Test a horse

Testing means making your horse run alone, over the distance of your choice, with the preparation of your choice — and seeing the result straight away. No opponents, nothing at stake, no waiting.

It is the only way of trying an idea before committing it to a real race, and the fastest way of discovering where a horse's limit lies.

Before launching

Test length: from 100 to 7,100 metres, in steps of 100. Test at the distance that interests you — the settings for 1,600 metres say nothing about 2,700.

Turf: it is displayed, but you do not choose it. It is the turf of the moment. A test on heavy turf will therefore not teach you much about a race that will be run on dry ground, and the other way round.

Underneath, the table is that of a race preparation, give or take one column: the same portions, the same pace, the same riding points — but no line. All the rest of Prepare a race applies here.

Finally, your horse must be rested. If it has just raced or been tested, the window tells you so and the button does not appear: allow three hours for it to recover.

Why there is no line, and what that changes

In a test, your horse runs alone and on the rail, over a course with no bends — as if it were going straight ahead. There is neither a layout to hug nor an opponent to avoid: so there is nothing to place, and the column disappears.

That is the strength of the test, and its limit. It isolates the effort: you measure your horse's stamina and the way you spend it, without the track or the others blurring the reading. On the other hand it will never teach you anything about the rail, about bends, or about the risk of getting boxed in — that is only learned in a race.

Take this from it above all: a test time is not compared with a race time. On a real racetrack, bends are paid for. A horse slower in a race than in a test has not necessarily run badly.

Reading the result

The table that appears gives, portion by portion: the distance, the pace asked for, the split time and the duration of the portion.

That is where to look, and not only at the final time. A portion whose duration lengthens although you were asking for as much effort as before is the precise moment your horse gave up. You then know not “I pushed too hard”, but where you pushed too hard — and that is all that separates a correction from guesswork.

Under the table, a message judges your ride: you did not push hard enough, it was good, or you pushed too hard and the horse exhausted itself. What those three verdicts mean, and how to use them, is explained in Jockey — My races.

How many tests, and what they bring in

The rule is not the same depending on the world, because the test does not serve the same purpose there.

On Almina and Bezir, you can test as much as you like — tiredness being the only limit — but only the first test of the day makes obedience progress. The following ones serve only to inform you, which is already a great deal when you are preparing an important race.

On Chorus, it is one single test a day, and it counts: it is what brings your horse's biorhythm back up. A wasted test is a day of form lost, so think about your preparation before launching.

The automatic test

On Almina and Bezir only, the Put on automatic test button hands the task to the lad jockey: he will test your horse once a day, enough to make its obedience progress properly without your having to think about it.

It is set by default on horses still to be born, and it does not tire the horse. In exchange it gives you no figures: you gain the obedience, not the lesson. To learn to ride your horse, test it yourself.