Stud & broodmares

When a racehorse stops racing, its second career begins. A stallion goes to stud, a mare becomes a broodmare: no more races, but it stays in your stable and can breed until its lifetime breedings are used up. It is how a good racehorse keeps paying you back.

#Ending a racing career

On a horse’s Career tab, under Decisions, the button depends on the horse. Whichever it is, it ends the racing career now, and it is final: the horse never races again.

• You can do it at any point of the career, but not while the horse is entered in a race.
• A horse that runs all 40 starts goes to stud or becomes a broodmare on its own. See The racing career.
• The horse keeps its stall, its record, its rating and its name.

#Breeding after racing

A racing horse has to reach 25 starts before it can breed. A horse at stud or a broodmare can breed straight away, whatever its starts. Every horse has 4 breedings in its life, counting any it used while still racing; the Career tab shows how many are left.

• Cover your broodmares from Breeding, with your own stallion (no stud fee), another stable’s or a Club stud.
• A stallion of yours can also stand at public stud for other stables at a fee you set, up to his appraisal (never less than 500 credits). Each visiting mare uses one of his breedings.
• After every covering a stallion rests 12 hours (half a pregnancy) before he can cover again, your mares included. He stays listed, marked “Resting · available again in … h”, and can be booked once the rest is over. A booking paid in T-USDG counts as a covering about to happen, so he takes one booking at a time. A broodmare’s rest is her pregnancy (24 hours, one foal at a time).
• A horse that has used all 4 breedings no longer stands at stud: his fee (credits or T-USDG) is withdrawn by the covering that used the last one, he leaves the stud book and the stallion finder, and he can’t be stood again. A stallion still racing keeps racing. You get a note in your inbox.
• Once a horse has used all 4 breedings it retires for good to the Legacy Farm on its own, freeing its stall: a stallion straight after his last covering, a mare once her last foal is born. You get a note in your inbox.

The cap follows the horse’s value: a real colt from the game’s own code, after 25 starts without a win, is appraised at 5,068 credits, so he can stand for at most 5,068. Wins, earnings and a higher rating raise his appraisal and the cap with it. Two accounts the game has linked to each other can’t pay each other stud fees: a paid covering between them is refused, just like a sale on The auction house.

#After a career-ending injury

A career-ending injury retires a horse from racing on the spot: a stallion goes to stud, a mare becomes a broodmare, just as if you had chosen it. It can still breed, and if it was insured the insurance pays out (Injuries & insurance).

There is a catch. A parent whose career ended in an injury passes Fragile legs to each foal 50% of the time, on top of any fragile gene it already carries. The breeding preview warns you in words before you pay. Under the rules, for two example horses:

The basics of pairing, fees and foaling are on Breeding basics.