He's not a flesh-and-blood horse, but still....
I've been playing simhorseracing.com since January 2009. In those thirty game years (Year 24 to Year 53), I've built a massive international empire and have had oodles of top horses of various breeds and types. But many of my fellow players have been shocked when I would point out that I've never even had a starter in any of the American Triple Crown races, because I'd never had a top quality dirt router. A dirt router being a horse that specializes in races more than a mile on dirt (as opposed to turf or All Weather surface, and as opposed to a sprinter or a miler).
A few years back, I did finally enter a horse in the Louisville Derby (the game's Kentucky Derby) but his qualifications were iffy, and he indeed ran 12th of 15. I ran a different horse in the Baltimore Crown (Preakness equivalent) and ran 5th of 5, but did pick up $30,000 for the effort. The following year I had a much better horse than those two, Hurricane Storm, but he wasn't looking like quite a top three-year-old, so I skipped the Kentucky Derby. He then ran 8th and 9th in the Baltimore Crown and Long Island Classic (Belmont equivalent). From that point on, he became a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner and has been consistently good in races of 1-1/2 miles or longer, but he hadn't yet reached his peak during the Triple Crown.
The owner of the game, The Steward, doesn't race horses, but she breeds horses and puts them up for auction when they're young. While she breeds duds like all the players, she also breeds more stakes winners than other players, so her youngsters go for high prices (which serve to pull money out of the game and thereby keep inflation in check).
Two years ago, I went to the hefty price of $5 million to obtain yearling Avatar from one of those Steward-bred auctions. The game's economics pretty much follow real life, so while that wasn't the top price, it was among the highest, and I've only paid more for a horse a few times. (Hurricane Storm had cost a whopping $7 million.) Avatar had outstanding breeding, but I mainly chose him because of his name. When I was a teenager in 1975, a horse named Avatar won the Belmont Stakes and was second in the Kentucky Derby, after being badly interfered with by the horse that finished third. However, The Steward hadn't even been born yet, so I suspected that she named him after the movie Avatar, which I'd never seen. After I successfully acquired him from the auction, and he had a "please don't change name" request from The Steward in the notes, I confirmed with her that he was indeed named after the movie, which she declared to be "my all time favorite". Prior to that, her favorite was Harry Potter, and a horse she'd given that name turned out to be one of the most outstanding horses in the history of the game. Since the Steward can see the numbers that makes up the horse's ability, she knows ahead of time ones are going to be good. So, being named after his breeder's all time favorite movie boded well for Avatar's future.
According to the Horse Whisperer in the game, Avatar has a preference for sloppy tracks. Last season, I debuted him in a maiden special weight in the slop near my farm in Brazil, where he was much the best, and ran a sizzling 99 speed figure. (100 would have matched the track record.) He was shipped to California for a minor stakes on a sloppy track and won that easily, as well. Then he stepped up to Grade 1 competition on a fast track. He lingered in mid pack a little too long, and then just missed catching the leader by a nose. Both he and the winner ran 99 speed figures. That concluded his juvenile season.
As a three-year-old, Avatar stayed in California and won a Grade 3 stakes on a muddy track, and then took a Grade 2 in the mud. In the latter race, he stumbled badly at the start, but still recovered to just get up by a nose.
Now, he's been shipped to Kentucky for next Friday night's Louisville Derby, where he's among the top choices. Unfortunately, the track is fast, so he'll be at a slight disadvantage. Plus the competition, as always, will be super tough. The Steward mentioned to me in a passing email, "This is a bad year to be a three-year-old. There's so many good ones." I won't be disappointed if he loses, but definitely will be if he runs poorly. If he could nail of one of the three Triple Crown races, that would be quite an accomplishment, as a "finally" on top of so many of my other accomplishments in the game.
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