This horse appears to be a sprinter.
This horse appears to be primarily a miler.
This horse looks like it can run at classic distances.
This horse likes a lot of distance.
I believe that these are the most troublesome lines on the
AR. To try to help determine what those
lines mean I started to look at the player stallions and their AR’s. I chose the player stallions because of the access to the stallion AR's and was hoping that as players we kept the best stallions in the game.
There are currently 172 player stallions that have the line
that states whether they are going to be a sprinter, miler, classic or distance
horse.
I then looked at what is referred to as the “kick rating”
for all those stallions to try to see if there was any relation. These are the numbers I found.
The average kick rating for the 172 stallions was 818.
Stallions with the sprinter classification had kick ratings
from 458 – 700.
Stallions with the miler classification had kick ratings
from 562-722.
Stallions with the classic classification had kick ratings
from 658 – 928.
Stallions with the distance classification had kick ratings
from 724 – 1250.
Since there were overlapping numbers between classifications
I looked at how many stallions were in each classification.
There were 14 sprinters (8.1%), 32 milers (18.6%), classic
56 (32.6%) and distance 70 (40.7%).
I then looked at the stallion’s stamina number to see if
there was any relation to the distance tag.
Here is the breakout for stallions with the different
stamina ratings.
66 – 0 sprint, 0 miler, 0 classic, 1 distance
67 – 11 sprint, 2 milers, 4 classic, 3 distance
68 – 0 sprint, 6 milers, 3 classic, 5 distance
69 – 1 sprint, 7 milers, 5 classic, 6 distance
70 – 2 sprint, 3 milers, 9 classic, 7 distance
71 – 0 sprint, 7 milers, 13 classic, 16 distance
72 – 0 sprint, 5 milers, 9 classic, 11 distance
73 – 0 sprint, 1 miler, 7 classic, 9 distance
74 – 0 sprint, 1 miler, 7 classic, 12 distance
With the likes lots of distance line showing up in all the
stamina numbers, I then wondered what effect the kick rating had on the outcome
of races. So I then looked at all the
horses that were winners in purses of $1,000,000 or more. The average kick rating of those 41 horses
that were winners in purses over $1,000,000 was 881. When the horses were eliminated that won
races shorter than 8 furlongs, the average kick jumped to 914.
12 were distance only classification.
23 could be in either distance or classic classifications.
3 could be in classic or miler classifications.
1 could be in classic, miler or sprint classification.
2 could be in miler or sprint classification.
None were sprint only classification.
Based on those numbers I believe that the “distance” line is
more of a way determining which horses will do better versus top
competition.
I know this is only one piece of the puzzle on what makes a
horse successful but I will be paying more attention to this rating when
purchasing or selecting horses to keep.
3 comments:
When I see "kick rating" mentioned, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
Sorry to hear that.
With all the speed and stamina caps placed on horses, this is one of the few areas that are available to try to improve our horses through breeding.
I just cringe each season when the AR's of the new foals come out and owners start talking about all their "lots of distance" foals when in reality a very few will ever be effective at distances longer than 12 furlongs.
Haha... the Kick thing always brings out the naysayers. Several people have told me that it doesn't mean what I think it does, but I have to respectfully disagree.
I have been pouring over these numbers for years, and the one thing I can tell you with ABSOLUTE certainty, is that Kick matters. A horse with 73 Stamina and 700 Kick will be awful at 16F while a horse with a 73/1150 line will handle 16F well. Of course 74 is the optimal SDtamina for 16F types, but that is a different matter.
At any distance, sprinter, miler, classic, or distance, the higher the Kick the better. I don't know the exact mechanics of it, or why some people doubt Kick's value, I only know what I observe and I have observed hundreds of racers who can't finish effectively because of their substandard Kick rating.
I think breeding for Kick is just as important as breeding for Stamina or anything else.
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