Track King

Track King is a free online horse racing stable management game in which you compete against stables managed by other users all over the world.

As a Track King, you take on the role of Stable Manager - or maybe even a Stable Owner! (See Owners Club). You buy, sell and breed horses, manage jockeys and invest the stable's money in training and veterinary facilities and stud breeding programs. You select Cup and League race entrants from the horses and jockeys in your stable that best suit the conditions and are in top form, plan your tactics before the next race, decide on what training is needed and much, much more.

You can keep yourself continuously updated on the state of your stable by logging on to the Track King website, reading your race results and checking out the latest horses on the transfer market. You can also give your jockeys orders for upcoming races and tell the trainers how the horses will train during the week. Track King has been designed to be as simple - or as difficult - as you want it to be. Just entering a couple of races a week using the invitations you're given, and setting a simple training routine for your horses will take less than 15 minutes a week. But if you really want to explore, there's all sorts of stats that you can look into to try and get that extra performance from your steeds.

The best thing about Track King is that there's no 'Game Over'. If your stable goes bankrupt, it's possible to reset. And there's also no right or wrong way to play. Just keep trying, experimenting with different parts of the game, and sooner or later you'll hit a good streak of wins in races, or breed a magnificent foal, or train a superb apprentice jockey...each of which will carry you further along the path to being a successful Track King!

GOOD LUCK!!

To register to become a Track King, use one of the "Start your own stable" links on the Track King logon page. Remember, you can only manage one stable! Opening multiple stables in Track King is not acceptable.

Firstly, you will need to provide some basic details about yourself, and where you live. It is important to tell you that your details will not be given to anyone else - they're just to help confirm your identity to the staff of Track King. The more information you supply, the faster we can get you started, and the more chance we have of preventing cheats or false applications. If you don't provide much personal information, it is likely that you will be contacted by Track King staff to help confirm that you are a genuine applicant.

Next, you will need to choose a Username and password for the game. Your Username is the name that you (as a Manager) will be known by in the game. You can change your username and password at any time when you are registered, but remember - usernames are unique! Once someone has been given a username, nobody else can have it. Regarding passwords, it is good to use passwords that have letters and numbers in them to make it harder for anyone to hack into your account... but make sure it is a password you can remember!

Finally, after giving your personal and logon details, you will be asked to choose a name for the Stable you will manage. Just like with Usernames, the name of your stable can be changed at a later date, but it must be unique. Your Stable Nationality is where you can show national pride, by choosing the country that you want to represent. The flag of this country will be added to your stable, and every horse that is born in your stable will carry this flag. You will also be asked to provide details of the Continent that your stable is currently based in. This will determine the 'physical' location of your stable, and the time of the day that racing starts. Your Continent does not have to be the same as your Nationality - for example, it is quite fine to be an Australian stable racing in Europe. (See Continents)

After you have lodged your registration, you can expect an email within 1-48 hours to let you know that your stable has been prepared for you! It's your time to shine!!

After being accepted into the world of Track King, your account will remain open as long as you login at least once every 50 days, or if you are currently a member of the Owners Club. After approximately 3-4 weeks of inactivity, you'll receive an automated Email reminding you that you'll need to return to your stable sometime in order to keep it active. After 50 days of inactivity your stable will be reset completely. Of course, you'll be able to return to Track King in the future, but you'll have to register again.

There are quite a few different ways to move around in the Track King web site.

There is a 'Main Menu', which appears at the top of the page, just below the Logo.....you know, the menu that you used to get to this page! This menu gives you quick access to:

• Home, where you can see the latest announcements, and racing information in your Continent;
• Stables, which is a shortcut back to your own Stable page;
• Races, a Racing 'homepage' showing all your coming/recent races (See Tracks and Weather);
• Auctions, where you can bid on horses for sale (See Auctions), or purchase stud rights to a stallion (See Breeding);
• Forums, where you can chat with other Track Kings in the online community, and maybe ask for tips or advice (See User Forums);
• Shop, to purchase Owners Club membership and other Track King goodies (See Owners Club); and
• Help, which you used to get here!

When you arrive at a page, you'll (hopefully!) notice that the menus on the right hand side of your page have changed to give you a whole load of choices about the page you are currently viewing. These choices are broken down into a couple of different mini menus:

• Page Menu, which offers you things you might like to see or do related to the page you are viewing;
• Horses, which will show you the horses that belong to the stable you are viewing. Of course, by default these will be your horses (See Horses);
• Jockeys, showing the jockeys currently under contract to the stable in view (See Jockeys);
• Races, showing the race fixtures for the Class league being viewed (See Race Classes) and/or the individual races on a particular day (See The Race!);
• Forums, showing all the different forums you have access to (See User Forums);
• Owners Club features like Guestbooks, Horse and Jockey summaries, and quick race navigations (See Owners Club);

Also, within each page, every horse, jockey, stable, or other name is a link to get more information about that object. Click away!

Objects are also colour coded in Track King, with all Races in Red, all Horses in green, Stables and Jockeys in blue, and Actions and Ratings in yellow/brown. So just waving your mouse over a link or using the 'Tab' key to select it, will hopefully give you a little more information about what sort of object you are looking at.

Your stable diary can be accessed from the right-hand Page Menu. It shows a running record of all the actions and events that go on in your stable each day.

This provides a valuable tool to catch up on what has happened since you last visited Track King. The diary shows the latest 50 events by default, but you can use the link at the bottom of the list to view older events (if any exist!). The diary also keeps a record of your activity in the Auctions over the past fortnight, showing you all the bids that you placed or received, and also any times that you were outbid. A canny Track King will use this tool to ensure they stay on top of the latest action!

Your Stable diary is only visible to you - so no other Track Kings can see your secrets of success! It displays the date and time that an event took place, gives you a description of the event, and in some cases provides you a link to the event. Where no link is provided, you might be able to guess what caused the event by looking at the date and time.

Some of the things that might appear in your Stable diary are:

• Entering a race - (See The Race! and Entering a Race)
• Changes to your agistment - (See Agistment and Finances)
• Changes to training - (See Training and Finances)
• Changes to your vet - (See Vet services and Finances)
• Changes to Admin staff - (See Administrative staff and Finances)
• Horse purchases/sales/bidding wars - (See Horse Auctions)
• Horse births/stud - (See Breeding)
• Jockey contract information - (See Jockeys)
• Horse travel arrangements - (See Travelling)

There are two types of finances in Track King - your Stable finances and your Personal finances

Stable finances

You need money to run your stable and to house and train your horses. Each week there is a financial update where the monies owed to you are collected and the monies that you are due to pay debited from your account - all transactions that take place during the week are added to the income/expense account shown and the balance figure is updated accordingly.(See Daily/weekly timetable). So when you look at your stables' finances, the 'Carryover balance' is the amount you started the week with, and all income/expenses listed are then the transactions that will be totalled to create the 'carryover balance' for the next week.

The income you receive comes from:

• Purses: Purses are the money that you win from doing well in racing. You receive a fixed purse amount for Class races. On top of that, your share of the race purse depends on your finishing position in the race, the higher the better.
• Sponsorship: Perform well and keep good relations with your sponsors and it will earn you a higher income.
• Facilities: Any unused horse agistment and training facilities can be leased out for public use, earning you income each week. (See Stable Agistment, Administrative staff and Training)
• Horse sales: The total income received from any horse sales (less 8% Auction House fees) during the week.
• Stud fees: By selling your stallions' services as part of a breeding program, you can earn additional income, again less 8% fees (See Breeding)
• Interest received: You can earn interest each week if your bank balance is above zero, the rate of which is determined by your Administration. (See Administrative staff)

The expenses you may have to pay are split into:

• Manager wages: As stable manager, you'll receive a weekly wage - with it, you can bet on races to gain prestige for your stable and notoriety for yourself! (See Betting)
• Jockey contracts: Good jockeys come at a price, you'll need to pay the wages negotiated in their contract at the time of signing them, and then again at the start of each and every week they are racing for you. If you hire an apprentice to race, you will pay a one-off fee for jockey services after the race. (See Jockeys)
• Facilities: This includes the setting up and the maintenance of the stables' training and veterinary facilities, as well as administrative staff costs. (See Stable Agistment, Administrative staff, Vet services and Training)
• Auctions/studs: Total fees payable for any horse and yearling purchases and any stud breeding undertaken during the week.
• Transport: It costs money to safely transport your jockeys and horses from A to B depending on whether they travelled to another track, region or continent. (See Travelling)
• Race fees : This amount includes any race entry stakes payable as well as race establishment costs if you create a Stakes race. (See Owners Club features)
• Interest payable: You have to pay overdraft interest each week if your bank balance is below zero. Admin staff can help negotiate a lower interest rate. (See Administrative staff)

There's nothing to keep you from spending your stable's money even if your balance is zero. As stable manager you have access to a line of credit at the bank, but you're going to have to pay some heavy interest on this borrowed money. The bank is prepared to allow you free reign on spending until you reach $250,000 debit - but after that things start to get tight. You'll still be allowed entry into league races, and to hire apprentice jockeys, and to auction your horses, but that's about the extent of it. You won't be able to resize your stable facilities, or purchase any new horses, and signing a new jockey contract is right out! Also, and most importantly, your bank will put a stop on any staff drawing a wage from your stables' funds once a 'closing balance' of -$250k has been registered. This means that your vets and trainers will be unpaid! They're prepared to ride it out for a week due to sheer loyalty to you, but at the start of the second week without pay they will all walk out, leaving you with zero training and vet capacity. The bank will then continue to finance your stable, even if the debt continues to grow, but you'll be without those valuable stable hands.

Should you grow tired of being broke, your Stable Finances page will offer a "Liquidate stable" link for anyone who has closed the week at -$250k. This process is not reversable! If you enter liquidation, your stable will effectively be reset to a 'new' stable, with 4 completely novice horses and minimum sized agistment. You will still be in the same Class as you were before, but you might find it hard to remain competitive!

At the end of every season the sponsors hand out a bonus if your stable has done well enough. Trophies and money are handed out to the top 5 places in each racing Class. How much depends on your place and how high up you are in the league system:

Class	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1	$1,200,000	$1,020,000	$840,000	$660,000	$480,000
2	$1,000,000	$850,000	$700,000	$550,000	$400,000
3	$800,000	$680,000	$560,000	$440,000	$320,000
4	$600,000	$510,000	$420,000	$330,000	$240,000
5	$400,000	$340,000	$280,000	$220,000	$160,000
6	$200,000	$170,000	$140,000	$110,000	$80,000

Personal finances

Your personal finances are totally separate to your Stable Finances. This money is your personal money, as a manager of a Stable, to use however you see fit.

As you don't have a team of Administrative assistants looking after this money, you won't earn any interest on it - so you may as well spend it! And what better way to spend it than at the track, betting on the horses that you know best?! (See Betting)

Clearly horses are your stables main asset! You must have a minimum of 4 horses in your stable at all times.
Each horse has attributes and skills that determine their overall racing ability, while there are also some additional factors that will affect their performance in different race situations. The horses also have an 'Overall Rating' which is a quick way to compare horses, as well as having experience at different Distances and Track Conditions.

Every horse can run any distance on any track condition - but some attributes will make them perform better/worse under certain conditions. It's your job to consider all these factors and decide who is the best horse for the race. These attributes are:

• Spirit - A horses spirit is an important factor in determining how well the horse and jockey 'read each other' during a race. A horse with less spirit is able to be controlled easier and relate better to a jockey than a high-spirited thoroughbred. Spirit also determines how easily your horse gives in to adversity.
• Height - The height of a horse largely determines it's stride length and physical presence on the racetrack.
• Weight - Some horses weigh more than others, which can affect the performance of the horse on race day. It's probably a bad idea to put a fat jockey on an underweight horse!
• Gender - Mares and geldings are a little more predictable than stallions, which may outperform sometimes but at others might just cause nightmares for an untalented jockey! Horses in foal (pregnant) are not eligible to race.
• Stride - The physical length of the horses stride is an important factor when competing against other horses, particularly in races over distance, after all, the longer the stride the less steps a horse will need to take to get to the finish. A shorter stride has advantages too though.
• Medical condition - The medical condition of the horse affects it's overall abilities to race competitively, and also affects how quickly a horse can recover its' Physical condition. So make sure your vets get your horse properly prepared for the race, otherwise your horse will certainly underperform!
• Physical condition - A horse must be in good physical condition to hold up to the vigours of thoroughbred racing. A horse in poor physical condition probably won't be in winning form, and is more likely to pick up an injury from racing. Physical condition is improved marginally by the vet and more so by some training types, and is reduced by racing, training workouts, and of course racing!
• Gate speed - Gate speed determines a horse's ability to get a quick jump out of the gate and subsequently make quick decisions and change direction during the race.
• Acceleration - The acceleration of the horse describes how well it can accelerate! Simple as that! Good reactions need good physical skills to complement them.
• Muscle tone - One of the most important characteristics, muscle tone helps determine the horses staying power in a race. A horse with poor muscle tone is likely to tire more quickly.
• Stamina - A horse with bad stamina may not be able to maintain its speed and abilities over the length of the race. Stamina becomes more important over longer race distances and on tracks with heavier conditions.
• Heart - A fit and healthy horse needs a fit and healthy heart - heart and stamina help determine how long a horse can keep going. Heart also has a 'mystical' quality for some, with suggestions that it provides an extra ability to beat the odds.
• Racing styles are a somewhat rare specialty skill determined at birth, sometimes inherited from a parent, or sometimes a quirk of nature. The racing style of a horse sometimes affects it's performance during a race:
  • Early Sprinter - Slightly faster over the first quarter, but these horses tend to tire more quickly in bad track conditions, unless they have extensive experience.
  • Fast Finisher - Slightly faster over the final quarter, but a tendency to tire quickly in bad track conditions.
  • Mud-lark - Loves to run on a wet track - the wetter the better! Dry tracks are a turn-off though, and the horse may underperform.
  • Natural Champion - Sometimes called a 'Stayer', this horse is born to run the long race.
  • Stalker - Prefers to come from a few places back during the final quarter, rather than leading the pack.
  • Breakaway - Prefers to be among the first few runners in the second half of the race, rather than being caught back in the pack.
  • Unpredictable - This horse can have good or bad patches over the course of a race...it's hard to know what will happen next.
  • Competitive - Loves close-in racing, this horse doesn't mind tight races and competitive finishes.
  • Needs Space - Doesn't like to be boxed in or racing in tight packs. Prefers the open spaces to run in.

(See The Race!)

Aside from racing your horses, you'll also need to take care of their training needs and their veterinary care to make sure you always get the most out of them. (See Vet services and Training). As you'll notice, a horses week can get very busy! Be sure to keep an eye on the Upcoming Schedule for each of your horses, to make sure that they don't have any conflicts. Where there is a conflict in schedule, the horse will simply take the earliest thing that you have told it to do and go with it - even if that means missing out on training or missing out on a race, or even missing travel arrangements to another track. Of course, if a horse misses it's travel, it might not make the next race or get home in time for training etc.....so it can have quite a big flow-on effect. Any Schedule conflicts are highlighted in the horses' Upcoming Schedule, so they shouldn't be hard to notice!

It's also possible to rename your 2yo horses or any 3yo's that were bought within the past 3 weeks. It costs 1 'rename credit' for each time you want to rename a horse. The number of Renaming Credits you have is displayed on the 'Home' page, and Renaming Credits can be bought through the Shop, or are provided free with purchases of Owners Club (See Owners Club). To rename a horse, simply select the colt/filly that you want to rename, and then select the Rename a Horse link from the Page Menu. A member of staff from Track King will approve or reject the renaming as appropriate within 24-48 hours at most!

Last of all, the life and death of your horses. Each season, on the first day of January/April/July/October, horses will be considered as one year older - regardless of their actual date of birth. As a general rule, horses may only race from the age of 3yo up to and including 10yo. After 10yo, stallions may continue to be used for Stud until (and including) the age of 12yo. After age 12yo (or age 10yo for geldings or mares), there isn't really anything useful for your horses to do around your stable. It might break your heart to part with these virtual champions, but in the interest of your stable it should probably be done. You can either organise to give them away, or if you are an Owners Club member you can retire them into the Hall of Fame, so that we can all look back at their stats and achievements. (See Owners Club)

Jockeys are the ones responsible for getting the best out of your horse in race. Track King features a form of Artificial Intelligence for the jockeys, allowing them to actually make decisions about how to respond to different situations that they might find themselves in during a race. (See The Race!) It's fair to say that the horses are just the engine, and the jockeys are the drivers.

As you might expect, there are good jockeys and not-as-good jockeys. All of them make decisions to the best of their ability, and sometimes those decisions might be ideal for the horse and race situation. As a general rule, the higher a jockeys' base salary, the higher his potential to make good choices. It's up to you, as an astute Stable Manager, to research the jockeys and find out a bit about them. You can check their career stats to get an idea of what type of track and distance they are most experienced at. Also keep an eye out for their riding style, which shows the things that are most important to that jockey. Watching some of their old races to see how they handled different race situations is often handy to see whether you think they might be suitable for your horses. (See Owners Club)

When jockeys use their Artificial Intelligence to make decisions, they consider the following things - although each jockey has their own ideas about which are most important (as shown in their Racing Style).

• Their current width on the track (ie how far from the inside rail);
• Their immediate traffic, both ahead and behind;
• The horses they can see just ahead of them;
• Their current placing;
• Their current speed
• The distance of the race that has elapsed;
• Their ability to handle/direct the horse;
• The amount of energy they think the horse has left;
• Their own personality - aggressive or passive
• Their morale, and their personal assessment of the horse.

Of course, in a race, they jockey does also consider your wishes. You have the opportunity to enter Race Instructions for each of your horses, which will be followed (to a degree!) by every jockey that rides the horse - even apprentices.

Jockeys like to feel good about themselves, and their morale influences how well they will communicate with the horse during a race - and how much attention they pay when you give race instructions for your horse! To keep a jockey feeling good, it's important to allow them many opportunities to race. It's also important to give them a good chance at winning. If you keep putting them on the old gray mare that ain't what she used to be...well....the jockey isn't likely to stay happy long! Jockey morale will start at a higher level if you don't drive their wage down at the start of a contract - it costs more but it could well be worth it?

There are 3 different 'grades' of jockey in Track King:

• Jockeys;
• Stable Apprentices; and
• Unlisted Apprentices

(Contracted) Jockeys

Contracted jockeys are the 'real deal' - the main sort of jockey you'll find in Track King. They have a name, and can be contracted to many different stables over their career, and will age by one year on the first day of January/April/July/October, just like the horses! To contract a new jockey to your stable, follow the link named 'Hire a jockey' from the right-hand Page Menu of any 'Stable' page. You will then be able to search the pool of jockeys in Track King, and select from those that would be prepared to race for your Stable (based on the prestige of your stable!), and from there it's just a matter of picking the one you want and organising a contract. Bear in mind that you may only hire jockeys of your own Race Class, and within about 5-6 levels of Prestige to your stable. For example, a highly prestigious jockey is not going to want to negotiate with a 'lowly' stable with a lot lower prestige. The jockey may agree to negotiate with stables of slightly lower prestige, but you can be sure they won't accept much haggling! Negotiate carefully - you can only complete one set of jockey negotiations every 24 hours - whether you managed to successfully sign the jockey or not. Keep an eye on the status of negotiations with the jockey to get an idea how far you can drive their wage down! As a general rule, a jockey with more prestige than your stable are more likely to treat you harshly.

While a jockey is signed to your stable, they are not available to race for any other stable, and will draw a wage from you (in advance) once every week excepting the last week of their contract. On completion of their contract, they will go On Holiday for an indeterminate period - maybe a day, maybe a week....maybe longer?! When they leave your stable, if they're inclined to race with you again, they'll give you an idea of when they intend to return. The better their morale at the termination of the contract, the more likely that they'll make sure they are back on time!

If a jockey employed by your stable has less than 28 days remaining on their contract and you are a member of the Owners Club (See Owners Club), you can negotiate to end the contract early. The jockey will tell you the amount that they want to be paid to finish their contract early, and then it's all up to you! It's not a very prestigious thing to be firing jockeys though...

Jockeys will retire from racing on their 33rd birthday, and will only compete in races of their own Class - which means that generally the jockeys available to the "Upper Classes" (sic!) are better than those of the lower. There will be some exceptions - can you find a bargain?!

Stable Apprentices

A Stable Apprentice is basically a jockey in training, and can be identified by the '(A)' to the right of their name. Each stable can have up to 2 Stable Apprentices in the stable at any time. To hire a stable apprentice, go to the "Hire a jockey" page, as described above with a real jockey. At the top of that page is the link to hire a Stable Apprentice.

Hiring a Stable Apprentice is done through an independent agency called the Jockey Recruitment Agency. When you visit, they'll ask how many candidates you would like to interview. You pay them a flat fee per candidate just to interview them, and can then choose which of the candidates you want to recruit. These candidates will be aged 19-22 years old, and have a few basic differences. It's up to you to pick which one looks the most likely prospect for your stable.

Once you recruit a Stable Apprentice, they must remain an apprentice in your stable for a minimum of 4 weeks, and up to a year (4 seasons) from the date they are recruited. It is totally your decision about when they should be granted their full jockey license.

Each week that the Stable Apprentice remains in your stable they will earn 5 'training credits', which you may spend on improving their skills and experience, which will in turn improve their prestige. Stable Apprentices will also earn some extra Training Credits for each race in which they can beat AT LEAST 4 other opponents. Of course, they'll also earn experience and have morale just like a normal jockey. You can apply any Training Credits that your apprentice has earned at any time, and see the results immediately.

While they are an apprentice, you cannot expect them to perform as well as if they were a fully licensed jockey - they're still learning. However once you grant them a full license, they'll suddenly improve and realise their hidden potential and go on to be the best they can be. And in thanks for your help and nurturing they will return 5% of their wages to you any time they are contracted by a stable!

When you grant a Stable Apprentice their full jockey license (after at least 4 weeks, or automatically after a year), you can choose which Race Class of license you will give them. They will then race for the rest of their career in that Class. Of course, they will charge a higher weekly wage in the higher Classes, but maybe there will be a bigger demand for their services in the lower Classes? Gauge their prestige against the available jockeys of similar prestige in each racing class to decide where they are likely to be hired the most - therefore returning a more regularly wage to you!!

Unlisted Apprentices

Every track in the world of Track King has a swag of unknown Apprentice jockeys who are just dying to get a ride. They don't charge much comparatively....but then they don't have any experience, and only limited ability! If for any reason one of your contracted jockeys can't make it to a race, an apprentice will step in automatically to ride for you, and will charge you for his services at the end of the day.

Apprentices, being the dumbest of all jockeys, should probably be prevented from riding in any races that you really want to excel in! One day, maybe one of these youngsters will be a candidate for someone as a Stable Apprentice....who knows. Hardly likely though!

You pay agistment fees each week to house and feed your stable of horses, and pay one-off expenses to make room for more horses (or to remove a stall). Your stable can physically hold up to 30 stalls. Increasing or reducing the capacity of your stables enables you to house and feed more/less horses successfully. It is possible to crowd more horses into your stable than there are stalls, however this is almost certainly going to lead to a massive loss of your horses' condition. After all, if you want a high-performance horse you'll need to provide for it in a professional manner!

The costs to maintain the stall and to increase/reduce capacity is determined by your stable's racing class - the higher your class, the higher the cost to resize and maintain these facilities. Top class horses need top class care! No matter which class you are in, the first 4 stables will be provided free by the sponsors of your stable, with no ongoing cost to your Stable finances each week.

Any unused stalls in the stable (as determined at Financial updates on Sunday evening) will be leased to the public, earning you income. The amount of stalls you can lease to the public is determined by your stable's prestige level and the number of administrative assistants on your staff at the time. The better your prestige, the more demand there will be to agist with you. The more administrative assistants you have the better your staff will be able to cope with collecting payments for these services. (See Administrative staff)

Administrative assistants manage the office at your stable, taking care of some of the day-to-day financial aspects of owning a stable. If you have many debts or many funds available, you can hire an administrative assistant to reduce your interest rates, or find the best investment for your bank account. Administrative assistants can be found on the 'Stable facilities and training' page.

Administrative assistant functions include:

• increasing interest received for positive bank balance;
• decreasing interest payable for negative bank balance (overdraft);
• affecting capacity and public leasing of agistment stalls;
• affecting capacity and public leasing of training facilities;
• helping with general facilities expenses by getting you the best price;
• reducing travel costs by getting you the cheapest deals;
• keeping up good relations with your sponsors;

You'll need to pay a one-time fee to hire or fire Administrative assistants. On top of this, they are paid a wage each week - the amount adminsitrative assistants demand to hire/fire, and also for their weekly services and is determined by your racing class level.

Training happens once a week for each stable - the day and time of the trainer visit is determined by your racing class. (See Daily/Weekly timetable). The next available training session for your stable is shown on the 'Stable facilities and training' page, within the Trainer section.

To train a horse, first you must have Training capacity available. You can do this by hiring a trainer (an hour at a time) to come and work with your stable on the 'Stable facilities and training' page. Any training hours that you do not use during the week may potentially be sold on (possibly at a profit!) to the public, with the amount of hours that can be sold depending on the number of Administrative assistants you have employed. (See Administrative assistants)

Once you have training capacity to suit your needs, you can begin to Schedule the training of your horse. Pick a training type for any horses that you want to train, assign a trainer for however many hours that you require, and then apply the training. If this has been successful, a confirmation message will be displayed to tell you when the training will take place, and the training will be entered into the horses' Upcoming Schedule. Your horse will continue with this training program each week until you change it, unless your horse misses a training session due to a Schedule conflict. Of course, the horse will be busy training from the start of training time, for however many hours you have asked it to train. Make sure that training doesn't interfere with any other commitments!

Your trainer/s flatly refuses to travel - probably because of how difficult it is to move the training equipment from one location to another?! Whatever the reason, for a training session to happen your horse will need to be located at your stable at the appointed training time. You can double check that everything is OK by looking at the Upcoming Schedule for that horse. Schedule conflicts will be highlighted so you shouldn't miss any that may appear.

Different training activities will have different outcomes for your horse, but one thing is for certain - it takes time and effort to see the changes in your horse. Practice makes perfect! The results of your training will be seen each week at the designated Training Time for your race Class (see Daily/Weekly Schedule). Training rises are shown in blue, and training drops are shown in red.

Trainers often have more trouble training highly skilled horses, so it will take more time with the trainer to see the results of training on your champion thoroughbred than it will with your young unskilled prodigy. No matter the skill of the horse, the longer the horse spends training, the more the horse loses interest. Short sharp training sessions are more effective (hour for hour) than long drawn out sessions... and there's an upper limit of 12 hours training per week on any individual horse.

Following is a quick description of the training types available, and how they affect your horse:

• Beach gallops - A refreshing gallop for the horse on the sand, helps stamina and heart and works off a few pounds too!
• Beach walks - A relaxing walk along the seaside. Sea air is good for the soul and condition, but it's not really good for the muscles?
• Conditioning - A medium workout used to 'harden' a horse. Good for stamina and putting on some muscle weight, and being a medium workout it doesn't take too much out of the horse.
• Cross country - Some good positive exercise that builds body stats, although it's fairly taxing. Horses take small steps going over obstacles though...
• Pampering - Sometimes, you just wanna spoil your horse! Massively good for recuperation, but not really the sort of training a true champion needs!
• Short sprints - A medium workout that is aimed at helping your horse reach its' maximum speed as quickly as possible
• Starting stalls - A whole load of work in the gates might help your horse to explode from the gates. All this standing waiting for the bell is taxing for the heart though!
• Swimming - A really heavy workout that will really get the blood rushing and the muscles aching. It takes a lot out of the horse though
• Time trials - This gives the horse practice over race distance. It's tiring, but it certainly helps them learn how to handle a race of that length.
• Trackwork - distance - A long run on the track. Not as tiring as swimming but not as effective either.
• Trackwork - speed - Some time spent at the track focussing on maximising a horses' top speed.
• Walking trail - Time to have a day out with the horse. Has restorative effects for the horse, and some minor impacts on physical stats.

Just like Trainers, Vets operate on a schedule. They work 5 days a week, taking Mondays and Fridays off so they don't get in the way of Training. (See Daily/Weekly timetable)

Vets are useful to help speed up the natural recovery process, helping your horses regain their physical and medical condition after a big race or a taxing training session.

Again, just like Trainers, before you can give your horses the veterinary attention they need, you'll need to first have some spare Vet capacity. You can hire Vet Services (an hour at a time) to come and work with your stable on the 'Stable facilities and training' page. Unlike trainers though, any excess time that the Vet has while at your stable will not be sold on for use by the public - so only hire the vet for as many hours as you think you will need!

Once you have some spare vet capacity, it can be assigned in blocks of one hour to your horses on the 'Stable facilities and training' page. This page will also show you the time and date that the vet is going to come visiting. As you might expect, this time and date is also recorded in the horses' Upcoming Schedule. Once a vet schedule has been successfully arranged, the vet will continue to come and see your horse/s for the same amount of time each day in the vets' working week - not stopping until you either make changes to the schedule, or until the horse fails to keep a veterinary appointment.

Remember that the horse will be busy with the vet for however many hours you have assigned, so be sure the horse isn't booked with the vet for so long that it misses out on something else like Race Preparation!

Horse racing is an exhilarating sport, and it's no different here at Track King!

There are 3 different types of races within the game:

• Class (League) races (See Class Races)
• Cup Races (See Cup races)
• Stakes races (See Stakes races)

These contests are held over varying distances, categorised as follows:

• Sprint : up to and including 1250m
• Short : 1251m to 1500m
• Medium : 1501m to 1800m
• Long : 1801m to 2200m
• Epic : more than 2200m

League races will always consist of one race of each distance type, while Stakes and Cup races may cover longer distances. The exact race distance changes regularly to ensure all horses have the same opportunity to prosper over time. It's up to you to select the right combination of race distance, jockey, horse, race instructions and opposition to give your horse the best shot at winning! (See Entering a Race)

Some races will have eligibility criteria in place that your horse will need to meet, such as gender or age restrictions, or that the parent stable must be racing to an appropriate local Track or Region. You'll need to check the eligibility criteria of the race you want to enter to be sure. Class races will only impose loose restrictions - namely that you must be part of that Racing Class at that Track, and that the horse must be between 3 and 10 years old. The eligibility criteria are:

• Age: All entrants must be aged within the upper/lower limit at the time of entering the race
• Gender: All entrants must be of the specified gender/s at time of race entry.
• Class: All horses must be racing in the appropriate Class at time of entry.
• Location: All horses must be owned by a stable based at the specified continent or track
• Maidens: All horses must have not won a race at the time of race entry
• Apprentices: Only apprentice jockeys can compete in this race
• Won less than $X million: All horses must have career earnings of less than the specified amount at the time of race entry

In order for your horse to be able to race, it must of course be located at the appropriate track at the designated race time, and it must also have completed 3 hours of Race Preparation immediately prior to the race. Never fear, this preparation will be booked in for you automatically when you enter a race - you just need to make sure your horse can get there!

At the end of the Race Meet (See Continents), prestige, purses, and Class league placings are all updated. Horses placed in the Top 5 will share the purse, while prestige is awarded to the top 7 runners - of course, the higher you place the better the reward!

Your Local track is the home of your stable (and many others), and is the venue for your weekly Class league races. (See Race Classes) Up to 150 human-owned stables can call each track home, with 25 stables competing against one another in each of the 6 classes of racing at each track. On entering Track King as a Stable Manager, your stable will have been assigned to a Local track. At the end of each 11-week racing season, and prior to the start of the next racing season, you'll have the opportunity to relocate to any other Local track in the world that has an opening at your Class level. Of course, there will be a cost associated with the move, as well as needing to re-establish your Training and Veterinary staff. (See the end of section Class Races)

The track is also home to a resident tipster, an virtual equine expert who doesn't mind a bet or two - sometimes he'll offer his choices for race favouritism in the betting stakes. Check each individual race page before the event to check his early mail! Maybe he knows something you don't?

Weather
Each track has it's own weather, which is updated every day. On each Track page you can see what the weather is like today, and a weather forecast for the next 7 days. As we all know, the weather forecast isn't always entirely accurate, but they get it right quite often. The weather isn't selected completely at random every day. It's connected to what the weather was like the day before. If there was rain today, there's a greater probability of rain tomorrow as well, compared to other types of weather.

The chances are exactly the same for rain, sunshine or anything else regardless of which track you choose. No tracks have better weather than others. No track is better than any other track in this regard. You may also notice that each continent has its' own "seasonal patterns", with each real-time month marking the start of a new seasonal pattern. Pay a little attention and over time you may be able to predict where the wet and dry tracks are likely to be at any time of the year.

The weather affects track conditions, which in turn affects the performance of your horses and jockeys on race day. To be a truly successful Track King, you'll need to be able to predict how the track will respond to the coming weather so that you can be sure to enter your horse into races where the track condition is likely to suit your steed.

Track condition
As most horse trainers and keen punters know, a stretch of hot sunny weather or a spell of rainy days can really affect the condition of a racetrack. The horse racing tracks in the game reflect this, with subtle changes the result from the weather conditions.

Some horses perform better in heavy going, some horses prefer faster track conditions. Some horse skills are more useful on heavier or drier tracks, and some qualities of a horse are consumed faster in heavier conditions than on good and fast tracks.

Track conditions (from fastest to slowest)

• Fast
• Good
• Dead
• Slow
• Heavy

Each continent within Track King contains one or more regions.

There is no difference between the regions within a continent - they are all equal and experience similar racing conditions over time, as well as similar Cup competitions. Additional regions may be added to a continent if the existing regions have reached their capacity.

Regional tracks are only used for Cup racing. Each Regional track is the 'hub' for 15 Local tracks, with each Local track hosting 150 stables that participate throughout the 6 different racing classes. (See Tracks and weather)

Although the other stable managers at your local track are your direct opponents, don't forget that you may sometimes need to band together as track representatives to compete against other tracks - or even other regions or continents - in very prestigious Cup competitions. After all, when a horse makes a name for itself on the big stage, the punters and media are bound to want to know about the place it came from.

There are five (5) continents represented in Track King.
The main difference between the continents within the game is the cutoff and start/end times of races:

Please note: Times given below are based on gametime. Check the clock in the Track King header.
• Australia
  1:00 - Cutoff for race instructions/scratchings in Australia
  2:00 - Raceday start for Australia
  4:30 - Raceday finish for Australia
  
• Asia
  4:30 - Cutoff for race instructions/scratchings in Asia
  5:30 - Raceday start for Asia
  8:00 - Raceday finish for Asia
  
• Europe
  8:00 - Cutoff for race instructions/scratchings in Europe
  9:00 - Raceday start for Europe
  11:30 - Raceday finish for Europe
  
• Africa
  11:30 - Cutoff for race instructions/scratchings in Africa
  12:30 - Raceday start for Africa
  15:00 - Raceday finish for Africa
  
• America (Nth & Sth)
  15:00 - Cutoff for race instructions/scratchings in America
  16:00 - Raceday start for America
  18:30 - Raceday finish for America

Your horses are able to travel to other continents to participate in Stakes and Cup races, however there is a small transport cost associated. (See Travelling)

If racing times in another continent are more convenient for you, you are free to move your stable to any local track in that continent that has a vacancy. Moves can be made during the break between the end of the 11 week Class racing season and the start of the next Class racing season. (See Tracks and weather)

There are 6 classes of racing in Track King - from the dizzying heights of Class 1 racing down to the less glamourous gallopers of Class 6.

Your stable's racing class represents your racing 'league' at your local track, and the group of direct opponents you'll be racing against to get promoted to the class above. In Class league races, you will only compete against other stables located at your track in the same racing class as your stable. Your stable can occassionally race against stables in a higher/lower class, but only in Stakes and Cup races.

Class league races are held during the week, depending on which racing class your stable is in:

• Class 1 : race on Tuesday
• Class 2 : race on Tuesday
• Class 3 : race on Wednesday
• Class 4 : race on Wednesday
• Class 5 : race on Thursday
• Class 6 : race on Thursday

Race entrants (horses and jockeys) must be nominated before 23:00 on the day prior to the race. You may withdraw (scratch) your horse from a race voluntarily up to 1hr prior to the start of the racing in that continent. (See Continents)

There are 25 stables per racing class at each track, competing over the course of 11 Race Days in a fixed 3-month season. The seasons in Track King happen within the following months, with the first week of racing starting from the first Monday of the month:

• January to March
• April to June
• July to September
• October to December

Week 1 of racing within each Class will begin from the first Monday of the opening month. For example, in the January to March season of 2008, the first Class 1 Race Day will be on Tuesday the 8th of January, as the first Monday of the month was on the 7th of January.

For each of the 11 weeks of the season, you will be offered the opportunity to enter into two of the four Class League races (one for each of the 'common' distance categories) for your Race Class at your Local Track. These invitations will be presented to you on your Stable page in the section titled 'Races you should register for'. Alternatively, you can browse the future Race Meets and enter from there. However you do it, don't leave it too late to enter, as your choices of which race to enter will become more limited as other horses enter. Class League races are restricted to a maximum of 15 horses in the field.

On completion of each Class League race meet all runners will receive a payment for competing, based on the following formula:
Automatic League Entry payment = (7 - Racing Class) x $5000, scaled based on the number of Named Jockeys in the race
This automatic payment means there is a clear incentive to compete in your League Races each week.

League Points are also awarded to the horses that competed based on their finishing order. These points are then tallied up to work out the stables' standing within the Class League Table. Points will be awarded as follows, with horses that are on equal points being ranked by the number of 1st place finishes, then 2nd places and so on, down to the number of races competed. If everything else is equal, then the stable which held the lead on the table the week prior will continue in the higher position:

• 1st place - 10 points;
• 2nd place - 8 points;
• 3rd place - 7 points;
• 4th place - 6 points;
• 5th place - 5 points;
• 6th place - 4 points;
• 7th place - 3 points;
• 8th place - 2 points;
• Lower placed finisher - 1 point.

At the end of the 11 week Class League season, prizemoney will be awarded (See Finances) and the top 5 stables of each Class (except Class 1!) will be invited to promote to a higher racing class where prestige, race purses, and often stakes are higher and the competition is tougher. If this offer is not accepted within 5 days of the season end, then the offer to promote will be withdrawn. So, if you have an unsuccessful racing season and finish in the bottom five positions of your League, don't despair! There's always a chance that the people racing in the Class below you might not take up the offer to promote, and you'll hang on to your prestige!

At the end of the season, aside from prizemoney being paid, all stables will have a small window of opportunity to relocate from one Local Track to another.

• Why would I move? - A couple of reasons. To get a better chance at promotion (ie less competition), or to race against friends, or just to move to a continent that has a more suitable race time.
• Who moves?- All of your horses and jockeys. Your vets, trainers and admin staff are happy living where they currently do, and will bid you a fond farewell. It won't cost anything to dismiss them, but of course you're going to need to re-hire them at your new location - and this will probably be the major cost of the relocation.
• What will my new stable size be?- A stable the exact same size of your old one will be made ready for you at the new track - don't worry, your agents and admin staff have got it all covered!
• When can I do this? Moving stables can be done from the completion of Friday stakes racing in Week 11, right up until midnight Thursday/Friday morning week before the new season starts. In some seasons this may only be a 1-week period, but your Stable Important Information box will help you work out when the window closes. This period also coincides with the promotion/relegation period for all stables.
• Where can I move to? - You can move to any track at your own Class level where there is a stable that is willing to swap. Unowned (bot) stables are always willing to swap. You can put an offer out to one human stable at a time only, so it's probably a good idea to arrange it via in-game email first, just to be sure. If you finished in the promotion/relegation zones and haven't yet gone up/down a Class, you'll need to do that first before moving.
• Nobody at the other track wants to swap with me! or I'm waiting to be relegated but it isn't happening! - Thats unfortunate. Try communicating by email with the players in the other Class league, or try again next season.

Cup races are more prestigious than other races within Track King, as entry is via invitation only! If you are qualified for a forthcoming Cup race, the invitation will appear on your Stable page, and any races that you are qualified for will become visible when you enter your horse into a race. (See Entering a Race)

There are a variety of different Cup competitions that are run throughout the course of a season. Some of the more regular Cup styles are:

• Open Invitational Cups - everyone is able to enter!
• Stables that were promoted/relegated through the same Class barrier (stables that moved from 4 to 5 competing against stables that moved from 5 to 4 in one Cup)
• Stables that finished top 10 in their class
• Stables that have won Cup competitions within the past 2 seasons
• Class-based Cup competitions against other stables in your region and continent
• Corporate sponsored Cups, sponsored by 'real life' companies or people

Cup races are generally held at Regional tracks (See Regions), which means that you're very likely to need to book travel. Don't leave your travel bookings until the last minute! In many cases all Regional tracks across the world will play host to an equivalent Cup - some being more prestigious than others, and some offering a larger race purse, or demanding higher stakes to enter. Check out the description of any Cups you are invited to - there may be a good alternative away from your Regional track....although bear in mind that travel times will be longer!

Cup races are held on weekends - Saturday and Sunday - throughout the racing season. Race entrants (horses and jockeys) must be nominated by 23:00 on the day prior to the race time. You may withdraw (scratch) your horse from a race voluntarily up to 1hr prior to the start of the racing in that continent. (See Continents)

Who goes through each round?

When working out which Stables have earned entry to the following round, all results are sorted by:

1. Finishing position; then
2. Longest distance completed; then
3. Race time

If you check the Information about the Cup (you'll find a link from every Cup race to the Cup Information pages, as well as a link from your Races homepage, and also a "General Cup info" link from the Home page), you'll notice a table detailing how many runners/races there will be at each Round of the Cup. With that information in your possession, you can then calculate whether your Stable has made the cut to get through! Of course, if you wait until after Race Meets on the Sunday in your Continent, you'll know for certain as the invitations will arrive within an hour of the end of the racing day....but if you're inclined to work it out yourself, the following example may help.

Example: Round 1 of a Cup event has a maximum of 75 runners, spread over 3 races of 25. Round 2 of a Cup features 25 runners total, in one race, as follows:

• Round 1 (up to 75 runners):
  Race 1: Field of 17 runners over 2000m
  Race 2: Field of 8 runners over 1800m
  Race 3: Field of 20 runners over 2000m
• Round 2: up to 25 runners

On completion of Round 1, the 25 places would be awarded as follows:

• 8 places automatically given to each race (Remember, first we sort by Finishing Position);
• So with 24 runners allocated out of 25, we look for the longest race to award the extra invitation to 9th position. As both of the remaining races were 2000m, we then look for fastest time;
• Whichever 9th placed runner in Race 1 or Race 3 would then receive the 25th Invitation

Of course, quite often there are more races and more variation of race distance to sort through, but the same basic principles apply. Hope that helps!

Stakes races and Invitational races are 'friendly' races, some created by unowned stables and some created by other Track Kings like yourself. You can use these races to hone your horse's skills or to test your horses against those from other stables in a little bit of friendly competition. There is little or no prestige for this racing type - especially when racing at your own track - but the racing is just as exciting and you may get to learn more about your horse and jockey, track conditions, and other Track Kings from across the globe, under differing race conditions. And of course, there's the purse!

Stakes racing occurs on Mondays and Fridays during the racing season. Race entrants (horses and jockeys) must be nominated by 23:00 on the day prior to the race time. Don't forget, if you're travelling to another track to compete in a Stakes race, you will need to make your travel booking the day before race entry cuts off at the latest - check the Schedule and Transport page for your horse to get a quote on how long the travel will take, and plan ahead!. You may withdraw (scratch) your horse from a race voluntarily up to 1hr prior to the start of the racing in that continent, although beware, entry stakes are not refunded. (See Continents)

Stakes Races

Anyone can compete in a Stakes race, but they can only be created by Owners Club members (See Owners Club). Stakes races can be held at any track on any Monday or Friday. If you create a Stakes race, you offer up the purse out of your own Stable Finances, and then your sponsors will kick in an extra amount up to 50% - the stricter the entry criteria the less they will contribute. You'll earn prestige based on how generous the purse is, so don't be too stingy! There's no limit to the amount of Stakes races you can sponsor, and you're able to have them run at any Racetrack around the world.

For each Stakes race you sponsor, you'll receive 15 Invitations to issue to whichever Stables you want. You might give them all to one stable, or share them around...or maybe even not invite anyone at all! The choice is yours - but once you've sent an Invitation, you can't take it back!

Each Stakes race is open to a maximum of 25 runners, and exactly 72 hours before race time all remaining Gates will be made available for entry to the general public - so if you get an invitation, be sure to respond in enough time to guarantee your place. This might seem a bit inconvenient, but it does help to ensure fairly competed races for Stables and Punters alike.

Invitationals

Invitationals are similar to Stakes races in most ways, except for a couple of major points:

1. Any stable can create an Invitational by first purchasing an Invitational Credit from the Shop;
2. You will get all 25 Invitations to hand out - but can only send 2 invitations to any stable;
3. When sending Invitations, you have the option to invite the stable, or to pick individual horses from that stable!

The purse for Invitationals does not come out of your Stable finances at all - instead, the starting purse comes from your initial Paypal payment, and then the rest of the purse is made up from Stakes from the entrants.

Also, in the 72 hour window prior to the race, 'uninvited stables' may only enter the race if there are less than 10 runners entered. So if you create an Invitational, and all of your friends enter the race early enough, then nobody will be able to gate-crash your party! Invitationals must be paid for and booked at least 7 days prior to the event, and Invitationals must be run at the Regional Tracks. Why not buy a Credit now and invite your mates!

Prestige equates to your stable's overall 'score' in Track King, an indicator of the success you've had as a stable manager and sometimes gambler! Prestige can make your facilities more attractive for public lease, can open doorways into higher stake (and purse!) Cup racing, and help persuade better jockeys to sign with your stable.

You can gain prestige to a greater or lesser extent by:

• winning races
• placing in races
• promoting to next racing class (or lose prestige by demoting!)
• participating/winning races away from your Local Track
• being a successful gambler

Horses are (well, in all the cases I know of anyway!) the result of breeding. As is the case with most things living, they inherit traits from their parents, which in horse circles are called their Sire (father) and their Dam (mother). Any horse aged 4years and older is eligible to enter the realm of parenthood. Of course, sometimes their characteristics are not directly inherited...sort of a quirk of nature. And don't forget that sometimes a parents genes are 'dominant', so their traits and styles are the ones that are more likely to be passed on to all of their offspring. Without a degree in biology and access to a good lab, the only way to know if a good horse is genetically dominant (and therefore a good choice to be a parent) is to check all of its' offspring - looking at the prospective parents' history eh?

Line-breeding, the practice of breeding related horses, is a possibility - you're the boss! - but be wary. Breeding two horses that are too closely related might just give you unexpected results a little more frequently....but then again, maybe you'll guarantee that the trait you hoped for becomes dominant?

In Track King, one of the best ways to start on the right hoof is to find a good stallion, set him up with a good mare....do a little bit of Cupids work for him...set the mood with some candlelight and maybe a little red wine...and voila! You have a foal! This whole process is not guaranteed to breed a future champion, it just gives you a better chance at a good youngster than just buying yearlings. Of course, like everything in Track King, there's a bit of science behind what makes two horses a "good choice" for breeding, and it may be that at the moment your mare or stallion would be better off racing?

OK, so you've brought your stallion and mare together. The deed is done. After the big occasion, Sire is likely to be a little tired, and Dam, well, she'll be out of racing action for 3-4 weeks, and won't be as focussed on any training as the new life grows within. The healthier the mare at the time of birth, the better headstart that the new foal will have in life. Similarly, ensuring that you have a vet (or more?) on the payroll at the time of the birth will help the new foal be in as good health as possible. And the mare may just need a rest and a bit of vet attention before she contemplates any more babies...

Now here's where the mystery comes about. Horses in the Track King world seem to have invented some sort of magical growth formula for their young. After their incredibly short pregnancy, the foal emerges from the Dam and *pooof*! It's suddenly 2 years old! That's probably a good thing, because horses can't race in Class League Races in Track King until they are 3 years old...so you won't have to wait too long to try out your new little prodigy on the track!

This wondrous new foal will be the property of the stable that owns the Dam at the time of birth. As the expectant owner of a new foal, be sure that you have room in your stable for the new baby, or you'll overcrowd your horses! (See Agistment).

So if you are the owner of a stallion that has the characteristics and the racing history to make it a successful super stud, you can advertise its' services in the Stud Auctions and maybe turn a profit! (See Horse Auctions)

The Auction House is one of the main areas that a successful Track King will keep an eye on! Auctions come in two types: Stud and Sales. In both types of Auctions, the principle is the same - a horse is placed up for Auction for a period of exactly 3 days, during which time anyone (with enough money!) can place a bid. On completion of the auction, the highest bid wins.

During an auction, each bid must be at least $1,000 higher than the last, or a 2% increase on the price (whichever is the greater). If a bid is placed within the last 5 minutes of the Auction, the Auction end-time will be extended by 5 minutes from the time of the bid. This is to ensure that there is always a chance for a return bid! Each bid you place/receive will also be registered in your Stable Diary page (See Stable Diary) to give you a convenient way of tracking the progress, and if you are outbid on an Auction that is currently in progress, your Stables page will show a message in the 'Important Information' box.

Within 15 minutes of completion of the Auction, ownership or stud rights will be transferred to the winning bidder, and money will change hands automatically. The Auction house will take an 8% cut of the final sale price as commission for their work - but if there is no sale there is no charge. Horses bought on Auction may not be sold for a period of at least 3 weeks. 3yo horses bought from Auction may be renamed in this 3 week period.

When placing a horse up for Auction, you will be asked to state a minimum price, also known as a 'reserve'. This establishes the lowest bid that may be placed by any prospective buyer - but beware, set the reserve too high and you might not get any bids! The maximum reserve for your Auction is established by the Auction Officials based on an assessment of your horse, but this is often an over-estimation of the horses' value so it may be wise to check the market and decide what your horse is worth, or maybe compare against some recent sales.

When looking through the Auctions, you will have an opportunity to search by many of the horse statistics and attributes. It is important to remember that the horses stats shown on the Auction lists are those of the horse when it was listed, and it is possible that those attributes have changed slightly since the Auction started. When searching using Overall Rating, the horses are rated based on their overall rating when their medical and physical condition are Adequate (ie normal).

Stud Auctions

If you purchase stud rights to a horse, you will have 7 days from the completion of the Auction in which to service your mare (See Breeding). After this 7 day period, the rights will expire!

From the completion of the Stud Auction through to the expiry of the 7 day period (or until the rights have been used by the buyer), the owner of the Stable will be unable to Sell the horse or to give it away.

Each week, you'll have the opportunity to attend yearling sales - hoping to find that young gem that you can nurture and train into a genuine champion! You can visit at any time you have the money and the urge, as long as it has been 7 full days since your last search. Also, it should be mentioned that although these horses are "yearlings", in the world of Track King horses are 'born' as a 2 year old.

So, when it's time to search for a (two)-yearling, you firstly select which of the 15 Local tracks you want to scour to find the best yearling you can. No matter how many tracks you travel to, you'll only bring home the best one you could find - but the more places you travel to the better the chance of a skilful foal.

As with everything, there is a small cost involved to travel to each track which must be paid before you can head off for your search. And of course, you must have spare room in your stable to agist this horse! (See Stable agistment). This page also contains an Owners Club feature (See Owners Club)

Although all of your Class League racing will take place at your home track, sometimes you'll feel the urge to hit the road with horses and jockeys, and experience racing at other tracks. This might be for competing in a Cup race at your Regional Track (or a more distant Regional track!), or for participating in a Stakes race against opponents from other locations, or even just to give a horse or jockey more experience under given track conditions.

On entering a race at another track, you will be presented with an option to attempt to book travel automatically for your horse and jockey, or to book the travel manually. Booking automatically is the easiest method, with your horse and jockey being scheduled to arrive on the hour just before their preparation/race starts, and scheduled to leave just after the race - although your jockey will stay on for an extra hour by default, just in case you want them to race again at that race meeting.

If you decide to book travel manually, you can organise travel in one of two ways - either by selecting the Horse or Jockey and then using the "Schedule and Transport" link in the Page Menu, or by finding a race/track that you want to visit and then using the "Arrange travel to this track" link in the Page Menu.

Depending on your destination, travel time and costs will vary. The travel page will provide you with a way to get a quote for your travel cost and travel time.

Travel can only be booked for after 12:00 if booking travel for the same day, or anytime 'tomorrow' onwards, up to 14 days in the future. You may also cancel travel in that same period. Cancelling travel due to start more than 72 hours in the future will refund 2/3 of the travel cost. If the travel is any closer than the 72 hours then no refunds will be given.

Everybody's gotta be somewhere sometime, yeah? The same applies in Track King! And luckily, in Track King, each of your Jockeys and Horses keeps a complete diary of their planned movements. Well, maybe the Horses get some help from stable hands....either that or they've taken English Literacy classes at a local school. But that's not important. The important thing is that the Schedule exists, and it's a very useful tool to plan things.

The schedule for each Horse or Jockey can be found on the Horse or Jockey's personal page. It shows you all of the things that they have got coming up, starting from right now - races, preparation, travel all appear from the moment they have been booked. Training and Vet activities will always show at least the next activity, and on some occasions will show the next two. A more detailed version of the Schedule can then be accessed from the Page Menu, under the heading "Schedule and Transport".

Sometimes - and hopefully not too often! - you'll notice that a schedule shows a conflict. That is, an item had a dark red background with an exclamation mark next to the reason for the conflict. A little bit of thought and you should be able to resolve the conflict, either by cancelling one of the activities, or by arranging travel prior to the activity to ensure that the horse or jockey are in the correct location.

Each night, an automatic Scheduler comes through every diary and checks the activities that are planned for the coming 24 hours. The Scheduler will remove any activities that have a conflict due to start time (ie. the horse or jockey is not ready to commence a new activity because they are still doing something else), or due to location (ie. the horse or jockey are not in the correct location to start the activity). Any Training or Veterinary Services activities that have not been in conflict with another activity will be automatically booked to repeat themselves on the next available Vet or Training day, unless the new date would cause a conflict.

The Schedules for your Horses and Jockeys are a vitally important part of Track King, especially if you plan on competing at other locations. It is worth checking in on everyone each time you logon, just to be sure that everything is going to plan. One final tip - As a general rule, you can cancel almost anything at almost any time using the 'Schedule and Transport' page....but to set up something or to alter it (like training or vets or travel), you'll need to book it the day BEFORE.

The following are descriptions of the ratings scales used in Track King. Rather than come back to this page every time you need to check the scale, you can always click on the rating itself - that will bring up a window that shows you where that value sits in the relevant scale.

Skills/prestige rating scale

1. Dire
2. Awful
3. Miserable
4. Underdone
5. Ordinary
6. Average
7. Moderate
8. Adequate
9. Acceptable
10. Satisfactory
11. Reasonable
12. Admirable
13. Excellent
14. Grand
15. Tremendous
16. Marvelous
17. Majestic
18. Spectacular
19. Imposing
20. Awe-inspiring

Medical/physical condition ratings

1. Incapacitated
2. Debilitated
3. Exhausted
4. Wasted
5. Drained
6. Spent
7. Weary
8. Adequate
9. Fresh
10. Vigorous

Track conditions (from fastest to slowest)

• Fast
• Good
• Dead
• Slow
• Heavy

Race distances (from shortest to longest)

• Sprint(up to 1250m)
• Short (1251m to 1500m)
• Medium (1501m to 1800m)
• Long (1801m to 2200m)
• Epic (over 2200m)

The Forums are the main place that all Track Kings can come to chat. Everyone is welcome to join, sharing views and opinions on all sorts of topics, whether that be asking for help or advice, bragging about your latest champion horse or race victory, lamenting over the race that got away or a massive loss on a sure thing, or just talking about your favourite past-time outside of Track King.

There are two different types of forum - Public forums, which are the ones tied to Tracks/Continents...and of course the Global Forum - and there are Private forums. (See Owners Club). The heading in the top left of the Forum Page will remind you which type of Forum you are currently looking at.

By default, you will remain subscribed to the Global Forum, to your Continent's Forum, to your Regional Track's Forum, and also to your Local Track's Forum. Feel free to go snooping on conversations in other Continent or Track Forums - you can find them by looking for a particular track homepage, region homepage, or continent homepage, and then using the link in the Page Menu to visit their forum. If you like the chatter then feel free to subscribe!

When using Public Forums, it is important to remember that you are in public, and that Track Kings come from all age-groups and backgrounds, so be sure to behave appropriately! General code of Forum conduct is:

• No swearing or abusive language;
• No verbal attacks on any other player
• English text only

If you feel offended by the behaviour or language of any other Track King, there is a link from the Help Page Menu and also from the Forum Page Menu to report to Track King staff. Any reports will remain anonymous, and will be dealt with discreetly by staff. The Track King staff have the right to edit or delete any inappropriate comments, as well as to hand out penalties or Forum bans to any Track Kings that refuse to follow the guidelines. Of course, it is sincerely hoped that there will be no need for any penalties - after all, this is jsut a game!

In Private forums, the rules are a little more relaxed. In fact, the codes of conduct within each Private forum is at the discretion of the Forum owner. Each Forum owner has the right to invite or uninvite any other Track King for whatever reason they see fit.

The horse race - the main highlights of our Track King week, maybe only matched for excitement by the joy of finding your horse has levelled in another skill! All Class and Cup races require an invitation to compete - invitations will be presented to you on your Stable homepage, and also on your Races homepage. Stakes races are invitation-only at first, to allow the Sponsor time to invite targeted stables, but 72 hours before a Stakes race the remaining 10 or more positions become available to everyone, first in first served!

There are 3 main ways to enter a race:

1. By invitation: Startpoint - your Stable homepage or your Races homepage.
   On your Stable homepage you should notice an area titled 'Important events'. This will show your invitations to Stakes and Cup races in the next 2 weeks, and also any Class League races scheduled within the coming weeks. Similarly, on your Races homepage you will find a section called "Your Race Invitations". This area lists all of your race invitations for the future, in order of when the race is held.
   Selecting one of these Invitation links from either of the pages will take you into the "Enter a Race" process with the race, date and track already selected. All that is left for you to do is to select a horse and jockey!
2. By Race: Startpoint - the Race page
   If you go searching around in future races at various tracks, any races that you are eligible to enter will offer you a link to 'Enter this Race' underneath all of the race details. Following this link will also enter the Enter a Race process with Track, Race and date all selected.
3. By Horse: Startpoint - one of your horses homepage
   When looking at any of your horses homepages, you should spot a link in the Page Menu saying "Enter this Horse into a race". Following this link will take you into the Enter a Race process with only the horse information pre-selected. From there, you can use the tools provided to scan racetracks for upcoming events. This will only locate races open to you within the coming few weeks.
   

You may elect to withdraw from races aytime up to the cutoff time for races in that Continent (See Daily Timetable), but be aware that you will forfeit any stakes that you have paid to enter the race.

If the race that you are entering is not at the same location as your horse/jockey, then you'll need to arrange travel. An option will be presented to try and have your travel booked automatically - these bookings will be made to try and arrive at the track as soon as possible before the race, and to leave shortly after all tasks have been dealt with. The jockey will remain at the track for approximately 1-2 hours after the race, so it's possible to save travel bookings if you are competing in multiple events at this track, by entering the early races first.

Remember, if you're planning on travelling to another track to enter a race, you'll need to book travel to the track for your horse and/or jockey - this must be booked at least the day before the race (See Travelling), and don't forget to book return travel!

We all know Track King is FREE to play for all players - one of the most important things in the world of Track King is a fair community. However, should you wish to support the development of the game and purchase Owners Club, many bonus features will be made available to you to improve your gaming experience.

Some of the main features made available to Owners Club members are

• Racing: -
  • Access to the newest & best version of Race Vision, with hi-res graphics and the ability to tilt and zoom the camera, and to resize the viewer to small or full screen.
  • No restrictions on watching races - watch any race, anytime!
  • Customised silks for your jockeys that can be seen in the race! Without Owners Club, all jockeys wear brown.
  • "Race Search" tool to search for races of any type, anywhere in the world
  • Access to the RAT - Race Analysis Tool (See screenshot)
  • Ability to create your own Stakes Races and invite others
  • Ability to fire a jockey
  • Quick navigation through Race Cards at the same track
• Your stable: -
  • A logo for your stable
  • A guestbook for your stable
  • See Career/Season results tables for your stable - and everyone elses!
  • Bookmarks for up to 100 Track Kings, Stables, Horses, Races, Jockeys etc
  • A blog and private notepad
  • Set Automatic reminders for your Important Events
  • Access to create and join Private Forums
• Horses: -
  • A fully sortable page giving a summary of all your horses, invaluable for planning ahead!
  • The Horse Computer - a graphic aid for comparing your horses (See screenshot)
  • Graphs for your horses' stats and lifetime race form
  • Search the Auctions for horses based on Overall Ability
  • See Career/Season results tables for every horse
  • Slow-reveal of stats for your Yearlings
  • One or more free credits to rename your 2yo horses!!

To purchase Owners Club, navigate to the "Shop" menu in the Main (top) Menu. From there, you'll be able to check out the current price and make a secure online payment via Paypal. If you still have some Owners Club credit remaining, any additional membership that you purchase will be added to the end-date, so you'll always get what you pay for.

As a BONUS, every time you purchase more than one season of Owners Club, you can nominate one Track King (not yourself!) to receive one FREE week of Owners Club, effective immediately. If the person you nominate already has Owners Club, their membership will be extended by the bonus week.

SPECIAL BONUS!! - Any non-member that wins a race will be given a special one-time bonus of 1 week Owners Club! FREE! (Note: This only applies to players who have not had Owners Club within the past 110 days, and the player must logon and visit their Stable homepage within 48 hours of the race result to claim their prize).

Refund and sales policy - Payments are preferred through Paypal but may also be made via Cheque or money order. Owners Club will be activated immediately upon successful clearance of moneys. If you are not satisfied with Owners Club, you may contact a GM within 3 days of the purchase with a full description of why you are dissatisfied, and request a refund. Fair consideration will be given to your request based on the circumstances, and refunds will be made at the discretion of Track King, based on the circumstances of the refund. Any breach of the Track King Terms & Conditions which results in suspension/closure of your Track King stable may also result in forfeit of remaining Owners Club credit.

Although your stable is prohibited from placing a bet on a race, there's nothing to stop you as Manager/Owner of your stable from having a flutter. After all, that's what your stable pays you wages for eh?

Odds in Track King are totalisator odds, which means that the amount bet by other Track Kings on each horse is what drives the final price - these odds are not any form of prediction by the game itself. The betting 'pool' for each race (ie the money that other people have bet out on this race) is shown above the betting page. On the page you will see the horses, and the current 'expected' return for each dollar you bet on a win or a place. These odds will change as more bets are placed, and the money that is paid out will be paid based on the odds at the time the race starts - NOT the odds at the time you placed the bet. Be warned that the totalisator does take a small cut, so if you are the only person betting on the race then your win often won't be as large as your bet.

When you place a bet, you may bet on several different outcomes:

• Win - Wagering on a horse being outright winner, only pays 1st place
• Place - A bet on the horse to finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Usually pays at a lower rate than the win odds but more likely to pay out.
• Exacta - Picking the first and second placed horses, in exactly the right order
• Trifecta - Picking the 1st place horse, followed by 2nd and 3rd in either order (2 combinations in total, so twice the price)

(See the bottom of this page for some examples on bet types and payouts.)

As we've all got access to a little insider information in Track King (after all, we are the Stable owners, right?!), there are a few restrictions placed on betting.

• To bet on a win: The field must contain at least 3 horses, with 0 or 3-or-more named jockeys.
• To bet on a place: The field must contain at least 5 horses, with 0 or 5-or-more named jockeys.
• To bet on an exacta: Same as a place bet
• To bet on a trifecta: The field must contain at least 7 horses, with 0 or 5-or-more named jockeys.

Winning bets are paid out within 15 minutes of completion of a race. If a horse you bet on is scratched, then your wager will be refunded in full when bet payouts are made. Similarly, if you bet on a 'place' and then one/more runners are scratched/withdrawn which prevents place betting, your bet will be refunded when race winning are paid out. If a scratched horse/bet suddenly becomes valid again (ie the horse is re-entered or the race fills out again) then the bets are re-activated! You cannot use "unfinalised" winnings or expected money from scratchings to bet on future races - you must wait for the money to be paid out.

Of course, there's a certain notoreity from being a big punter. A large win can increase your reputation - and hence bring prestige to your Stable. Beware though....a big loss can have the opposite effects!

Examples of betting:

Example 1: A win and a place bet.

John likes horse number 7. He's pretty sure that #7 will finish in the top 3 spots. To try and safeguard himself and guarantee a return on his bet, John types in $20 as the bet amount, and ticks the "win" box next to #7 to place a bet for #7 to finish 1st. He also selects the "place" box next to #7 to bet on #7 finishing 1st, 2nd or 3rd. By entering $20 as the bet, and picking both "win" and "place", John has spent a total of $40 - 2 bets in all worth $20 each.

John gets lucky! #7 wins the race. John gets paid 20x the final odds to Win for #7, to pay back the "win" bet that he made. He also receives 20x the final odds for a Place for #7, because of the $20 he bet on a place. Well done john!

Example 2: An Exacta.

Hilde has got her two best horses in a race, numbers 1 and 2. She is confident that #1 is her best horse, and should win this race. She decides to place an Exacta bet. She clicks the "win" box next to #1, and the "place" box next to #2 with an amount of $100. The bet costs her $100 in total because she has only bet on #1 to win and #2 to come second.

Tragedy! #2 gets up to win, and #1 finishes a close second. Hildes bet is totally worthless. She has lost her money. If only she had placed two Exacta bets , selecting the "win" for both horses and the "place" for both horses. Sure, it would have cost her twice as much, but she would have won her bet.

Example 3: A Trifecta.

Bellamy is waiting for his next Class League race and decides to have a flutter. He finds three horses that he likes in the next race - #1, #2, and #3, and clicks both the "win" box AND the "place" box next to all 3 horses. He types in $10 for his bet amount, and sees that the overall bet will cost him $60, for six combinations (1,2,3 - 1,3,2 - 2,1,3 - 2,3,1 - 3,1,2 - 3,2,1).

The race finishes #2, #3, #1. Bellamy is ecstatic. He wins 10x the final odds for that Trifecta payout and cheers, guessing that this win might just be enough to lift him another rung on the most prestigious stables list!!

Daily timetable

0:00 - Scheduler & weather updates
1:00 - cutoff for instructions/scratchings - Australia
2:00 - Raceday start for Australia
4:30 - Raceday finish for Australia
4:30 - cutoff for instructions/scratchings - Asia
5:30 - Raceday start for Asia
8:00 - Raceday finish for Asia
8:00 - cutoff for instructions/scratchings - Europe
9:00 - Raceday start for Europe
11:30 - Raceday finish for Europe
11:30 - cutoff for instructions/scratchings - Africa
12:00 - Noon schedule checks
12:30 - Raceday start for Africa
15:00 - Raceday finish for Africa
15:00 - cutoff for instructions/scratchings - America
16:00 - Raceday start for America
18:30 - Raceday finish for America
20:00 - Training updates (Mon classes 1,2&3 or Fri classes 4,5&6)
21:00 - Vet updates (all days except Mon & Fri)
23:00 - Cutoff for all race entries on the following day
23:15 - New foals are born, Training Credits allocated to Apprentices (Friday only)
23:30 - Health updates for all horses (except Sunday), Financial updates (Sunday only)

Weekly timetable

• Monday - Week start. Financial updates, Bots enter races, Stakes Racing, Class 1-3 training, health updates
• Tuesday - Class 1&2 League Racing, Vets, health updates
• Wednesday - Class 3&4 League Racing, Vets, health updates
• Thursday - Class 5&6 League Racing, Vets, health updates
• Friday - Stakes Racing, Class 4-6 Training, health updates, Foals are born
• Saturday - Cup Racing, Vets, health updates
• Sunday - Cup racing, next round Cup invitations, 1st Round Cup Invitations for Cups starting in 2 weeks time, Vets

Season timetable

• Week 0: Class League fixtures are booked at racetracks
  Invitations for Class League races are sent
• Week 1 -> 11: Class League season
• Friday Week 11: Invitations to promote sent out
  Window to promote or move track opens
• Thursday night/Friday Morning 00:00 before "Week 0" of next season: Window to promote / move tracks closes

Ok...so the big day is here - your horse is about to race. But what happens now?!

Firstly, in order to compete, your horse needs to:

1. Have completed 3 hours of Race Preparation. This will be booked automatically when you enter a race. Be sure that nothing prevents this race preparation or else your horse will be scratched!; AND
2. Be located at the correct racetrack prior to the start of race preparation. Check the horses' current location and schedule.

Assuming that your horse got to the track on time and has prepared for the race adequately, then it will be eligible to run.

Jockeys, too, need to make sure that they're located at the correct track prior to the race, however they don't need time to prepare or recover - they're quite happy to back up race after race if you need them to - as long as the race start times are more than 15 minutes apart - they need time to freshen up and maybe ponce around with the other jockeys between races! If you've assigned a jockey to a race and they can't make it, never fear, an apprentice will be on hand to take the ride (you may just regret that!)

At the start of the race, each horse is 'assessed' in terms of their condition, their stats, and their ability to race in the given race conditions. This is used to determine a few factors for the horses, which includes some measurements that can loosely be called 'Energy', 'Willpower' and 'Staying power'. The horse and jockey are also compared to determine how much the horse will 'resist' the jockey during the race

And there's the bell! The horses bolt out of the gate - their gate speed and acceleration and the instructions of their jockey and owners all playing an important part in the jump. From then on, it's all a matter of how well they can last the distance. How fast will they expend their energy? Can they continue to push on if they hit 'empty'? Are the horse and jockey suited to the conditions? Will the jockey time a run nicely to preserve the horse until it really counts? Will the jockey run the horse into the ground, or can they finish the race well and leave the horse in reasonable condition? All jockeys (besides apprentices!) use Artificial Intelligence to respond to the situations they find themselves in during a race, so keep a watchful eye - maybe this jockey isn't what you're after?

After the race, horse and jockey go their separate ways. Horses will find themselves a little depleted and out of condition, and will probably need the loving attention of a good vet or trainer (or a spell from racing) to get back into shape. At the end of the racing day, horses and jockeys alike will receive updates to their form, experience, and morale.

And at this point, a good owner takes time to assess the results. Check the Form Guide/Race Report for the race to see what the jockey and trainers thought of the performance. Check the quarterly times to try and decide where things went wrong (or right!) - was it a result of the jockeys skill, the horses abilities, the race conditions, strength of the field, badly planned race instructions, or a combination of all of these?! If you're a member of the Owners Club, (see Owners Club) then Race Vision might be a useful tool to get more detail on what happened. Race Vision is available to non-Owners Club members too, but may not be as 'pretty' as the one provided for Owners Club members.

Most importantly though, you've had a nice day out at the track and learned something about your horse and jockey. Or even better....maybe you won a big fat race purse!! Good luck!

This section is intended as a 'quick reference guide', particularly for new Track Kings. For more information, try 'CBCs guide for newcomers'.

• What is a Local Track?
  A Local Track is the place where your stable is based. It hosts 150 stables, it has its' own unique Forum (See User Forums), its' own weather and track conditions, and its' own resident tipster.
  
  More importantly, the Local Track is the home of your main weekly competition - the Class League. You compete one day a week in Class Races (See Class racing), aiming to beat your local opponents and promote to a higher class in the following season.
  
  There are 6 Classes at each Local Track, with 25 stables to each Class. It is possible to relocate to a new Local Track during the break between seasons, and it is possible to travel to any other Local Tracks to compete for Stakes and Cup events.
  
  
• What is a Region?
  Within each continent, there are one or more 'Regions'. A Region has a Regional Track (the track where Cup races and other special events will be held) that is not home to any stables at all.
  
  Each Regional Track is supported by 15 Local Tracks, each of which has 150 stables. A Region has its' own unique User Forum, weather and track conditions, and resident tipster. It is possible to travel to any other Regional Track in the world to compete in selected Cup events (See Cup races).
  
  
• OK,OK...I understand all that - but what do I do first?
  Have a look around. Don't click on anything that says it will cost you money until you're sure that it's actually what you want to do! Building your stable up will involve a bit of planning and some steady growth. The bank will allow you to go to $250,000 debit before they start forcing you to tighten the belt - but once that happens, it could take weeks of slow recovery before you're able to splash out again!
  
  Get to know your horses - check out their stats....and think about how they might best be used in a race.(See Horses, The Race). Now you're probably ready to contemplate spending money on facilities and training (See Training,Vet), and also to look around for some races to enter, the most obvious candidate being your next Class League race (See Entering a Race). Good luck!
  
  
• What is my horse/jockey doing next?
  Each horse and jockey keep their own personal schedule. You will find it on each of the horse or jockey pages. It shows what time each different task will be started, and the location that it will happen in. If there is a clash in the timetable, it will be highlighted to indicate what the problem is.
  
  You can find even more detailed information about the Schedule on the "Schedule and Transport" page. On this page you can also cancel any future activities.
  
  
• How do I hire a jockey?
  Hiring a jockey can be done from most pages relating to your stable - look in the Page Menu for the 'Hire a jockey' link. There's a few small tricks you might want to pay attention to:
  1. You can only hire a jockey of the same Class as your stable
  2. You can only hire a jockey that is not contracted, or is not on holidays
  3. Jockeys only want to work for stables that have a similar prestige level to them. So when you search for a jockey, double check the jockey prestige you are searching for against the prestige of your stable.
  If you are still having trouble finding a jockey, try removing any extra search criteria you are using. If you STILL have trouble, then report the issue to a GM.
  
  
• How do I get new horses?
  There are several ways of acquiring new horses - although you may want to be sure you've got room for those new horses in your stable (See Agistment)
  1. Auctions - You can buy/sell horses on the Auctions. Be sure about your bid - it can't be removed once you place it! The horse will move to your stable within 15 minutes of the Auction finish time, and once you purchase a new horse on Auction, they're required to stay with your stable for at least 3 weeks. BEWARE! that you're not bidding for 'stud rights' to a horse on the Auctions!! (See Auctions)
  2. Yearlings - Although less talented, yearlings are a cheap way of acquiring horses - you may get lucky!
  3. Breeding - A mare in your stable, and a Stallion you own (or stud rights that you purchase) and then wait a few weeks. These horses are often more talented than yearlings - depending largely on their parents skills! (See Breeding)
     
     
• What do the staff in my facilities do?
  Your stable has several different kinds of staff:
  - Vets - help your horses medical and physical conditions improve, and help with births (See Breeding, Vet services);
  - Trainers - Undertake training activities with your horse to improve various stats and abilities. Services may also be sold at a profit (See Training);
  - Admin Staff - Involved in almost all financial operations of your stable, including (but not only) leasing of agistment and training services, and interest rates (See Admin staff).
  
  
• What are Owners Club Features?
  Track King is free to play. However, there are some features available to you at a small quarterly/yearly cost, designed to improve your gaming experience.
  
  These features are such as bookmarks, customised stable logo and silks, a stable blog, access to Private Forums, summary pages of horses and jockeys, the ability to rename your foals and create Stakes races, and of course, unlimited access to Race Vision which allows you to watch every race that has ever been run in the world of Track King. (See Owners Club).
  
  
• I'm having trouble with Race Vision
  There's a few possible causes. Firstly, do you have the 'Flash' plugin installed on your computer? You can test this by looking at a Race page. If you can't see the movie clip, then you don't have Flash installed. Try visiting Macromedia's website and downloading the latest version.
  
  Still not working, or you already had Flash installed? It is possible that you have a firewall in place that is stopping the Race Vision from downloading the race data. If that's the case, you're probably not ever seeing the green "Race" button appear in Race Vision. Try making www.trackking.org into an 'allowed site', and then restarting your browser.
  
  Still not working? Have you tried using a different internet browser? Firefox is highly recommended (Get Firefox), but don't forget to get the Flash plugin too!
  
  Still having problems? One last try, particularly good for Internet Explorer 6 and 7.
  1. Close all open programs
  2. Download the Flash uninstaller - (link)
  3. Run the Flash uninstaller that you just downloaded
  4. Download the Flash standalone installer - (link) for Internet Explorer
  5. Right click on the standalone installer that you just downloaded, and select "Run as Administrator". This is important.
  6. Come back to Track King and try watching another race
  If none of these work, feel free to try contacting a GM for assistance, or Report a Bug. You can do these through the Help menu

This section of the rules has been contributed by players of Track King. Check the link to their stable to determine how much you trust their advice! The tips are in no particular order, so a quick skim of the bold 'subject' headings might help identify the items of interest to you. For more information, read 'CBCs guide for newcomers'.

• Training: General strategy
  Train like a madman! Identify your best horses, and pour the trianing into them. Try and sell the others, don't waste a cent on donkeys... Contributed by Carlosa of Carlosa Lodge
• Entering races: Target the right races
  Try and work out a horses preferred distances and focus on them...dont be afraid to travel with a horse for an easier race, although prob not at the expense of missing training at this (early) stage...Contributed by Carlosa of Carlosa Lodge
• Finances: Looking for some money ideas?
  I have my horses set to 4 hours of training (combined) I have 2 hours left over that are sold to the public, making some money. You can also do the same with spare stalls. Good luck! Contributed by gemic of The Vineyards
• Travelling: Organising travel
  You can organise travel in one of two ways - either by selecting the Horse or Jockey and then using the "Schedule and Transport" link in the Page Menu, or by finding a race/track that you want to visit and then using the "Arrange travel to this track" link in the Page Menu. Don't forget to bring them home. Contributed by CBC1 of Lonestar Inc
• Jockeys: Hiring a jockey
  (When searching for a jockey) make sure the top 3 boxes read - prestige-dire -ordinary . (jockey prestige)...dont try for top jockeys (straight away) wages are too dear..... Contributed by zeromatrix of Zeromatrix
• Breeding: Setting up your stable
  Get yourself a mare, of course the better mare stats the better but if not don't worry, start breeding it, if you have a stallion in your stables great the breeding is then free but if not go for a nice stat-ted stallion off the auctions and you might end up with a nice little future racer OR something to sell for a bit of dosh.Contributed by kimmerz of DivinityLane Stables
• Training: Choosing a training type.
  Keep in mind what matters based on the distance that your horse is running. e.g. if your horse is a sprinter, it's probably important for it to have good acceleration/gate speed, but not as important for it to have good stamina. The description of the training will give you a good idea of what stats that training will improve or decrease. If you want to know more, ask on the forums or keep a log of the results. Contributed by RhiaAryx of Rhia's Cavalry
• Training: Early training recommendations
  Starting stables should train horses in swimming or conditioning. I trained 3hrs per horse for the first month, and then 5hrs per horse when I could afford it. Increasing stamina, muscle tone and heart allows your horses to last the distance, and you'll be regularly winning and placing in the longer distances quite quickly. Contributed by ashario of Relegation Material
• Offseason: Tactics to get through the break between seasons
  Theres lots of tactics you can use during the off season to gain an advantage over those at your local track.
  1. During the off seasons there are a LOT of desperate TK's out there who auction reasonable horses at really cheap prices.Wait till the very last week of the offseason to purchase your new recruits when their desperation levels are at their maximum.
  2. Try not to buy horses off people who are also at your local track in your class...I cant stress this enough...let them choke...they are your opposition and if they recover its YOUR purses that will suffer in the long run.It may seem mean but this is business!
  3. If you are desperate for cash try this...buy a horse not more than $5000 max...$1000 preferably..theres tons...race it once...if it wins keep it...if it runs a place auction it for 3 times what you paid for it...if it fails give it away straight away (dont tie up the stall) and buy another $1000 horse...do you realise if just one "thousand dollar horse" wins you say even $20000 that enables you to buy and discard 20 more..do the math..you get $ for up to 5th place dont forget.
  Contributed by Cerberus of Skank Town Stables
• Horses: Having a competitive stable
  You need 4 horses custom designed for each distance that can effectively compete at class level.One for 800-1200...one for 1300-1600...one for 1700-1950 and one for 2000+.Train your 4 horses for that exclusively.Long distance horses for example should get beach gallops till they are sick of the beach...sprinters should get starting stalls and short sprints training...the ones in the mid ranges need variety...they need to be competant in a variety of skills....never ever under any circumstances cut back on training...you get behind on quality it will be hard to catch back up...3 hours per week per horse! Also, have a back up plan...What are you going to do with these wicked horses in your class races if it keeps raining and you have no mudlarks? What will you do if one of your "big 4 " gets injured...you need some 3yo and older that can fill in for when "it hits the fan". Contributed by Cerberus of Skank Town Stables
• Starting a stable Financial advice and general strategy
  It is quite hard to figure out at the beginning, but I think the point is (and has been put forward a number of times in help and tips for beginners etc) to go very slowly early and see what hiring people will do to your bottom line each week. The trap is that you find a new game and get really excited and try try try buy buy buy early on and realise that things cost more than you think. Personally I started off in Adelaide and had to go up against the devs (and others that had played the dev version) and basically had to be pretty stingy right from the beginning or die a slow death.
  I was here from the beginning almost and have slowly built up to a stage were i am financially sound. But for the first 8 weeks or so, I had to bank on the fact that all i would bring in in a week would be whatever i won for entering a league race. Back at the beginning when i was learning the ropes that was $330 a league race, and that was hard.
  then the rules changed to give us a free $7500 per league race. So I made sure the difference b/w my expenses and earnings each week was not much more than $15000 (i.e what I was assured of winning each week at least). Maybe that was less than an hour of vets for each horse, and at absolute most 2 hours of training per horse.
  The other thing we had against us early was the fact that the bots did not create stakes races, so there was not the chance to find a stakes race that was not full of human stables with bloody good horses (well better than mine).
  What it comes down to is that I now have a steady bank balance of $500K odd, but I personally have never won a league race, only placed in 1 cup race (round 1) and did not get top 5 in my league. And i have never been able to afford to give any of my horses more than 4 hours training.
  This is my advice to new players, don't expand till you know where you are. I won a race for $40k today against all bots by travelling within my continent (OC helps cos you can search for high paying stakes races) so the races are out there. It is hard to feel sorry for new players that say "this is so hard, How can I pay for my 15 training hours per horse and 10 vets when there are all these old stables that are too good for me.
  Just build slowly and learn what you can from the forums and you will be fine. Thanks for listening
  Contributed by mattblack of Dazed and Confused.

This section has been entirely contributed by CBC1, of Lonestar Stables. It should also be noted that there are many opinions on how to start your stable - this is simply one persons' view. It has been included