with our Breeder’s Bowl; some horses get slotted in only to run, even if they had never been tested at that surface or distance.

If you don’t understand how points are awarded, don’t worry; just look at the rating points they have accumulated in comparison to other horses in the race. The method for drawing into races is almost exactly the same as it has been in the past; the exception is that horses that have been successful at a certain distance or on certain surfaces will be rewarded by being allowed to run more often in races in which they have performed well.

Rankings are given to horses with $40,000 or more in earnings. Your rating points are still used when determining if a your horse gets in a stakes race.