By Zane — General Manager of Bukidnon Farms ⛰, Updated Season 21

Before getting into the race types, the decision tree for racing starts with Distance and Weather

Finding the “Preferred Distance” (PD) or “Distance Preference” (DP) for your horse is a key goal of the 2yo season. The sooner and more accurately you achieve this the sooner you can start winning races and making money. Correct distance along with correct race type is a good basic target to aim for when it comes to successful racing

The significance of weather is outside the scope of this article. In general, distance is much more important than weather because weather is random, and some fields (RD, LT) can care less about weather

Open Stakes / Grade I, II, III / “Graded Stakes”

• No restrictions. Open division. This is where the best, fastest, and most competitive horses in the game run. Largest buy ins create the largest pots to win. This is how you can make money off truly top horses. Winning these races is glorious and can feel amazing
• Usually filled with S and S+ as well as super-strong S- horses. High grade is important, but not all S and S+ can compete here. It’s only for top horses running at the top of their game
• Open Stakes races are the most stimulated (Value of Crown vs. Cost of Entry Fee) and wagered races. PFL wants you to compete at the top, now or in the future. The game is Play To Win! Competitive people love to win, and love winning big even more
• The current format for Open Stakes races is as followed
  • Once per week, for each field (RD, LD, RT, LT) there is a G1 Kingmaker race. It is free to enter, and the prize pot is a large amount of CROWN. This is unique because the Majors and Grade Restricted Championships award DERBY to their winners. These races take place on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Monday of the season (the 1st Monday of the season is Foal’s Day)
  • In order to enter the G1 Kingmaker, your horse run in three GII or GIII races in the 8 days prior. The difference between GII and GIII is purely entry fee. Players will tend to enter their horses where they feel they are best all things equal—you do really want to Win (or Show… or Place) in these races in order to win big pots and generous amounts of CROWN all at once
  • At the time of writing, it is actually quite hard to see and coordinate this racing pathway. When you use the “Find Race” feature for your horse, Kingmaker races will not be shown because you haven’t completely the requirement of 3x GII/GIII races. The solution is as follows:
    • https://photofinish.live/races?typeFilter=110_130_150&name=kingmaker — Filter for upcoming Kingmaker races, pay attention to the ones in the fields that you’re playing, e.g. Left Turf if that’s where your strong S and S+ horses are
    • Write down the upcoming races. It’ll be important that your horse(s) are viable at that distance because you don’t win anything if you come last.
    • Plan which horses can run in the upcoming Kingmaker race. Now you can check out their upcoming races via Find Race and plan out which 3x GII / GIII races are the best
    • Note that within the span of 8 days, you will be able to race more than 3 times, so it’s possible to weave in these GII/GIII races amidst Qualifying, just watch and plan carefully!

The Majors

• Major races are Open Stakes (G1) races and their qualifiers and are only available to 3yo horses only
• Major Races: Virtual Kentucky Derby (Left Dirt), Harbor Classic (Left Turf), Artemis Cup (Right Turf), Third Time Championship (Right Dirt) — $10,000 total purse, run once per season 10 Furlongs
• There are also Major races for short distance (”Sprint”) and medium distance (”Gallop”). These also have $10,000 total purses, and are run once per season at the same time as the 10 furlong “Derby” versions
• “The Majors” — A total $120,000 of Juice is available per season through these prestigious twelve races! Serious stables (that’s you!) will want to “take a shot” at the Majors every season. For the Glory and the Cash!
• In order to qualify for a Major, you must earn Qualifying Points in Qualifier races that belong to the Major series during the week leading up to the Major, e.g. a 9 Furlong Harbor Classic Qualifier in order to qualify for the Harbor Classic
• Qualifying races have the usual large entry fee + large crown gift arrangement
• The horses with the top 20 most Qualifier points are guaranteed to a spot in the major. Horses below this 20, that have at least 1 point are said to be “below the cut line” and can still enter the Major race, but they will get booted by horses that are higher priority in terms of Qualifier points
• Major races are “Freerolls”—unlike their high-priced Qualifiers, they are costless to enter for horses that have qualified