Final Furlong (FF) is a horse racing SIM unlike any other. Campaign your stable of horses, either created yourself or hailing from established lines. Found your own breeding empire by tapping into established lines or beginning your own. Done breeding? FF's unique post-career showing system will keep your favorites active for even longer! The sky is the limit here on FF and we look forward to you joining us. Welcome! :) Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/4GV5V6Z
Kenren
Admin
Cruisey
Admin
Sunfrost
Admin
Lolly
Moderator
Calendar
Races close on Mondays at 9PM EST! Our Next Sale Begins: January Y22.
02/05/23 We're almost ready to kick off the New Year here at Final Furlong! The New Years Sale is still OPEN for bids - lots of ponies needing homes! As well, we're hoping to close January Week One races by MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6. However, if we need to extend closing date so more people can get entered, just let us know in the Discord. In addition to getting your pages ready, don't forget to use your bonus points if you'd like!
01/29/23 Congratulations to KENREN for winning the Y21 Breeders' Cup Betting Contest! You've won a breeding reserve to FIFTY DREAMS (Firestone Stud) and 2x 2 furlong extensions + 5 bonus horse points! Lolly finished 2nd, and Cruisey finished 3rd.
12/08/22 The Breeder's Cup Betting Contest will make a return for Y21!!! It'll be a little bit different because of the new points system, but get ready for some end of year fun 😄
11/21/22 Entries for the New Year Sale are now open! We know it seems a bit early, but with life things we're going to need time to make sure things are right lol. Please follow the link here: https://final-furlong.proboards.com/thread/2304/y22-new-year-sale
08/20/22 Judging has been the basis for issues for a long time - taking too long, drama regarding results, bias, etc. Kenren has attempted to put a points system together that keeps the spirit of our system while streamlining and standardizing the process. It's a lot to take in, but once you get in the swing of it, preparing pages with these points takes way less time than doing a layout change lol! If you have any questions, please post them in the judging-help channel on Discord for now. If anyone needs help with anything, please let an admin know! We would like to give everyone one week to get things settled, and then we would like to run July Wk 2 using this system closing 8/27/22 (or earlier if everyone is ready). If it works out, we would like to run two game weeks per RL week to get things moving! Thank you all so much for being her!e
07/27/22 To start July off fresh, we've been playing around with a new theme for Final Furlong! Make sure to check out 'Sonorous' under your profile ❤️ Feel free to use whatever theme works best for yourself. We can't wait to get back to racing!
07/21/22 it's official! We're back! It looks like June Wk 4 was almost fully judged, so make sure you get that updated if you hadn't! We will plan to close the next week (July Wk 1) on Thursday, August 4th. This close day may change, but it's not a bad place to start! For now we'll be doing one game week per RL week to get back into things. Please remember that starting the second half of the year, 3yos can compete against older horses without automatic lower placements.
As an aside, because this is fairly sudden after a whole year, we will not be allowing reclaims on horses for members not currently active for a few months. We will readdress this going forward if needed. Thank you all for understanding!
07/08/22 GO answer the poll ❤️ https://final-furlong.proboards.com/thread/2232/ff-restart-poll
Dated After March Week 5 concludes; Most of the 8 retirees are entered in that week.
Battle Brook Stable caught the attention of some reporters this week when a monstrous Brookledge Trailer pulled up outside their barn at The Wire. In a masterful display, 8 horses were loaded up with no fuss and the trailer pulled out of the grounds within a half hour. Ripley is known for her theatrics from time to time and this demonstration was no less than her usual. All of the horses that were loaded, save the three year old filly, had won in at least one of their last three starts on the track and had ticked up a grade in the process.
Normally, Ripley Marsh is all for letting a horse progress to the highest levels before shutting down a career, so why the change of dynamic in 2021? It has been an odd year with newer stables battling against historically legendary stables, and coming out on top more times than ever before. Could this have something to do with the mass retirement? And just who were the eight horses that left The Wire grounds?
I: You caused quite a stir yesterday with the trailer. I imagine you’re aware of this?
RM: It wasn’t so much a stir so much as a wave of decisions that my team and I had been in the process of making since the end of 2020. These weren’t decisions made on a whim. I’ve spoken closely with Amber Black at Stride Of Perfection Stable and the teams at Valkyrie Stud and Firestone Racing about conducting this type of mass retirement. Fascinating to me that the reporters only caught on when we loaded the horses on the trailer.
I: Yes, well, apparently your confidants took their roles quite seriously this time.
At this point, Marsh lifted her eyebrow and a slight smirk touched her lips. In this body language it is clear to me that any leaks that occurred in past years, weren’t leaks at all, but rumors or theories started by Marsh herself.
I: So just who are the eight horses that were retired so suddenly?
RM: Like I said, these retirements weren’t sudden. Beyond semantics, the eight were Absolution, Backdraft, Mercenary, Flightpath, Terrify, Points of Circumstance, Metropolitan and finally, Midnight Ballet.
I: That’s quite a group. What went into the decision making process?
RM: Midnight Ballet was perhaps the most controversial decision among my team. We wanted to give her a shot, even tried her on the turf, but as suspected, we just don’t believe her interest lies in running. This wouldn’t be the first time a horse descends from great lines and doesn’t want to participate. However, there’s nothing to say her offspring won’t want to run. It’s been a while, but the press should recall that I’ve retired other fillies at three, among them Royal Assault, Paranormal Hunter and Nirvana. All of them have produced stellar offspring and in my humble opinion, carried greater upside in the breeding shed rather than pursuing summer campaigns or beyond, depending on the mare.
I: Then it can be said that Midnight Ballet has retired without injury?
RM: Absolutely. Just like every other horse that we loaded up on the trailer. The geldings will find other careers, some maybe as ponies, others as sport horses. The fillies will see the broodmare careers determined once we re-structure our breeding plans to account for the retirements. However, it could be possible that a few follow the same fate as Cosmic Queen, retiring to be sport horses rather than joining our broodmare band.
I: What caused this interest in cutting the roster down so quickly?
RM: I would say the temptation has been building for some time. My friends are aware that we were looking to cut down our foal crops, just because there are only so many racing opportunities out there. We’d also like to buy fresh blood also and we can’t do that if our crops are bursting at the seams. Quite honestly, when Intrepid Racing Stable, Crimson Haven Stable and New Hope Pasture Stable went out of business, they flooded my barn with retirees and projects that deserved a second shot. I’ve taken a pretty heavy hand at the sales of late, doing a lot of selling and minimal buying to even out the flood. Finally, with this group of retirements, I can breathe better.
I: What does this mean for your juvenile, yearling and weanling crops?
RM: The juveniles are staying as the are currently. Fourteen is manageable at this point in time and they’re still figuring out their racing careers. That doesn’t mean we might not consider sales down the road, but for the moment, we’re good in that area. Both our yearling and weanling crops have 15 horses in them, so we could lose one or two, but again, they’re not hurting anything being at the farm. Malcolm would prefer to give them a good start anyway before sending them on to different homes.
I: What about the future crops?
RM: Anyone who knows me, knows I had everything planned through Y25. Those plans were turned to ashes in the fireplace last night.
I: What? All of them?
RM: We kept everything through Y23, but we did fine down the crops. Originally the plan was 13 being top limit, but as of even this morning we’d cut Y22’s plans down to 11 foals an Y23’s plans down to 9 planned foals.
I: What does this mean for your broodmares?
RM: They stay on the roster longer, which is good. It will allow us to see how their first foals progress before planning later ones. It also allows us to see if a mare is even worth breeding to beyond one or two foals based on her progeny’s performance. I think in this competitive day in age, you want to try to breed your best to your best and not just breed to breed. It’s taken a while to come to that conclusion on our end of the world, but you’ve seen us get more selective with stallions. It’s only about time that happens with our mares as well. We want to stay on the cutting edge as much as everyone else.