Lessons for newcomers, and a friendly reminder to last years participants.
Group 1 and Group 2 races are the key to success. A horse running 4th in a Group 1 will score you as many points as the winner in a Listed Race or lower. Unless it is for budget sake, don't be a hero, and try to jag the winner of some minor race because it is a $1.50 favourite. The best you can do is 18 points, where as if you can get say your $12 chance in a Group 1 in to the first 4 runners, you are equal, or even miles ahead. Even if you run 5th, you are looking at 14 points, against a max of 18 points.
Like in AFL SC, getting the right Captain is key. But there are no loopholes to be played here, your team locks out at the start of the first race. You still need to be careful, and not just plonk for a $500,000 horse that is $3 fav, and say, "That's my Captain sorted". That's a road map to ruination! Yes, be prepared to spend a little extra for your Captain, if and when it is necessary! Quite often you might find a short priced horse amongst the 3yo Gp1 races, and only have to spend say $200,000 on your Captain.
The 3 year old races are the key to filling your team. The Flight Stakes in the table above is a 3yo race, and you can see, all the value is there. You may need to pick as many as 4 to 6 3yo's just to fill your stable, otherwise you won't have the cash to pick the horses you want in the other Gp1 races. This also has been made around $50,000 harder this season, as you have to pick an 11th horse to sit on the bench, to cover you for late scratchings. Try and keep this horse as cheap as possible! Your stable should hopefully be growing in value each week. A win in a Gp1 adds $50,000 to your stable value, while 2nd a Gp1, or a win in a Gp2 or Gp3 adds $25,000. But be wary, the opposite applies too. Last in a Gp1, and you lose $50,000. 2nd last in a Gp1, or last in a Gp2 or Gp3, and you lose $25,000. Hopefully come round 4 or 5 your stable is worth around $2,400,000 and choosing your team becomes a lot easier!
The 3yo races in Round 1 are:
Sydney Gp1 Flight Stakes
Melb Gp2 Edward Manifold Stakes
There are 2 other 3yo races in Melb, but they are only Listed level (the lowest) and should be avoided.
It may be necessary to take 1 or 2 horses in the 2yo races, as sometimes they are the best cheap options. Just keep in mind that they may be lower than Gp2 level, so you are racing for less points. This Saturday Sydney has 2 x Gp 3 2 year old races. If you pick horses in those races you are racing for a max of 24 points, instead of a max of 40. Also, last season, some of the 2yo's were surprisingly expensive.
I will try and have my tables up Thursday morning, or Thursday night. It's a good idea to pick your Captain first, with an eye on not spending too much. Then pick a $50,000 option to be your bench horse. After that look at the 3yo races, and use as many of those as you feel necessary. It's better to overfill your team with the cheap 3yo's, then take them out, and replace them with older, more expensive horses, than to try and do it the other way around! Believe me, if you have spent too much, it can be a really tough decision which of your $350,000 horses you need to drop. You are better to be squeezing those in, if you have the dollars left over!
How many is too many horses in the one race?
That's a really good question, and it can be tough to answer. A race like the Epsom may have 18 runners, and the favourite might be as wide as $5 or $6. In a situation like that, I'd limit myself to 1 horse, and only add a 2nd horse if you had a really strong opinion that those 2 horses "were it" in that race. Then you might get a situation where there only say 7 runners in a Gp1 3yo race. This happens more than you might think, and could happen in the Flight Stakes this week. If there are only 7 runners in a Gp1 race, the horse that runs last still gets 10 points! In this situation, it can be advantageous to try and fit 3 or 4 of those cheap 3yo's into your team. If your horse runs 8th to 18th in the Epsom, you will end up with a lot less points, than running last in that 7 horse race!
You can of course, try and "catch the greasy pig", but I would generally advise against it. By this I mean you are trying to get the absolute max points possible, by picking the winner of the 4 Group 1 races, then trying to get your other 6 picks to win one of the 4 Group 2 races, or run 2nd in those 4 Group 1 races. This would get you 4 x 40 + 6 x 32 = 352 points + Jockey and Captain points. You might conceivably score 398 points, if you are very good, or very lucky. Generally the weekly winner might come from people attempting this sort of thing, but long term, they will have more bad Rounds than good, and won't rank highly by seasons end. Play a smart, balanced game trying to get say 250 points on the "easy" Rounds, and 220 points in the tough Rounds. That sort of approach, rather than trying to pick every winner, will return better results over the course of the season.
If you have any questions, then don't be afraid to ask, and have fun!