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For those of you that have hit the sales ring at Digiturf, you’ll notice that along with your monster G1A horses, you’ve inevitably received some G1B (now known as G1A 123′s) and G2C virtual horses.

Whereas the G1A horses are your Secretariat’s and Cigar’s, your G1B and G2C horses are your Green Monkey’s.  So the question that’s always asked is:

What the heck do I do with G1B (G1A 123) or G2C horses?!

Fear not new stable owner, there are a lot of things that you can do with these horses!

The first step that should always be taken is to look at the Training Times (TT’s) of your horses.  These can give you a good feel of what distances and surfaces they like the best.  They can also tell you how good of a G1B or G2C horse they really are.

Here’s a good basis for you to compare your 2 year-old G1B 128′s and G2C 113′s to:

If they aren’t around or above these numbers for their distances (while fully equipped), then likely they are not going to be able to handle their respective ranks.  If they’re not competitive, then the easiest and cheapest choice is to retire the horse and hit the sales ring again!

If your horse will be competitive and you want to run them, you have a choice of running them in Claiming Races or Rated Races.  You should always stay clear of the Graded Races with these horse types, as you’ll be running against the G1A143′s or G2B128′s.

If you’re interested in learning about the different race types, check out my previous post here:

How To- Introduction To Virtual Racing

Digital horse racing is becoming extremely popular amongst the horse racing contingent.  Part of the reason is that you get to own, train, and race your own horses… winning cash in the process!

This article will concentrate on the training aspect of virtual stable ownership.  Training your horse on the digital race track is slightly different than training your horse on the live race track.

You can watch your horse train via Digiturf's great video software!

Distance
At Digiturf, the website where you race your virtual horses, you can train your horses at the following distances:

1000m, 1200m, 1400m, 1600m, 1800m, 2200m, 2400m, 2850m, 3200m

NOTE:  Theses are also the race distances.

For each distance, there are 6 different “Going’s”, or track conditions:

Dirt Fast, Dirt Muddy, Turf Firm, Turf Good, Turf Soft, Turf Yielding

Each trainer is allowed to train their horse up to 6 times a day.  Each time you train your horse, it adds to his fitness level.  You want your horse around 97%-100% when racing.  Each horse starts off at 50% fitness level, and through the training process gains 2%-5% for each run.

It’s been noted that you earn 2%-3% when running sprint distances (1000 – 1400m), 2%-4% when running classic distances (1600m –  2200m), and 2%-5% when running stayer distances (2400m – 3200m).  This is extremely important at Digiturf because most of the time your horse will land on the 95% – 97% fitness level, and you don’t want to over-train your horse… or they’ll go back down to 50%!

So what does the training setup look like?

Here's what the training platform looks like for your horse

Here we’re training a horse named “Lookin’ Lucky” (no relation to the Derby contender Lookin’ At Lucky).  We can see that he’s a G3 (Grade 3) 2 year old male horse.  Right now he’s at 90% fitness.

We can train our horses on specific horse tracks.  Available for us to train and race on are the following:

All Tracks
All Dirt Tracks
- Dubai
- Canada
- America

All Turf Tracks
- Hong Kong
- Australia
- England

We can also choose the distance and the “Going” of the surface.  Lastly, we can pick how many training runs for our horse.

Training your horse at Digiturf is extremely important.  Via the training of your horses, you learn all their preferences.  Some horses like to run on dirt tracks, but only when they’re muddy.  Some horses like to run at 1200m but struggle at 2200m.  All of these variables are evident through the training process of your horses.

If you’re worried about not having enough time to check on your horses at Digiturf to make sure they’re trained, you can set an “Auto-Trainer” option.  This allows you to choose certain distance, going, and track preferences for your horses.  It will then automatically train them until they reach a certain fitness level (between 70% and 95%, you choose).

During your training session, your horse races against a “Barrier Horse”.  This is a standard virtual horse that all Digiturf horses train against.  When a horse complete a training session, you receive a “TT” or a training time.  This “TT” shows how many lengths you beat or lost to the “Barrier Horse”, by which you can gauge how talented your horse truly is.

NOTE:  We’ll discuss the different “TT” standards in a later post.

I Am The King - Lifetime Earnings of $37,511.54

We’re going to start our series about how to beat virtual horse racing at Digiturf by introducing you to the different levels of racings.  We’ll start with the basics:

Grade 1 A – Top Level Horses

These are the premier horses in the game.  They race for purses ranging from $28 to $3,000.  This is where you want to be racing if you have your sights set on being a major force in the virtual horse racing world.

Grade 1 B – Rated Racers

These virtual horses are just below the G1 A horses, and specialize in rated races, which will be covered below.

Grade 2 B – Mid-Level Horses

These are your mid-level “allowance” horses.  They run for purses ranging from $28 to $70.  This is a great division when learning the game as it gives you a great chance for profits while still enjoying the racing.

Grade 2 C – Rated Racers

These virtual horses are just below the G2 B horses, and specialize in rated races, which will be covered below.

Grade 3 D – Low-Level Horses

This level is for those that are wanting to get involved with digital horse racing but don’t want to spend too much money.  You can nominate your horse to race for $0.50 – $2.  That means your horses will be running in races with $7 to $28 purses.

Once you have your stable setup, you need to know what type of racing is available for you.  Let’s dive into that now:

Championship Racing

This is the top level of racing at Digiturf, where the top stables compete for their share of $92,000 every season.  NOTE:  A season is 4 months long at Digiturf.  In order to compete in the Championship races, your horses have to earn enough points via Qualifiers.  The Top 14 horses throughout the season in Qualifier races are selected for the Championship starting gate.  The 15th – 28th horses will load up in the Consolation Finals, where thousands of dollars are still up for grabs!

Graded Stakes – Added Races

For G1A horses, Digiturf adds money to many races.  The added money could be an extra $25 or an extra $200 to the racing purse.  Typically your better G1A horses are the ones competing for these purses; however, all G1A horses have a chance at these races.

Graded Stakes

These are for the lower quality G1A horses, G2B horses, and G3D horses.  The typical nomination ranges from $0.50 – $10.  This is where a lot of the major stables cut their teeth.

Rated Races

Many stable owners and trainers at Digiturf prefer to concentration on Rated Races.  Rated Races are virtual horse races where your horses rating contributes to their weight assignments.  The higher your rating, the more weight you carry.  The lower your rating, the less weight you carry.  Many stables will enter a few races trying to purposefully lose their ratings so that they can have weight breaks for the larger races.  All levels of horses can compete in the Rated Races; however, G1B’s and G2C’s are the typical Rated Racers.

Claiming Races

Digiturf has a claiming ranks where many seasoned and new trainers and owners seek out the undervalued horses.  Exactly the same as live claiming races, owners enter their horses for the claiming prices of $15 to $75.  You own the horse until the end of the race.  If your horse is claimed, you retain any purse winnings from that race PLUS the claiming price.