Horse Racing Manager for Windows

Ah yes, horse racing; the sport of kings. Before owning his game horse racing was something which existed only to clog up TV schedules and to keep Clare Balding in work. Now that I do own it my opinion has changed, but only a little bit.

Horse Racing Manager is in itself a good, surprisingly addictive game. It is essentially every other sports management sim, except with horses. You start with a shed load of money and it s your job to first buy, train, race and then breed your way to an equestrian empire. And in that quest it is very easy to become addicted. Seriously, I don t care a jot about short men wearing pyjamas flogging horses half to death for sport but I did find myself caring about Southern Princess not having that extra kick of speed down the home stretch.

The game itself is split into two main parts, the stable and the track. The stable, is unsurprisingly, your base. Here you can buy horses, hire trainers and stable lads and what not, set training schedules, consult doctors and any number of other options. In short you can micro-manage your stable to almost the last detail. Perhaps, most importantly you can enter your charges in races and meetings, probably the games biggest selling point.

The race meeting is probably the highlight of the game, because it really is quite fun. It boasts an on-line option that admittedly I haven t used yet but imagine it s the most fun you can have with your trousers on. Not only can you watch the race (with almost TV quality graphics) from the hospitality box like all trainers should, you can place bets on other races taking place that meeting, and most importantly control the horse itself. By control, I do mean control, it is up to you to set the pace, line and tempo of the horse. Do you break early and hang on, or fly down the straight? Only knowledge of your horse and help from the jockey can tell you that. Admittedly, how much you can actually change is tempered by the nature of the sport but the rush you get when you ve broken early and hang on by a neck for a win at the line is exhilarating. As I said, competing against any number of your friends on-line would be awesome.

If the race itself is so much fun why have I not ranked it higher? Unfortunately there are just too many foibles with the game for me to give it an excellent rating. The best sports sim around has to be the Championship Manager/Football Manager Series. The interface is superb, everything is arranged nicely and the game is heavy on statistics without causing you to drown in them. However, there is a generally rushed feel to Horse Racing Manager that creates very minor annoyances, just minor things such as lacking knowledge of the competition before you spend money to enter a meeting. Many a time s I ve turned and been creamed because I was in too a high a group. Finding this out only once I started is just frustrating. It also seems unnecessarily hard to find out how your training programme is taking effect or even if it s the best one for your horse; a message from your trainer recommending more speed work, for example, would help immeasurably. Again these are minor things, but something that should have been ironed out.

The same problem exists in the race itself, although it looks beautiful and sounds good; after a while it becomes slightly hollow. There seems to be no middle ground, you come either dead last or romp away with it, either too easy or too disconcerting to continue. One of the features of the game is the ability to higher jockeys for specific races, presumably like real life; the jockeys are rated according to demeanour, Authoritarian, Caring etc. It obviously helps to find a jockey that matches your horse, and as such you are given a report from the jockey about how the horse handled; often you find that your jockey and horse didn t match in terms of personality. Unfortunately you are never told what might, consequently you can waste months looking for a good jockey. Also, when you win a big race is it too much for a cut screen showing a trophy, I know its shallow but it would have been nice.

As I said, these are just minor faults but they ruin the experience, like a quick horse that runs out of steam, it may be good but it isn t a champion. However, there are enough quality ideas to make future instalments worth looking out for.