Nomination fees are a necessary evil of horse racing that helps to identify the horses that owners feel are the best of the best and allow for the giant prize pools seen at the championship level of racing.  We take every dollar (and then some) that is paid for nomination fees and roll it into prize pools for our championship horses to run for.

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New Player Guide:

The first thing you will notice is that there are a lot of things to do, but don't get overwhelmed, we will guide you through the initial phase of racing your horses. This is a recommended guide that players may follow to help guide them on their way to creating a dominant racing and/or breeding stable.

Step 1: Your First Horse(s)

First things first, you will need horses to race. We have given you 3 vouchers with which you may purchase up to 3 new horses to compete in our Beginner division [Grade 3]. In order to use them follow these instructions

• Navigate to Market > Sales Ring or click here to open in a new window
• Choose the Beginner[Grade 3] Tab
• Note that your horse will randomly assigned a gender; hence the mixed designation.
• Select a horse name, this may be changed up until the horse records it's first start.
• Choose the number of horses - you should select between 1 and 3, anything more than that will deduct additional funds from your balance.
• Select the number of vouchers you wish to use, we recommend you using 1 voucher for each horse you are creating, thus equaling a free purchase.
• The total cost will update to reflect the number of horses selected to purchase with the credit for the vouchers used deducted.
• Once your order is complete, click 'purchase horses' and the sales ring agent will locate horses that meet your criteria and send them to your stable! You will notice that a link to the horses will appear below which you may click on to view your newly purchased horses.

Optional Step: Deposit Bonus

As a new player you are eligible for our $100 bonus for your first deposit.  This bonus money can be put towards new horses, horse evaluation, breeding evaluation, and much more!  

Step 2: Training

Now that we have a horse or three in our stables we should find out what kind of runners they are! This is probably the most difficult task for all trainers and while easy to learn, is very difficult to master. The instructions below will give you a tutorial on how to train your horses for the first time.

• Open up your stable page via Stable > My Horses or click here to open in a new window - This is probably the most frequently visited page by all our players as it provides a great overview of your currently active horses.
• Training is an important element of the game that not only improves the fitness of your horse (increases stamina bar), identifying a horses likes and dislikes, but it also helps with horse growth.
• You will notice the second to last column contains a horseshoe (green if training is available for the day, red if not) which we will click on to being training an individual horse.
• You will now be able to setup your training runs, note that new horses receive 4x (8 vs 2) the normal amount of training runs for the first day of their existence to help owners identify their preferences faster.
• Now this is an area that varies greatly from trainer to trainer as to how to go about discovering how far a horse should run and over what surfaces and conditions it likes to race. We recommend to new players that they make their initial train with these settings:
• Surface + Conditions: All
• Distance: shorter - such as 1000m. The shorter distances are easier to evaluate and every horse should be able to cover the 1000m without becoming tired.
• As horses run out of stamina they become tired and run significantly slower.
• Runs: 4
• Why 4? because there are 4 unique combinations of surfaces and conditions and this will allow you to run once over each surface at one single distance and perhaps get a grasp on which ones the horse prefers.
• Click on train

Your results will be listed, with a summary first, followed by detailed information below. For now you can ignore the growth charts, but can find more information on that in the help section.

Step 3: How do I know what a good time is?

Training times are going to be slower than race times (most of the time) and so it is important to not compare them evenly (usually you want to subtract a second or two) to race times.  At this point you have multiple options to evaluate the times:

• When you look at n individual horses training records you will notice there is a section that gives you a star rating.  Those stars indicate which percentage of the training times the horse is in (globally).   These should not be used as absolutes but they do provide a guidance for race placement and about the class of the horse.
• Use the leaderboard times for the 2yr olds under leaderboards
• Compare against other horses in your stable - since you presumably only have 3 this can be challenging, but you can use stable > daily training report to view a summary
• The third option is to look at maiden race times and compare against that, this is the preferred method
• Alternatively you could goto the track and ask other players to try and compare your times
• The final option is to use our premium features for a more detailed analysis of your stable's horses
• We strongly suggest purchasing premium access for your stable.  This will provide you with summarized information about your stable and the ability to automatically train your horses.

Once you have analyzed and decided what surface(s) a horse prefers you should uncheck the boxes from the ones that don't match in your preferences filter and then click 'set preferences'. One note of caution, a horses preferences can certainly change as it ages so you will have to occasionally check to see how it progressing naturally. You also must note that training a horse on any given surface + condition (or going) may result in improvement by that horse up to it's maximum ability!

Step 4: FAQ

It is important that as you explore new features of the game or have questions that you refer to the FAQ.  This is a living document that is frequently updated with questions from our player base and will likely have an answer for you!

Step 5: Entering a Race

Now that you have the basics down and an understanding of your horse(s) the final step we will cover in this introduction is finding a race:

• There are multiple ways to find races for your horses, but we will start with the most basic. Open up the details on one of your newly trained horses and let's review the horse preferences section.
• The first thing that you must have is a 'category' of racing selected, they are as follows:
• Claimer: this is the easiest level of racing. A large majority of horses will end up at this level
• Stakes: This is the middle level of major racing and contains the bulk of the racing schedule (besides claiming) and is comprised of better than average horses
• Championship: This division is filled with the best of the best and these races are generally either Invitationals, Derby's, or Championships. The championship schedule is detailed in our help section.
• One of these division must be selected in order for your horse to find any races, often multiple divisions are chosen.
• Next we must select distances, often horses have a range of distances they can run. This is very trainer specific and will vary greatly from person to person and horse to horse.
• Our final step in preparation is that we must have at least one surface + condition (going) selected in order to find matching races, so use your horses training times to help identify those.
• Now that we have our preferences set, we can click on the RACE button and it will bring up a list of races matching our criteria - find one that you like and click enter, and then confirm if that is what you want.

After confirming your race entry you will be directed back to the enter race page and you will see a list of other options from your stable that match the conditions of the race.  If you are a premium member you will also see the top training times and race times for your stable of horses who are eligible at these conditions.

• One important thing to note about this page is that to the right of the 'enter race' you will see icons, a D (which means the distance matches the horses preferences) and a S (which means that the surface type is a match).

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Have you ever wanted to know what it's like to be a race horse owner and/or trainer?  Sport of Kings offers you the chance to do just that in an easy to learn and fun to play environment.  The thrill of owning and racing a digital horse is best summed up by one of our loyal players.

" Horse racing is the best game in the world. I have had the privilege of taking part in some of the greatest racing in America in the 22 years I have been soulfully attached to this great industry. So to find a game to match the excitement you have when you actually stand in that winners circle for the first or the last time it is the greatest feeling in the world, and if I get that feeling playing this simulation/game then you are doing your job. Well done guys. We just need to bring this simulated joy to all the other racing fans."

--Parks Racing 10/21/2013

We allow you to either buy an existing horse or breed your very own horse from existing bloodlines many of which will be familiar to modern day handicappers.  You are then responsible for the exciting process of discovering the horses ability and preferences.  Much like real life this can be a simple process or one that goes on for the life of the horse.  Our horses have a life of their own and evolve and mature in a very realistic manner which makes every horse a thrilling and unique adventure.  One key to making the game enjoyable is that we operate on a 3x timeline to real life, meaning that each season (1 year of game time) takes only 4 real life month.   This means far less wait time between races (the average layoff is 7-14 days) and an opportunity for a fresh crop of horses to hit the track every 4 months.

The races themselves are realistic simulations that allow horses to showcase their running style preferences and tendencies.  We have horses that simply need the lead to win while others will sit back off the pace and look to make one big run at the wire.  We provide detailed data that you as the owner are able to dig through to try and solve the puzzle that is each horse or you can simply use the training times to try and place your horse.  You are able to be as detailed and complex or as simple as you choose, it's all up to you.

Apart from racing we offer owners many other things to do including private sales, public auctions, and breeding.  Breeding is one of our most popular features that allows owners to continue on the bloodlines of their champion horses.  The unique horse development that we offer includes a sophisticated bloodline based breeding system that has no equal.  Breeding and our horse evolution are key features to our game and make us very unique in the online horse racing game industry.

Come join the over 13,000 registered players and take your spot in the starting stall for the thrill of a lifetime.

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