I'd like to preface this by saying that there is no one way to do this, and we all handle things a little bit differently. However, as my racing string has swelled to a whopping 55, I'm qualified to give at least one little how-to guide! This comes on the back of some members over the months and years sometimes struggling to handle the number of horses they race. It's not necessarily easy, but there are some tips that can help make entries and racing a little bit more streamlined.


1) Have an active racers list. For me, this is a make-or-break in managing my string. Mine is located here, for reference. I include their barn name, gender, grade (which they're separated by), distance preference, and surface preference. Within grades I separate them by surface, then distance - just to make things as systematic as possible, and so I can have direct evidence of clashes, etc. You'll notice in mine there are a bunch of clashes - many of these were unplanned, but they can be managed! Being aware of them is part of the battle. This is also the page I work off of when I'm doing entries.

2) Designate your players. This is not something everyone does, I think, so don't take this as gospel! When I have clashes, I don't try to evenly split races between the two-three horses. I designate one the 'primary,' and make sure they get first dibs at their HOTY races. This is generally the older horse, and the one I want to go to the BC at the end of the year! But it's not a hard and fast rule, and I judge each situation individually. And it might even change, if the secondary horse starts to excel! The secondary & tertiary horses get HOTY races then as they're available. Clashes are much more easily managed at open router distances than they are in, say, miler filly division, just because of the number of races run. I find that this system doesn't spread the horses too thin trying to share equally, which can hurt all of the animals involved and make sure none of them excel. After all, that third horse is not your top HOTY horse based on results, and therefore may never be your 'primary' - which is okay! They're not all destined for the same level of success. For example, in my open dirt sprinter division, I've got The Good Fight as my primary, Masquerade as my secondary, and Roundtable Rival as my tertiary. Even though The Good Fight and Masquerade are both very good and are likely both headed for the BC Sprint, I still give race preference to one over the other and will schedules Fig's races first to fit him best, while Masquerade will get the races Fig doesn't run in (that are still good races!). Rival will get HOTY races only if the other two leave some available, which will likely be when one of them is taking a month off or otherwise needs a break. On that note:

3) Give your horses a month off here and there. Not only is it good for keeping your race counts in the manageable 16-20 range, giving your horses breaks gives your 2nd and 3rd string horses a month to hit the top races! It also gives the judges a break from a good horse so they don't get sick of placing them high/above others, so not entering for a month or so, I think, makes your horse more of a fresh face the next time they run! Breaks can be key in managing a large string, so just keep in mind that you don't have to be there and present for every single important HOTY race. Your horse doesn't have to run religiously twice a month to do well. As long as they run regularly, you can play with it a bit.

4) Make a schedule. This means different things to different people, as I'm sure you've all seen. Some make schedules for the year, some make them for a few months. I do monthly schedules, just because it lets me reevaluate my horses monthly and make fine adjustments where needed. Schedules are a lifesaver because it means that you put the time in only once per month to get entries sorted, and it helps me see the big picture of where horses best fit amongst the rest of my string. When I make schedules, I use Google Sheets. I keep wk 4's races available, then load in the races for the next month. From there I use my active horse list (from step 1) to make my schedules. I do older horses, then 3yos, then 2yos - for each age group, I do my primaries, then secondaries, then tertiaries. Sometimes I will cave and split races for the month between horses, but only if the primary horse is doing well/has plenty of races lately and I don't think they need to run twice that month. Or I'll give them that break for the whole month. I normally pull the horse's page up as I pick races for them just to see how they did last month, to see where they should be placed. This is also a great system to find races not being entered for the month that you can use as HOTY experience for a lower grade horse. For a 50+ horse string, it takes me about two hours to make the schedule for that month, and I normally do it over the course of two days or so. So not that much time at all!

5) If you have to, cut your losses. Not every horse is going to be a HOTY horse, and sometimes it's just not good timing for them to be able to do their best with you. Those horses you may just need to retire once they're G1, instead of having them continue to clash with your string. Leasing and selling are also viable options. If you're constantly struggling to find races for a secondary or tertiary horse, that tells you the schedule can't support that number of horses and you need to make a change.

6) Don't overwhelm your undercard division. Make sure the horses you buy are at least initially spread across distance/surface/grade/gender. Clashes are fine and can be managed, but I definitely think it hurts undercard horses more than HOTY horses in many cases. This is yet another rule that isn't hard and fast, but perhaps something to keep in mind if you're buying. Make sure the amount of races available are enough to support growth through the grades. If you look at the number of G2 older horses in my active horse list, I have a bunch of undercarders in there that clash. It can be really hard to make sure all of them find the right races, so some are probably suffering for it, since I still sort of pick 'primaries' there that will get the best suited races, while others just get what's available. It's not ideal, and it can take horses much longer to grade up that way.


That's all I can think of! Hit me with any questions you might have, but just think of this as a random informational guide on how I make my massive swamp of animals work xD