123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012 ********************************************* Winning Post A Guide by Greg Hartman Contact: good_catholic_boy /at/ yahoo dot/ com aolim: goodcatholicboy9 -if you are lame, don't bother contacting me -if using email, please indicate in the subject that you are asking me about this guide. very rarely do i bother opening emails from people i don't know that have blank subject lines. If contacting me via my aol screen name, be warned that other people very often use my computer and close my im windows without telling me, so I very well might not get your message. Email probably works best. -i find it weird to say this, but the only language i can speak with any degree of clarity is english. please, if you are contacting me, do so in english (although if you require an answer that is only half-intelligible, german might work also). definitely do not bother emailing me in any other language; i won't even respond. ******************************************** Version History Version 1.0 (1/16/04) Version 1.01 (1/18/04) -typos, typos, typos Version 1.02 (2/9/04) -change in legal Version 1.03 (2/26/04) -change in legal Version 1.04 (03/16/04) -minor typo corrections ******************************************** Contents I. Intoduction and Preface II. Starting the Game III. Weekday Commands IV. The Races V. Track Commands VI. End of the Month and Special Inter-Month Events VII. Credits VIII. Legal ******************************************** I. Introduction Winning Post is a forgotten game on Sega's forgotten system. There are a myriad of reasons for this. The Saturn itself never sold well in the United States. The game itself does not really appeal to the majority of Americans either in gameplay or subject matter. As a result, almost nobody in the US has even heard of it or would even understand why someone would play, much less write a guide, for a game about managing Japanese racehorses. Certainly the game had many obstacles to clear before acceptance to an American audience. In the end the game does manage to overcome these potential barriers, but it does require a certain amount of time to play through them. The game is really an overlooked gem and I'd recommend picking it up if you happen to come across it somehow (and somehow have a means to play it). That much being said, Winning Post is a simulation game made by Koei that allows a player to live the life of a thoroughbred racehorse owner in Japan. Although you do not control the horses in the actual races, you are responsible for training and breeding a number of horses in order to become the top racehorse owner in all of Japan. ********************************************** II. Starting the Game The first decision you have to make in which region to start your horse racing empire. For this purpose, the makers of the game have divided Japan into halves; one region is in the east, one region is in the west. There are several differences between the two regions. Most importantly, you can only uses trainers that are based in the region in which you choose to be based. The region will also determine, to a degree, which races your horses will be entering, although this is only a minor concern, as horses can travel between regions for the more important graded races. You will also be competing more directly with the owners in whichever region you decide to call your own. If you are just starting out, it does not much matter which region you decide to start; I usually play in the East, but it is really just a matter of personal preference. Next you'll enter your personal data, starting with your name. You'd better hope that your last name is shorter than 'Hartman,' however, because for some reason the game designers only allow up to 6 characters for either your character's first or last names. Next pick your gender and age. Ideally, you want to be at least 21, because you can't place bets on your horses until you're that old. After that you'll be asked if you want to use surnames for your horses. If you play the game for a while, you are eventually going to have to break down and use them, because it will be difficult to come up with so many names for horses. I usually put my surnames in front of the name, just so that it is easier to find my horses out of a longer list, but, again, it's personal preference. The final step for starting the game is selecting your starting horses. You get to choose one three year old horse and one two year old. The horses are displayed by the names of their sire (father), the names of their dam (mother), and their gender. For the most part, all the horses you can choose here will be average at best. Selecting a horse from the list will bring you to another screen where your assistant will make a trite comment about the horse. For the most part, you can ignore her comments here. **** A quick note about pedigrees The most sure way to determine the value of a horse is, obviously, its pedigree. Horses with strong pedigrees are more likely to be win races and yield better offspring. Occasionally a horse with a poor pedigree will outperform his or her genes, but this is a rarity. When evaluating pedigree, the single most important factor to consider is the sire. This is because the sire plays a larger role genetically in determining the value of the offspring. The second most important ancestor in a horse's pedigree is the grandsire, followed by the dam and the maternal grandsire. This is not to say that the dam is insignificant; in fact, the dam plays a major role in differentiating between a good horse and an excellent horse. An example to illustrate this point: Sunday Peace is a very strong sire, but, every year, he mates with 8 different dams. Since Sunday Peace has an impressive pedigree, it is very likely that his offspring will be contenders. But, at the same time, there are probably going to be 8 different horses sired by him every year. The "x" factor in determining which of these horses will be winners is the quality of the dam each farm chooses to mate with him. The offspring with very strong dams are even more likely to become big winners, while the offspring with weaker dams are less so. When you are starting the game, Airport Adams, Sunday Peace, Adam's Time, Mikado Bourbon, and Southern Runner are among the strongest sires, so keep your eyes out for them when choosing horses to buy. **** Anyway, back to the set up - don't worry too much about picking your horses here, they almost assuredly won't be that good. The one thing to consider though is to pick male horses, only because 9 times out of 10 they hold up much longer than females, and you probably want your first horses to last as long as possible, even if they don't win too often. The last real horse decision you'll have to make is to pick who you will have train your new thoroughbreds. You'll be given a list of trainers from which to pick one. Since you are starting out some trainers won't be interested in you, and you won't be able to use them (presumably these are the most experienced and best trainers - Oka comes to mind). When you pick a trainer, you'll be given a list of his attributes which are: Jockey: This displays the name of the jockey who works at the trainer's stable. For the most part, these are almost always rookies who will later leave the stable to be independent, although certain trainers never release their stable jockeys. When it comes time to race, the stable jockey will usually take the less important (in terms of purse and rank) mounts. Also, the stable jockey generally serves as a somewhat reliable backup if the jockey you ask to ride your horse declines the offer. It's probably not a good idea to give your horses to a trainer simply because you like their stable jockey. Personality: Two kinds of people here - calm and short-tempered. This does not really seem to have much (if anything) to do with how he trains the horses, rather it seems to control what kind of commentary the trainer will give you on your horses. A short tempered trainer is more likely to express plainly his disappointment in your horses. Principles: Idealist or Realist. Idealist trainers are more likely to book your horses into races that are stretches for their talents, whereas realists run your horses closer to what they deem to be their skill levels. On the one hand, you might have more glorious 50-1 longshot victories that cause the tote board to explode in a burst of andre champagne with an idealist trainer, but on the other you might have more consistent wins with a realist. When you have more horses, you probably want a mix - send some horses to an idealist and some to a realist. Back-to-Back: Either Rarely or Occasionally. This indicates how apt a trainer is to book a racehorse in races that take place on two consecutive weekends. This is almost always a bad idea, as it greatly increases the chances of a serious injury afflicting your horse. It is very rare that one of your horses will be booked back-to-back, so don't let this trait determine who trains your horses, just be aware of what it means. Naming Jockey: Anyone or Prefers own stable. Um, this one is pretty self explanatory. If a trainers prefers his own stable he is more likely to ask his stable jockey to take the mount. For the most part, trainers with 'prefers own stable' also tend not to release their stable jockey once he is no longer inexperienced. Training: Caring or Spartan. Spartan trainers work the horses harder in training, but their condition is usually somewhat lower due to the extra strain. The extra training, however, usually balances out the lower condition, and vice versa; you can have excellent racehorses with either style of training. Assessment: Careful or Bold. I'm somewhat less sure about this one. I think Bold trainers are more likely to ask you directly to train a promising horse. If you are in the East, be prepared for John Hammer to harrass you about almost every horse; don't feel bad saying no if you don't want him to train your colt/filly. Experience: Well, this one is the most important, and, of course, you don't get to see it at the beginning of the game. The higher this number, the more experienced (and, thus, better) the trainer is. Low experience is not disasterous, but you're probably better off picking someone with a higher level. After you pick a trainer, you'll make the final decision about the game - the difficulty level. On beginner you start out with 10 million dollars; on average 5 million; and advanced 1 million. I don't really notice any other difference between the levels, but I also haven't really researched it very much. The game starts after you make this choice and you'll be taken to Early January (or as I call it, the inter-month period). ***************************************************** III. Weekday Commands During the week, you will make the majority of your decisions about where and when your horses will be racing. As soon as the week starts, if you have a horse entered in a race that coming weekend, the trainer will call you and ask you to pay the entrance fee and to approve the jockey (if you have enough experience). You will go through this process for every horse you have entered in a race that weekend. After that, you will be free to either review your horses conditions, their training, etc or go to other farms and stables and talk to the workers there. All of these commands are detailed below. A. Weekend - this command ends the weekday process and brings you directly to the weekend. If you have any races that you have marked to watch (through the options command 'race') you will then go to the track. See the Weekend Commands section for more info. B. Info - this command allows you to review a variety of different information. 1. Horses - This will bring up a list of all your horses that are currently being trained at a stable (ie 2 years - 6 years old). The horses are sorted first by age, and then by ranking money. Ranking money is the sum of half of the total purses collected in first place finishes, and half of the total purses in second place finishes that occured in graded races. Second place finishes in non-graded races do *not* count towards a horse's ranking money. Once you pick a particular horse, it will bring you to that horse's info screen. There will be four particulars of info that you can see. No matter which choice you select you will always see the following info: a. At the top of the screen will be the name of the horse and a picture of his/her head. b. Underneath that is the color of the horse. c. Next is the horses age, type and condition. Age is in years, all horses age one year in January. Type is tied closely to age: female horses that are 2 or 3 are fillies, otherwise they are mares. Male horses that are 2-4 are called colts, older than that they are simply called horses. Condition is on a scale of A-D, where A is excellent and D is poor. D generally means your horse is really tired or he is injured. Horses with a low C or D condition very often should be sent to their home farm to rest rather than risk training, as it could lead to an injury. Your trainer will often suggest this if it is necessary. d. Under that is the name of the stable where the horse is trained. e. Finally, under the stable your horses type will be listed. This does not appear unless your horse is 4 years or older, as training and maturity could change this. The types are as follows: Sprinter - shortest distance, very low stamina, but high speed, aces best in 6 furlongs to 1 mile (a furlong is 1/8 of a mile). Miler - still a short distance runner, races best at 1 mile to 1¼ miles. Router - A medium long distance runner. Not a terribly large amount of speed, but a good amount of stamina. Races best between 1¼ up to 1¾ miles. Stayer - Longest distance. Laughable speed, but ridiculous stamina. Best for races between 1½ and 2 miles. All-Round - Has both speed and stamina, and can run well at just about any distance. Most of your really good horses will be all-round type. Choosing "Record" will display the following information: f. The birthplace of the horse (Ex: Hayakita Farm). Horses can only rest at or retire to their home farms. There are, however, two exceptions for retirement. The first is if you own a farm, you can retire a horse there at the end of the year to become a broodmare, so long as your farm has room and another farm makes an offer for the horse. The second is if you manually retire a horse in the middle of the year, in which case you can send the horse to any farm you like, but it will *not* be able to become a broodmare or stud (don't do this). g. The record of the horse, displayed in the following format: x-y-z-a x - first place finishes y - second place finishes z - third place finishes a - fourth place and under finishes h. Rank of the horse. Please see the following poorly made table: ranking $| none | < 50k | < 90k | >90k _____________|_____________|_____________|_____________| age | | | | _____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|______ 2 years |maiden | open | open | open _____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|______ 3 years |maiden |3 years <50k | open | open _____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|______ 4+ years |4+ years <50k|4+ years <90k|4+ years <90k| open _____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|______ Horses can only can enter races that are of their rank or below. Thus a 3 year old horse that has not broken her maiden race yet cannot enter a <50k race, nor can she enter an open/graded race. Note also that there is no rank of "maiden" for 4 year old horses, and no ranking besides "maiden" and "open" for two year olds. i. Purse - The total amount of winnings this horse has brought in, before the numbers have been adjusted to account for the trainer and jockey's cut. I believe both take 10% each. j. Rank Money - The total amount of ranking money the horse has earned. (see III, B, 1 for more info). k. Winning races - these appear listed off to the right and list the major titles that your horse has won, sorted in order of importance. Choosing "Recent" will bring up a chart of your horse's recent performance. Most of this is self explanatory, but I will go through some of the less obvious abbreviations. There are two pages, hitting the A button flips between them. l. Con - Condition of the track as follows: F - Fast (good track conditions) WF - Wet Fast (track is a little wet, but still fast) S - Slow (track is wet, and the horses run more slowly) M - Muddy (track conditions are poor; the horses are very slow) m. Pop - well I have no idea what this abbreviation stands for, but it reflects where your horse was predicted to finish in the race, according to the odds. A pop of 7 means you were the 7th favorite, a pop of 1 means you were the favorite. n. Pl. - where you placed in the race (ie 1, 4, 12 etc) o. Weight - the amount of weights added to your horse in either a handicap or weight for age race. The higher the number, the more weight your horse had to carry. These handicaps are in place to prevent very strong horses from racing below their class simply to rake in easy wins. As with humans, horses tend to move much more slowly when they are heavily burdened with weights, so keep your horse racing in competetive events unless you want some particularly humilating defeats. p. Time - the *winning time* of the race. *Not* how quickly your horse finished the race. A very fast time for a mile is 1 minute 32 seconds. Choosing "best time" will display your horses best times at lengths of 6 furlongs, 1 mile, 1 1/4 miles, and 1 1/2 miles. It will also show a picture of your horse and the name of the man who takes care of it at the stable (not the trainer). Choosing "pedigree" will display three generations of your horses's pedigree. All of the sires' names are in green, all of the dam's names are in red. The names farther left are closer to your horse, whereas the names farther right are your horse's more distant relatives. For more info on pedigrees, check "A Quick note on Pedigrees" in section II. 2. Foals - Lists all of the foals you currently own. For the purposes of this game, a foal is any horse that is under 2 years old and has not yet begun training at a stable. Since foals are not named until they are 2, they will be listed here by their sire and dam. As far as I know, they are not in any particular order. Selecting any particular horse will bring you to a similar screen that the 'horse' info command did. When you first open the window, the farm manager where the horse currently is will give you his estimation of the horse's ability. They always say something nice, so you can determine the strength of the endorsement by _how_ nice what he says is. It will permanently display the following information: a. At the top there will be an S and then the name of the horse's sire b. Below that will be a D and then the name of the horse's Dam. c. Next the color and age of the horse. A horse is a foal if it is < 1 full year old and a yearling if it is between 1 and 2. d. Finally, it will list the owner, which, if you accessed this foal through this command, will be you. Choosing "Sibling" will also bring up the following information: e. A picture of the foal, and the name of the farm where it was born. f. All the horse's active siblings (ie horses that are still racing). Horses that have the word "all" written next them have exactly the same pedigree as does your horse. All other horses listed only share the same dam as does yours. Choosing "Pedigree" brings up the same information as it does in section 1 above. 3. All horses - lists every horse currently in the game, sorted first by region, then by age/sex, and finally by ranking money. Selecting a horse from this list will bring you to the same exact list as if you were looking at one of your own horses, with two exceptions. The "Recent" command will only show the last race in which the horse participated, and the best time command will show nothing except a picture of the horse and his/her stabler. 4. Owner - lists all the owners in the game, including you, sorted by annual purse. Upon selecting an owner it will list the following information, all of which is mostly self-explanatory: annual wins, annual purse (unadjusted), experience, and leading earner. If you pick yourself it will also list your current funds and your age, and will show a picture of your lovely assistant, Sakura Arima. 5. Trainer - Lists all the trainers in the game, sorted by annual purse. By selecting an individual trainer it will bring up much of the same information that was shown when you first selected one (see section II). Here it will also display the following new information: a. Record, displayed in the same x-y-z-a format as for your horses. (see section III, 1, g). b. Purse (unadjusted) - this is the annual total of all the horses that patronize this stable. c. Experience, the higher the better. The max experience for anyone (that includes you) is 60000. d. Friendship - this is on a scale of 0 to 100. As far as I know, this has nothing to do with your trainer. Every time one of your horses wins a race for the trainer, his friendship will go up to varying degrees depending on the importance of the race. The more important the race is, the bigger the increase. Experience goes up in a similiar (if not identical) fashion. e. You also might notice some of the names for attributes have changed. "Careful" training has now become "Nuturing." They mean the same thing. 6. Jockey - displays all the jockeys in both regions, sorted by annual unadjusted purse. It displays a bunch of information about the jockey when you select an individual. a. At the top of the screen will be the Jockey's name and age along with his picture. A Jockey's appearance will change after his 35th birthday from a "young" face to an "old" face. Jockeys generally retire around mid to late 40s. b. Stable - This lists the stable where the jockey is currently employed. If the jockey does not work for any particular stable, this will say 'free.' Free jockeys generally get more and better mounts. c. Purse - unadjusted purse for all his/her mounts for this year. d. Exp - experience, the more the better. Jockeys with more experience are more likely to use tactics other than their best tactic, if the situation calls for it. e. Stats - the annual record for the jockey, in x-y-z-a format. (see section III, 1, g). f. Friend - Your personal bond with the jockey. After this number gets higher than 50, the he will give your mounts preference over all others. Until this reaches 50, he will choose to ride whichever horse is in the most important race for a given weekend, and, if offered several horses in the same race, the most favored horse offered. g. Total wins - career wins for the jockey. You will never see numbers that rival Okaji's (the best jockey in the game). h. Best Tactic - what the jockey is best at. There are several choices: Bill Daly: The Jockey is best at running Bill Dalys, where the horse will attempt to jump out in front and set the pace of the race. Pacing: The Jockey is best at using the Pace tactic, where the horse will (ideally) run at a length or two behind the Bill Daly horse, and then overcome it towards the end of the race. Freehand: Supposedly, this means that the jockey likes to let the horse run at its own pace, but in practice this usually means he's best at the 'mid-pack' tactic. The horse will try to stay towards the middle of the pack during the race, saving energy in order to pass the other horses towards the last two furlongs. In Hand: I don't even remember what the game claims this one does, but in practice it means the jockey is good at mid-pack and rally. The rally horse runs towards the back of the pack for most of the race, and then shoots to the front by saving a large amount of stamina. I personally prefer Bill Daly, but there aren't many jockeys who have this as their best tactic. i. Personality - either calm or short-tempered. I'm pretty sure this only affects what the jockey says after the race. 7. Breeders- this displays all the farms in the game, sorted by annual unadjusted purse. Much of the info has already been explained, so I'll only get into what is different or new. a. Broodmares - The number of horses that are going to mother offspring. b. Studs (Hayakita and Shizunai farms only) - the number of studs at the farm. Only the two largest trade farms raise studs (um, daddy horses). 8. Rights - this shows who owns breeding rights for any studs that are breeded through syndication. A horse is syndicated when it retires if it is very strong, and then 8 shares of breeding rights are distributed for a very high price. Owners of these shares can breed the horse one time per yer per share for no cost, and no one without a share can ever breed the horse. You cannot own breeding rights if you do not first own a farm. Selecting a horse from the list will display who owns the rights to that horse and his/her total stud fees. 9. Schedule - view the schedule of races. You have two basic choices - either weekly or by horse. a. Weekly - displays all the available races on a weekly basis. If you view a race that is on the coming weekend, you can see which horses have registered for the race and who they are planning to ask to take the mount. If you are viewing for a past week, you can see the results of the race, including the betting payouts. A letter D next to the distance denotes that the race in question takes place on a dirt, rather than turf, track. b. Horse - this commands views only the races that a particular horse is eligible to enter. It only views forward, and only for about 2 1/2 months. C. Stable commands - picking this will allow you to visit any stable where you currently have a horse training. After picking which stable to visit, you will be whisked away there and there will be some new commands. 1. Info - talk to people who work at the stable about your horses. a. Trainer - the trainer will go through every one of your horses. Be warned, this command can take a long time, as the loading time is far from impressive, especially if you have a lot of horses at one particular stable. The trainer will mention how each horse is being trained, it's strengths, and its next race. If the horse is in a race this coming weekend, he'll let you know how he/she shapes up in comparison to the rest of the field. b. Jockey - the stable jockey will go through all your horses and let you know what kind of training they are doing. If a horse has a race this coming weekend, he'll let you know what kind of condition he/she is in. c. Stabler - Talk to the stable hand who cares for any one of your horses. He'll give you a tidbit of information about how the horse is training or his general condition. d. Other - some random person at the stable will give you some fairly random information. Usually this is about who the stable likes to use as jockeys. If you like a particular jockey and your stable does not ask him for mounts you should consider using a different stable. 2. Register - this command lets you manually book your horse to participate in a particular race. Most of the time, it is alright to let the trainer take care of registering your horses, but the one significant exception to this rule is if you have a very strong horse that has limited stamina (ie is a sprinter or miler type). The trainer will be predisposed to enter him in larger, more prestigious races. Unfortunately, these races are almost always too long of a distance for such a horse and you'll have almost no chance of winning. In this case, you should manually enter your horse into the corresponding short distance Grade 1 race. See section IV for more info on races and the different grades. 3. Train - complain to the trainer about how your horse is being trained; if you have enough experience, you can specify how you would prefer to have the horse trained. There are there 4 fairly self - explanatory options: speed - focus on training your horse's speed. stamina - focus on training your horse's stamina agility - focus on training your horse's agility. I think this controls how well your horse maneuvers from side to side and in traffic during a race. If this is true, you probably don't want to focus on it unless your horse has some kind of deficiency. balanced - a little of each *Side note: very rarely, if ever, do I mess with how the horses are trained. I feel as though there are hidden variables that you can't see as an owner that would determine in which way to train the horse. So, if you are going to fool with these options, be careful. D. Farm - visit a farm where horses are raised. You have 4 options: 1. Trade farm - A trade farm does not race any horses, but rather only raises them for sale at the annual horse auction. Once there you have the following options: a. info - the farm manager will give you some information about the farm's leading earner, generally where his/her next race is. Sometimes, but rarely, he will mention someone he is considering on sending to jockey training school. b. foal - review the foals that are currently living at this farm. The foals will be listed by the name of their dam and the year that they were born. The information screen will be the same as if you were looking at one of your own foals, but you will not be listed as the owner (for more information see section III, B, 2). If no one yet owns this foal, you will be able to mark it for bidding at the auction. c. mare - review the broodmares that currently live at this farm. The "pedigree" button is the same as for all other horses; pressing the "produce" button reveals the following information: Age: Age of the broodmare. Broodmares retire from birthing at 15 years old. Stud: the stud, if any, that the horse mated with last year, and whose offspring she will birth in April. Value: The value of the broodmare. Good broodmares will be worth around $500,000. Excellent broodmares will be worth $1,000,000 or more. Active offspring - lists all the offspring of the mare that are currently training at stables. They will be sorted in order of ranking money. d. stud - review the studs that currently live at this farm. Only the Hayakita and Shizunai trade farms have studs. The produce button will reveal the following: stud fees: how much it costs to have this stud mate with a broodmare. Age: age of the stud. Studs must retire at 25, but very often if few farms are willing to pay the stud fee they will retire sooner. e. rest - review the active horses currently resting at this farm. The info is identical if you were to view a horse using the info command. (see section III, B, 1) f. retire - manually retire a horse to this farm. The horse you retire will not be able to become either a stud or a broodmare. There is almost no reason to ever do this. 2. Owner farm - A farm owned by, well, another owner. The commands here are the same as at a trade farm. 3. Prep farm - A farm that specializes in readying foals to enter the stables. The commands are essentially the same here as at other farms, but they are more limited, since only foals are ever here. The manager will give you info about how promising any particular foal is. 4. Stud farm - A farm where most of the studs are kept. You can obviously only review the information about studs here. The stud farm manager will give you information about which studs are particularly popular at any given time. E. Owner - visit, chat, and/or deal with another owner. There are several commands you can choose from: 1. Info - the owner will chat about his/her horses, and mention if he/ she has any horses entered in this coming weekend's races. 2. Deal - attempt to make a deal with an owner. There are several options. a. Buy foal - attempt to buy a foal from the owner. If your experience is low, or the foal has an especially strong pedigree, the other owner may refuse to sell the him/her to you. b. Sell foal - sell one of your foals to another owner. I'm pretty sure he will always agree to buy one from you if you ask. The following only apply to other owners who own farms, and only appear if you also have a farm: c. Buy Rights - attempt to buy breeding rights from the other owner. If the rights are especially valuable, or you are a chump, the other owner might not agree to sell them to you. d. Sell Rights - bolster your cash by letting go of unnecessary breeding rights. The other owner always agrees to buy them. e. Buy mare - attempt to buy a broodmare from the other owner. You need quite high experience to buy a broodmare from another owner, particularly Masa Takeno, the best rival owner. f. Sell mare - sell a broodmare to another owner. He or she will always approve the sale. 3. Owner - same as the info -> owner command. Views data on the other owner. F. Assistant - these are somewhat of misc. commands grouped together. Depending on the weather and the month of the year, your assistant will have a different outfit and pose. The game designers put a startling amount of effort into this. Anyway, the commands are as follows: 1. Horse racing terms - a very handy glossary of terms used in the game. 2. Top ten horses - a list of the top ten moneymaking horses of all time. 3. Owner's ranking - shows how your experience compares to that of the other rival owners. This command also shows your two highest frienship levels. 4. Grade 1 trophies - displays all the trophies you have won from victories in grade 1 races. 5. Hall of Fame - lists the information of any of your horses that retired while on the top ten list. G. Options - game options. These are all pretty self explanatory, so I'm going to leave them without much comment. The only important one to consider is the 'race' option as it allows you to control which races you'll watch. I recommend only setting it to view your own horses, but that is just my personal preference. It'll save you a lot of time. ********************************************** IV. The races I originally thought to just make this section a simple note, but then I decided that it needed a little more explanation. This section will go over generally how the grading system of races works, and then will go into some detail about specific races that are important. A. The grading system There are several different levels of racing in Winning Post. The most important of all the races are called graded races, of which there are three types, called, uncreatively, Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3 (G1, G2, G3). The most important of these are G1 races, which generally carry first place purses of between 1 and 1.3 million dollars. G2 races generally bring in about $500,000 and G3 races about $250,00-$300,000. Naturally, since G1 races bring in the most prize money, they are also home to the fiercest of competition. A horse that is a proven G1 winner has a high chance of being named either horse of the year, or the most outstanding horse of its gender and age class. There are also races below the graded race level. There are two types of these: open/special races, and rank races. Rank races are the lowest level of racing in Winning Post and consist of maiden races (generally horses who have yet to win a single race) and under 50k or under 90k divisions. Horses may not enter into open races until they get out of any of the applicable lower ranks for their age (see the chart in section III, B, 1, h for how to advance in rank). All horses start out with their rank as maiden and have to climb up to the rank of 'open' before they can enter any graded or special race. Some really weak horses may never get to that level, even given years of racing time. B. So what races do I enter? Depending on your horses age and gender there are different races in which you want to enter. For the most part, your trainer will take care of this for you. For convenience, however I will outline the path a top contender will take in his/her 3rd and 4th years. 1. Three Year Old Colt a. February - some kind of graded race exclusively for 3 year-olds (ie the Koyodo News 3 year stakes). b. March - a qualifier for the Satsuki Sho (the Yayoi Sho, Wakaba stakes, or the Spring Stakes) c. April - the Satsuki Sho, the first G1 race for 3 year old colts d. May - either a qualifier for the Japan Derby, or nothing at all e. June - the Japan Derby, the 2nd G1 race for 3 year old colts, and one of the most important races all year. f. October - a qualfier for the Kikuka Sho g. November, wk. 1 - the Kikuka Sho, G1, last in the Japanese triple crown. The winner of the Kikuka Sho is also invited to the Japan Cup, held in wk 4 of november, by all means go, but the competition is likely to be too much for a 3 year old. h. December - The Arima Kinen - a tough race for a 3 year old, but worth entering. 2. Three Year Old Filly a. February - some graded race exclusively for fillies. b. March - a qualifier for the Oka Sho (ie the Anemone Stakes) c. April - The Oka Sho, the first G1 race for fillies d. May - either a qualifier for the Japan Oaks, or nothing at all e. June - the Japan Oaks, the most important G1 race for fillies f. October - a qualifier for the Queen Elizabeth Cup g. November - the Queen Elizabeth Cup, the last of the G1 races in the fillies' triple crown. h. December - the Arima Kinen - a very tough race for a filly, but still worth a shot. 3. 4+ year old horse, non-sprinter type, male or female a. March - A graded race, probably the Nikkei Sho (G2) b. May - the Spring Emperor's Cup, the longest G1 race at 2 miles c. June - The Takarazuka Kinen (entry determined by popular vote) d. The French Grand Prix takes place in October, but only really, really, really good horses are invited. If you go to the French Grand Prix, you won't be entered in the Autumn Emperor's cup. e. October - The Autumn Emperor's Cup f. November - The Japan Cup, entries determined by voting g. December - The Arima Kinen 4. 4+ year old horse, sprinter type, male or female. Note: You probably will have to book these races, as the trainer is likely to "go for the gusto" and try and win the emperor cup or other long distance races, which is highly unlikely with a sprinter. a. February - either the Tokyo Times cup or the February Stakes b. March - The Nakayama Kinen c. May - Either the Keio Spring Cup or the Yasuda Kinen, or both d. June - Either the New Zealand Trophy, the Hankyu Cup, or, if you feel like the horse can stretch the distance, the Takarazuka Kinen e. October - The Autumn Emperor's Cup f. November - Mile Championship g. December - The Sprinter's Stakes Keep in mind that this is just a general outline and presupposes that your horse is strong enough to compete in all of these races, and even win some of them. It is not impossible to get to these races in other ways, but this is generally the path that the strongest contender will take. Since every horse is different it is likely many paths will deviate to some degree from these examples. **************************************************** V. At The Track/Weekend Commands These commands are accessed by hitting weekend in the weekday menu. A. Race - Start and watch the current race. Before the race starts you'll be asked to approve the tactic for the race: either Bill Daly, Pace, mid-pack, or rally (see III, B, 6, h for information on these). For the most part, you should stick with their advice, unless you are the 12 post and no other horse is running a Bill Daly, in which case you should run one. During the race, your horses will be flashing. The jockey will give you a brief report following the race, and sometimes the trainer will join in. Occasionally another owner will come up and start a conversation if you both have a horse in the same race. If your horse finishes 3rd or better and ahead of his horse, he'll give you some advice, which will raise your experience level. The higher the other owner's experience, the greater yours will raise. B. Paper - two choices here, info and analysis. 1. Info - lists a great deal of information about the field. Most of it shouldn't be new, but I'll go into the unfamiliar terms. There are two pages, hit A to switch between them. a. Wt - Weight added to the horse. (See section III, B, 2, o) b. Off - how well the horse races in track conditions that aren't 'fast.' There are three options: X - the horse races below the average horse under similar conditions - the horse races no better or worse than the average horse under similiar conditions. O - the horse races better than the average horse under similar conditions. c. Tac - the tactic the jockey of each horse is planning on using. d. On the far right there are abbeviations which are the initials of the various analysts. The number underneath are their predictions for where each horse will place. You need not take these ridiculously seriously, but it doesn't hurt to keep them in mind when betting. 2. Analysis - displays the opinions of the various racing analysists that work at the track. They will say a little blurb about the race and then offer their betting selections. It doesn't hurt to take their opinions into consideration, but make sure not to overvalue what they are saying, since they are frequently wrong. C. Bet - place a bet on the race. You must be at least 21 years old to make a wager. You can make up to 5 bets on any particular race, and each bet must be between $100 and $20,000. Horse racing uses a pari-mutuel wagering system, so if you bet $100,000 dollars on a 50-1 long shot to win, you will very likely lower the actual payout somewhat. All the numbers listed on the page are the payout for a $1 bet. Thus if the odds are 10.5 and you bet $100 dollars, you will get $1050 as a return. The horses are listed in the order of their post position. Being on the inside is an advantage, as it creates a shorter track to run. Keep this in mind when betting. There are three options for wagering: 1. Win - bet that the horse will win the race (come in first place). If the horse does not win, you lose your bet. 2. Show - bet that the horse will come in first or second. If it does not, you will lose your bet. 3. Quinella - pick the two horses that will come in first and second. If either of the horses do not come in first or second, you lose your bet. D. Board - view the results of this weekend's races on the tote board. If the race has not yet been run, this command will give you the same info as the 'paper' command. After you select a race, it will show you the betting payouts, as well as a list of times of the finishers. The 'margin' column indicates how many horse lengths were between a particular horse and the horse that placed in front of it. The NK abbreviation indicates 'neck'; a NO indicates the distance was only a nose. E. Paddock - check out any of the horses in the current race at the paddock. Select a particular horse from the list and either the jockey or the trainer will muse upon the horse's chances for victory in the race. Hitting the A button on the horse selection screen will bring up a chart with various information, but nothing that isn't under the Paper -> info command. F. Next - skip this race and move to the next. If you have horses in this race, you won't watch the race, but the jockey and trainer will still give their reports. Dont' feel obligated to watch every race. ***************************************************** VI. End of the month and the Inter-month Events At the end of every month, Sakura Arima will present to you your balance sheet for the month, totaling all your income and expenses. On top of this, at the beginning of the next month a new issue of "Horse Racing Monthly" comes out. Finally, there are several special events that occur at the end of certain months, but before racing for the next month begins. I'll deal first with the magazine. A. Horse Racing Monthly - Sakura Arima will ask you every month if you want to take a look at this magazine. Every Issue contains the following information: 1. Top Jockeys - displays the jockeys with the top ten records and also their corresponding purses and winning percents. 2. Top Trainers - displays the trainers with the top ten records and also their purses, stable jockey, winning percentages, and leading earner. 3. Top Owners - displays owners with the top ten unadjusted purses and their leading earners. 4. Top Breeders - displays the breeders with the top ten purses and their leading earners. 5. Top Analysts - sorts the analysts by ROI (Return on Investment) percentage, and also shows how many times they have cashed on how many wagers. 6. Graded Races - gives a little blurb about all the graded races that are scheduled for this month. The following information appears only in the indicated month: 7. January - the special section gives a brief bio for the two new jockeys that have recently graduated riding school. 8. February - the special section gives a brief write-up for the top contenders in the east and west, and how they fared in their last race. 9. March - the special section looks at the top male and female 3 year old in the east and west, and mentions what will likely be their next race. 10. April - the special section looks as the Oka Sho and the Satsuki Sho and picks the top contenders in each. 11. May - the special section looks at the Spring Emperor's Cup and the Yasuda Kinen and picks the top contenders in each. 12. June - the special section looks at the Japan Oaks, the Japan Derby, and the Takarazuka Kinen, and picks the top contenders in each. 13. July - the special section looks at the two most promising two year olds that will start entering races this year. 14. August - the special section looks at a promising horse that will be invited to participate in the Japan Cup. Alternatively, if you are sending a horse to the French Grand Prix, it will have a little news story outlining your intentions. 15. September - the special section outlines the foal and yearling that fetched the most money at the auction in August. 16. October - the special section looks at the Autumn Emperor's cup and picks the top contender. 17. November - the special section looks at the Kikuka Sho, the Queen Elizabeth Cup, and the Mile Championship, picking the best contenders in each. It also lists the invites to the Japan Cup. 18. December - the special section looks at the Hanshin Filly Stakes, the Asahi Cup Stakes, the Sprinter's Stakes, and the Arima Kinen, and picks the top contender in each. B. Other Special Events. The following events occur as soon as the indicated month begins. 1. April - foaling. All of the broodmares who mated with a stud the previous year give birth to offspring. You can choose to visit the farms and watch this process; if you choose to do so you'll simply see a list of which horses were born this season; if you choose not to you'll simply continue on with the game. This event only occurs if you own a farm that has at least one broodmare foaling. 2. May - breeding. You will be given the option to mate your broodmares with studs. If you agree to do so, you'll be sent to the breeding screen. One by one you will select a broodmare from your farm and the stud with which you wish to mate her. The studs are sorted by the cost of their stud fees, with the highest at the top. Generally, you want to pick the best available stud you can. At the same time, however, you want a good mix of genes, so make sure not to overuse the same stud. An example to show this point: Let's say that you have three shares of breeding rights for Beyond, a stud, and three broodmares, all of which are not closely related to Beyond. Let's also assume that Beyond is the best stud you can use for stud this season. It is not a good idea to mate all three of your broodmares with Beyond, because you would have too many of Beyond's genes in your racehorses of the future and inbreeding would ultimately become a problem. Therefore, mate once with Beyond, probably with your strongest broodmare, and then choose two different mates for your other two females. Your farm manager will give you advice on the selections you choose, as well as information about each stud and broodmare. He will also mention the risks of inbreeding. For the most part, inbreeding is something that you will want to avoid, but under certain circumstances it can strengthen specific traits. Your farm manager will assess how close of an inbreed it is when you make your selection. I generally don't inbreed unless it is to either a third/fourth generation or a fourth/fourth generation (ie the stud and broodmare either share a fourth generation relative, or a third generation relative of the mare is in the fourth generation of the stud - the game calls this 3x4 and 4x4). There is a slight chance of the broodmare coming up barren after mating, in which case you will be refunded 4/3 of the stud fee. 3. July - many of your horses will be sent to their home farms to rest. There are not too many important races in the summer, so this is usually a good idea if your trainer thinks it is necessary. Also, this is when your trainer will tell you if he thinks it'd be a good idea to challenge the French Grand Prix. 4. August - the auction takes place in August. If you don't have a farm, this will be more or less your only way to get horses, so don't take it lightly. Before the auction, if you have a farm, you will be given the choice if you want to sell any of your foals at the auction. If you choose to, you'll be given a list of all the foals born at your farm, and will be able to choose from those which you want to sell. Your farm manager will attempt to guess how much money the horse will fetch at auction. After you select which horses to sell, or if you don't have a farm, you'll be asked if you want to bring a trainer with you for advice. Definitely do this; he'll be a great help. It is better to pick a trainer with high experience, although you won't be able to see this number when selecting. Once you get to the auction, you'll see the following commands: a. list - lists all the horses at the auction according to age and gender. They will be sorted by their first bid price. b. advice - your trainer, if present, will pick out five horses that look particularly promising at the auction. His advice is generally good, so it would be prudent to check some of these horses for bidding. c. guide - Sakura Arima will give you a quick overview of how the auction works. d. auction - start the auction. You can only bid on horses that you have marked previously, either at their farms or with the list/ advice commands at the auction house. e. return - leave the auction without bidding. Be careful not to choose this accidentally. Finally, remember that no matter what you can have no more than 7 horses of any age, including foals and yearlings, and that this counts the horses produced at your farm. 5. Late December/Early January - at the end of the year awards are are given out for remarkable horses, trainers, ownwers, breeders, and jockeys. Two jockeys will also retire. On top of this, all of your racehorses and broodmares will age a year. No matter what, if a horse turns 7, or a broodmare turns 15, they will retire. Your trainers will also go through all their horses and give you their advice on how much longer they ought to train and race. For the most part, male horses can stick around and still win up until they are at least 5, females generally retire around 4 or 5. Generally, it is best to take your trainer's advice, unless they are telling you to retire a proven winner who is still doing quite well. At the beginning of January, your trainers will go through all their horses and tell you their general status and what their first race of the new year will be. *************************************************** VII. Credits Thanks to Nicole Xhilone (pronounced X-ill-on) for reading this guide over for me. Thanks to Koei for actually releasing this game in the US. **************************************************** VIII. Legal This guide is copyright 2004 by Greg Hartman The game is copyright 1996 by Koei The only sites that are allowed to post this guide are: http://www.gamefaqs.com http://www.cheats.de http://faqs.ign.com http://www.neoseeker.com If you are interested in posting this guide on your website, please contact me and i will seriously consider your request. It is illegal to post this guide without permission, and only a real weiner of a person would think of doing so.