February Maiden Turf (Feb/Wk2)

[Snowflake]

February Maiden Turf

<sub>Hello and welcome to the Y9 running of the February Maiden Turf!

Past Winners
None yet</sub>

RACE INFO
Eight Furlongs
Turf

Judge = Wanted

RULES
x 2-4yo Open Gender
x Maiden only
x Three Horses Per Member
x Post link to stats
x Comply with racing rules

PRiZES
1ST PLACE = $100,000
2ND PLACE = $50,000
3RD PLACE = $25,000

ENTRANTS

__ Entries

[/sub]

[Snowflake]

Green Horse Stables
Flawed Princess

[S u N f r O s t ~]

One With Gold jockeyed by Krystal Yhate

[Kirsten Jade]

THE INNOCENT SKIER "Ian"
ridden by Aaron Phillip.

[Snowflake]

Need judge!

[tigrisrunner]

Battle Brook Stable:

Winning Touch, ridden by Ripley Marsh

[axelle]

^{I can judge.}

[Snowflake]

Thanks! Ready

[axelle]

<sup>February Maiden Turf
MDN, 8 Furlongs on Turf, 2-4yo Open

1. Flawed Princess - 97.48s
2. The Innocent Skier - 98.74s
3. Winning Touch - 99.12s
4. One With Gold - 99.87s

Flawed Princess: Another stellar day for this mare! She almost knocked herself out of the running in this one and proved to be a true superstar to get herself back up to win today! After warming herself up before the gates she seemed like she might run out of energy during the race, sweating before she got out of the gates. Throughout the race she ran rank, getting out of control and playing with her rider. She's really got a lot of potential and I love how you write her personality. You make it sound like a person rather than just a horse. Good luck with her!

The Innocent Skier: Very descriptive, he seems like he's got a lot of potential! I'm pretty sure he would have owned this race if it wasn't for Flawed Princess' rank run. I would recommend doing an individual workout or just an individual post with him to let the readers/judges get to know him better, as you have only included him in group posts. He seemed to enjoy the fast paced set by Flawed Princess. He seemed to just be digging into the turf and enjoying himself today. Loving and taking advantage of running on such a gorgeous warm-like February day. Keep up the good work!

Winning Touch: She did really well, positioning wise in the race. Flawed Princess had ran in front of her because of her wildness and Winning Touch was able to set her pace and position really well because of that. She was comfortable through the whole race, running easily with One With Gold and The Innocent Skier. I would like to know more about her running style on her page. You compare her personality to her parents and inform the read on some of her habits, but I'm curious about how she acts on the track. How well she does in training. What she likes and dislikes. Keep working with her!

One With Gold: I still just don't get a feeling with her. She doesn't have any workouts listed on her page and I have a bit of difficulty finding her running preferences. Her description is good nad her personality stands out, but I'd recommending doing some work with her. She seemed to have a comfortable race but just couldn't manage to use her agility to her advantage as the others just seemed to outrun her. Especially with Flawed Princess' wild fast run.</sup>

[tigrisrunner]

I'm glad we've got a bit of diversification in judging techniques. I also have to say I'm very proud to have such a consistent maiden runner xD. I've never quite managed to remain stuck this long. Your comment on how I don't have her running style up (which I do, she's a stalker) kind of makes me agitated. I don't like to put that stuff in my info. Everyone else has that stuff there. Sure it makes it easier judging wise, but this is an rpg racing site.

Winning Touch's personality is clearly explained, but it comes to life in her workouts. I write them because I know people read them. I know many don't quite like that I write so much, but it's the basis of this site so I am going to do all of my defining of my horses there. I've worked plenty with her and she's run against everyone that she can at the moment, but it should be recognized that I do the details in my workouts. It makes my style unique from everyone elses.

I'm sorry I kind of went into a tirade over this, but I needed to get it out here xD. Now I'll be working my butt off with this filly because she's my absolute favorite (besides El Sol del Mar and The Devil of course).

[Snowflake]

Yay! Thanks so so much ;D

[prieppe]

<sup>Axelle came to me with some help on who to judge/looking for racing styles on pages and such so I can try and help with your problem Ripley.

We don't always need a definitive "Racing Style: Stalker" kind of thing, because I know some horses have it in their personalities that it says, "Oh, and Star prefers mid-pack" or something along those lines. It's just that when she read it and I read it, we didn't get a sense of that being about your horse, just more about bragging about the parents. How she's got this from her sire/dam, how she's like them. That's very good to have, but I'd rather read how the horse acts. I could see she didn't like the gate, so that's a quirk, but bringing life to the barn isn't exactly helping on the race track.

If you compare that to Flawed Princess' page, Amira's page is as though you are actually talking about a horse and not so much trying to personify them and make it as though they are human. Which they are not, they are animals. It was also shorter and sweeter, and had two seperate places where you could write about personality and then pedigree comments. Not all together. Then racing style, is described, not just written in as "Stalker" or one of those things.

So her personality isn't actually cleared explained to those judging. It's mostly, "Oh, she has a habit of this" "She brings life to the track" "She's like her parents" but it's good to have an updated personality on her page as you work her. Yes, workouts do play in it, however the page can mean more than you think. I should know, considering I was lectured about it, haha.

I just thought I would help explaining. We've been in the racing world a bit longer than you might think but I wanted a tiny bit of experience judging GHF's horses before I offer to judge on my own. That's part of the reason why I glanced over the horses with her, that and she asked me for help in some areas.</sup>

[axelle]

Feb 5, 2010 23:24:11 GMT -5 @tigrisrunner said:

I'm glad we've got a bit of diversification in judging techniques. I also have to say I'm very proud to have such a consistent maiden runner xD. I've never quite managed to remain stuck this long. Your comment on how I don't have her running style up (which I do, she's a stalker) kind of makes me agitated. I don't like to put that stuff in my info. Everyone else has that stuff there. Sure it makes it easier judging wise, but this is an rpg racing site.

[/color][/quote]

^{I'm still trying to learn the ropes for what gets looked at most and what doesn't in judging. I know she's a stalker, I could see that on her page but that wasn't what I meant. I would love to know how she acts before a race (for example, if I remember right, One With Gold love showing off before a race. Flawed Princess is a tank when she's running on the track, things like that) without having to read through all her workouts. Sometimes judges don't have the time to read all the horse's workouts to get a feel for them. I'm not saying it's needed, I'm just saying it might help. Of course, in the end how you want to play is how you want to play. I hope that makes sense. I'm sorry for agitating you a bit.}

Feb 5, 2010 23:24:11 GMT -5 @tigrisrunner said:

Winning Touch's personality is clearly explained, but it comes to life in her workouts. I write them because I know people read them. I know many don't quite like that I write so much, but it's the basis of this site so I am going to do all of my defining of my horses there. I've worked plenty with her and she's run against everyone that she can at the moment, but it should be recognized that I do the details in my workouts. It makes my style unique from everyone elses.

^{I understand that. But as I said not all judges have the time read workouts. This race is an example of how I didn't have enough time to read through all the workouts. I skimmed through them, looked a bit of passed experience [not much], and then the personality part of the page was a lot of what this race was weighed on. Simply because I did not have time, otherwise I would have looked over workouts and such. It seemed to me that the personality on her page was more of her.. habits? If I'm wording myself right. I understand how you do workouts, I do the same thing. I was doing that for a few weeks until it was recommended to me to make individual horse pages with included a personality description. Again, I'm not saying you need to change anything. Your style is unique.}

Feb 5, 2010 23:24:11 GMT -5 @tigrisrunner said:

I'm sorry I kind of went into a tirade over this, but I needed to get it out here xD. Now I'll be working my butt off with this filly because she's my absolute favorite (besides El Sol del Mar and The Devil of course).

^{Of course! It's not a problem to bring these kinds of things up and want clarification. She's got a lot of potential to do well. I'm sure she'll be a superstar in her next race. Again, sorry for agitating you. I hope this was understandable and made sense. If you'd like to continue talking about this you can PM me if you wish.} [/blockquote]

[Kirsten Jade]

thanks for ian's place although his last workout was an individual workout just saying... haha

[sinful]

"If you compare that to Flawed Princess' page, Amira's page is as though you are actually talking about a horse and not so much trying to personify them and make it as though they are human. Which they are not, they are animals. It was also shorter and sweeter, and had two seperate places where you could write about personality and then pedigree comments. Not all together. Then racing style, is described, not just written in as "Stalker" or one of those things."

We all have are own little thing we do. Over time, judges tell us to add more this, say stuff about parents, say how she does at races, blah blah. So we add more and more. Some judges like a long Personality, but not a short and sweet one like Snowy. No offense Snowy
I think Ripley's page is perfectly fine. I don't think she should change her whole personality/ page set up when everything is there, thats all that matters.

Some people have there pages set up differently. It is not required to have their racing style described. People do as them please, and all that matters is that the type of runner the horse is, is there. I don't think a horse should place better just cause it describe.

" looked a bit of passed experience [not much]"

Past experience should play a big role! A Triple Crown winner isn't going to place dead last to a maiden. You need to rethink that. Maiden races you should look at past races, and the more races the more experience, the better they are at racing. And with maiden races, personality and workouts come in play.

I say if you offer to judge, it should be only yourself judging, not two people....
Im not meaning to be rude to you guys, you would should just sit back and watch the other, older members judge and learn the ropes a bit more. Go back in the older results, and see how they are judged. Read the judging guidelines if you haven' already. You guys are doing great, but I just don't like how you are going all tell Ripley she needs her stats format changed(to me thats what it seems like). I don't disagree with the judging really itself. If you go look at every member on here, we each have our own stats format, totally different. I doubt you will found two the same. There is no rule telling us they have to be the same.

[sam]

Feb 6, 2010 10:04:28 GMT -5 @prieppe said:

^{If you compare that to Flawed Princess' page, Amira's page is as though you are actually talking about a horse and not so much trying to personify them and make it as though they are human. Which they are not, they are animals. It was also shorter and sweeter, and had two seperate places where you could write about personality and then pedigree comments. Not all together. Then racing style, is described, not just written in as "Stalker" or one of those things.}

Just wanted to point this out:
Most judges, myself included, love to see nice long personalities. For me, when I judge, short and sweet won't cut it.

Ripley's personality seems fine to me. Not everything about the horse's personality must be about the race track. Take my own champ for example (Nut - and yes, I love showing her off lol) more then half of her personality isn't about her racing. It's about her being herself. Sure, me going into detail about her concept of the love-hate relationship between her and her grooms isn't going to help her on the track, but it helps to have her stand out in the judge's mind. (Besides, I just like making personalities and all their little quirks XD)

And Prieppe, I wasn't lecturing you about it ^.^ It was nearly a copy-and-paste of how I had to explain it to my other friends who tried Sims (And gave up after the first day lol) I wasn't trying to be mean or anything about it, just givin' the facts ^.^
Sorry if it seemed or felt like a lecture to you lol

EDIT
XP Just realized how nosy I look
But I go through and see who won what
... Ok, that still makes me look nosy lol

EDIT 2.0
XP My horses don't have their leg types put in, mainly because I know horses switch their style very often and don't want my horse to be stuck with a style they would normally just switch out of (... That probably didn't make sense as I'm on cold pills right now until I fall to sleep XP)

[Snowflake]

I actually prefer shorter ones.. Just a good paragraph (six or seven sentences) is great. When they are really long, I don't bother to read the whole thing, just skim though it, which is the same with workouts.
Personalities develop for my horses over time, so by the time they retire their personalities are pretty lengthly. Horses are just horses, after all.. special ones with different personalities aren't too common.. they are either spirited and ready to go, slightly crazy and aggressive, or calm and eager to please. And all horses are greedy hehe.
The True Nut was one of the special ones, Sam She has a memorable personality, which is why she was successful


what i like in a personality is a few general describing words, likes and dislikes, what their behaviour is like on the track and in the barn, and thats about it i think. Not all horses have this crazy desire to win, they just do as their told because they get rewarded afterwards

[axelle]

I think Ripley's page is perfectly fine. I don't think she should change her whole personality/ page set up when everything is there, thats all that matters.

Some people have there pages set up differently. It is not required to have their racing style described. People do as them please, and all that matters is that the type of runner the horse is, is there. I don't think a horse should place better just cause it describe.

I never once said to Ripley that she needed to make changes to the way she did things or the way she set things up. I just mentioned some suggestions I thought would be nice, but they definately don't need to be followed through with if she doesn't want to do it. I'm fine with everyone playing how they want to play and I'm not about to go around bossing people to change it. xD

looked a bit of passed experience [not much]

Past experience should play a big role! A Triple Crown winner isn't going to place dead last to a maiden. You need to rethink that. Maiden races you should look at past races, and the more races the more experience, the better they are at racing. And with maiden races, personality and workouts come in play.

I meant for this particular race as I didn't have a lot of time to go through a lot of things. I judged this race based mostly off personality. Experience plays a big part in races for me most of the time, unless specified. [like this race]

I say if you offer to judge, it should be only yourself judging, not two people....
Im not meaning to be rude to you guys, you would should just sit back and watch the other, older members judge and learn the ropes a bit more. Go back in the older results, and see how they are judged. Read the judging guidelines if you haven' already. You guys are doing great, but I just don't like how you are going all tell Ripley she needs her stats format changed(to me thats what it seems like). I don't disagree with the judging really itself. If you go look at every member on here, we each have our own stats format, totally different. I doubt you will found two the same. There is no rule telling us they have to be the same.

She wasn't judging with me. I asked her for an opinion on something to see what she thought, but in the end I ended up just doing my own thing. She in no way knew anything related to the results of this race, how it was to be run, anything. She simply gave me some direction on where to think. Also, again, I never said Ripley needed to change her stats format. However she would like to play she can play. I've been saying that throughout most of my posts.

[sam]

Feb 9, 2010 5:01:14 GMT -5 Snowflake said:

I actually prefer shorter ones.. Just a good paragraph (six or seven sentences) is great. When they are really long, I don't bother to read the whole thing, just skim though it, which is the same with workouts.
Personalities develop for my horses over time, so by the time they retire their personalities are pretty lengthly. Horses are just horses, after all.. special ones with different personalities aren't too common.. they are either spirited and ready to go, slightly crazy and aggressive, or calm and eager to please. And all horses are greedy hehe.
The True Nut was one of the special ones, Sam She has a memorable personality, which is why she was successful


what i like in a personality is a few general describing words, likes and dislikes, what their behaviour is like on the track and in the barn, and thats about it i think. Not all horses have this crazy desire to win, they just do as their told because they get rewarded afterwards

XD Emphasis on special

lol My horses always end up acting more human then horse (though to be honest, most of the horses I know act more human then horse XD Freak ponies, I tell ya') but it makes interesting personalities and it helps to make it seem like each horse is different and special in it's own way. A good sum of my horses don't particularly like just galloping their heart out, instead they'd rather race (which is very similar to a few horses I know so I know this trait is both desirable and realistic)

But even though I do love long personalities, the boring ones I am also guilty of just skim over unless it's an interesting horse (like The Devil and Ario was pretty interesting to read about)

[S u N f r O s t ~]

I like this thread. It has some nice little discussions on judging. But here's my bit...

I think every person should be allowed to judge however he/she wants, within reason of course. If every person judged the same way and on the same things then all the results would the same! So, in my opinion, I think that Axelle is well within her own rights to comment on Ripley's personality. She can judge how she wants, and Ripley can also do what she wishes with the personality. Ripley can choose to either edit the personality to suit Axelle's feedback or leave it

I also think it was all right, just this one time, for Axelle to go to Prieppe for some help. They're both new members who aren't as experienced and knowledgeable about our racing circuit yet, so it only makes sense for one to help the other out. With their combined knowledge and opinions, judging would be a lot easier. Two heads are better than one! ;D

Now for my rant on judging....

I usually judge based on a combination of personality, suitability to the distance, workouts, and past record. Some days others are weighted more than the rest, other days they're just different. Sometimes a horse will just have an off day, other times they'll be on their game and ready to go. By using a variable judging style, my results come out different and help out every horse by judging on a diverse amount of characteristics. This keeps it nice and enjoyable for me, the judger, and also provides for an extra element of surprise to people looking for my results ;D

By the way, Axelle, I changed up Goldie's personality a bit I think it should be a bit more clear now lol.