Races

Every race in Padooko is run live: eight horses break from the gate together, and each one is ridden by its owner. This guide covers the kinds of race, how to enter one, how fields are kept fair and how the prize is shared out. How to ride the race itself is in Race tactics.

Kinds of race

Lobbies: three races, always open

The Races tab always holds three lobbies, one for each distance band:

Each lobby card shows the distance, the surface (dirt, turf or synthetic), the going, the track and the class. The moment a lobby is called to the gate, a new one opens in the same band, so a band is never empty. Lobby races are named after places, like "Erciyes Stakes" or "Uludağ Cup."

Divisions: nobody waits in line

When you tap a lobby, you're really choosing a race. If that lobby is full, has been called, or your horse doesn't fit its field, you don't queue: your horse goes into another division of the same race, or a new one opens for it. It's just like a real track splitting an oversubscribed race in two; the second one shows up as "Division 2."

A yard can have at most one horse in the filling divisions of the same race. For a second horse, wait until the first one's race is called.

Feature races: the big days of the season

Every season has eight feature races, each opening in its own month on the calendar. These races (the Gazi Stakes, the Presidential Cup, the Champions Stakes and the rest) have a fixed distance and surface, a minimum rating and an age window. Entries open a while before the start and close as the start draws near. Their prizes are far bigger than lobby races, they count double in the season standings, and the winner takes home that race's own trophy. More in Season and rating.

The weekly cup

Every real week there's a themed cup: sprint one week, turf the next, then mile, dirt, long distance and synthetic. Every lobby or feature race that fits the week's theme scores points, and your yard's cup score is the total of its ten best runs that week. You need at least three scoring runs to be ranked. When the week closes, Doko prizes go straight into the wallets of the top places, and the winner also gets a Gold Crate voucher. The banner on the Races tab shows the theme, the time left and your position.

The practice run

Every account's first race is a free practice run. No entry fee, no prize, and no wait left on your horse. It's for learning the controls, and it only opens once.

Classes

Every horse has a rating, and the rating sets its class:

A horse may run in its own class or one above. A horse that has never won may also drop one class, to find its level. The first horse into a lobby sets its class, and every later entry has to fit it. The higher the class, the bigger the entry fee and the prize.

In the Handicap class, horses carry weight according to how much stronger they are than the field's middle. The strong horse is still the favorite, but it gives part of its edge back in weight. See Tracks.

A rating only moves with what a horse does on the track; Doko, age and stats don't touch it. How the ladder works is in Season and rating.

Fair fields: the power window

Class measures a horse's record, but on its own it can't keep fields fair: a horse bought at the market with an empty record and very strong stats still reads as a maiden. So every horse also has a power value. Power sums up, in one number, what the horse can put on the track today: its stats, its age, its character and its gear. The race conditions, condition, morale and the jockey are not part of power.

A lobby locks to a range around the power of the first horse in. A horse outside that range, too strong or too weak, can't join that field; it goes into a division of its own level instead. That's why your new foal won't meet the season's champion at the gate. The board shows every horse's power and the field's range.

Entering a race

The race button on your horse's card finds the lobby that best fits the horse's distance. The entry sheet shows:

• Fit: how well the distance, surface and going suit your horse: good, fair or poor.
• Slot and fee: you don't pick the slot; the next free one is yours. The inside slot (1) is cheapest; a late entry pays more, but takes a bigger share of the pot if it wins.
• Jockey: who rides this race and the fee. See Jockeys.

The moment you enter, the horse's gear is locked until the race. When the field fills you're called to the gate, and the screen takes you there automatically a few seconds before the start.

If a horse can't enter, its card says why: not yet of racing age, injured, exhausted (condition drained) or still resting from its last race. The rest after a race is short; what really limits how often a horse runs is its condition and fatigue, not the clock.

How the prize is shared

Padooko's payout follows the way real racetracks share out prize money:

• Every horse in the top four gets its own entry fee back.
• The entry fees from fifth place down form a pot that, after a small cut, is shared among the top four. The winner gets the biggest share and fourth the smallest, and each share also scales with what you paid to enter.
• On top of that, the game pays a house prize to the horses in the top four. The house prize is paid in full in your yard's first races of the day; in later races it drops to half, then a quarter, and after a point it isn't paid.

No horse in the top four ever gets back less than its entry. Because of the house prize, your first few races of the day are the most valuable: choosing good races beats running lots of them.

There is no betting in Padooko. You enter races only with your own horse, and you earn only by how your horse finishes.

After the race

The results table shows the finishing order, the margins in lengths and what you earned. The race moves your horse's rating, form and morale: a win lifts morale, a bad finish knocks it. Racing also tires the horse, so check its condition before the next run.

You can also join races on the board as a spectator. And if you lose your connection during your own race, your horse keeps running; when you're back, you take the reins again. Riding it yourself always gets the better result.

Next: Race tactics and Tracks.