Road to the Roses Tips

Possibly the most popular North American horse racing competition on the internet. If you havent signed up yet just visit this link and get started. Just about everyone looks forward to this competition and there is a lot of chatter going around about who is running where and who you should pick in your stable.

I have played this game for many years and I've come up with a few strategical tips that they dont necessarily cover in the Playing Tips section of the RTTR website.

#1. Have patience - So many people have already signed up their stables despite the fact that the first scoring races arent until Saturday and you can wait right up to 11:59 eastern on Saturday to pick your stable. I see no reason to lock in a stable now when you could wait for this weekend's entries. This applies to the supplemental stages as well. You dont get bonus points for switching things around before they're due.

#2 Keep good records of horses intended schedules - I do this with the aid of a spreadsheet. Every morning as I read the news I just keep it handy so I can jot down any news blip on the contenders. Things still change of course but it gives you a good picture of who is likely. Here is a sample of my spreadsheet to date. More names will get filled in as things become clearer.

#3 Try to get horses on every circuit - There is the SA, TB, NY, GP, OP and TP streams. All of those tracks offer multiple preps and you'll usually find horses just following the sequence. Since you can only have 5 runners active at one time try to make sure you've diversified so you'll have a horse in nearly every race and on different weekends.

#4 Do not undervalue sprinters - I know this is the road to the Derby but not every horse in your stable needs to be able to win the Derby, they just need to win preps. There are 5 eligable prep races that are run at less than 8f. If oyu can find a sprinter who will do well in a few of those he could be very valuable. Last year Too Much Bling earned a lot of points for those who took him.

#5 Don't limit your focus to just the Grand Prize - There are some very nice prizes available for winning the individual stages and even a nice weekly prize. It wouldnt be a terrible idea to try and target one of those. By stacking your stable for a certain week you could do very well.

#6 Identify trainers and jockeys that will WIN races - Remember you only get trainer and jockey points if they win the race so although O'Neill and Pletcher have loaded stables they may not be the best trainers to take. If you're high on a horse like Hard Spun then maybe keying in on Larry Jones would be a good idea. It isnt very hard to imagine Hard Spun winning all his prep races. That could get you more points than 5 Pletcher horses running second and third.

#7 Don't be afraid to take a shot - There are upsets every single year on the Triple Crown trail and some of them are huge upsets. Because horses are improving but also some are more prepared for certain spots than others might be. For instance we know a horse like Street Sense is being brought along slowly. He may very well be less than perfect in his first start and he may be facing horses that are wound tight for the race, but his reputation as the 2yo champ will see lots of money on him.