Create an automatic race

The window that creates an automatic race, and that serves to change it too.

It takes up, field for field, the form of Create a race: same description, same criteria, same finances. This page therefore does not repeat them — it deals with what is particular to the calendar, that is to say the status, the planning and the two delays. For the rest, refer to the race's page.

The class and the status

The class is chosen at creation and is not changeable afterwards: Regulated, Free, For my clan if you are in a clan, and Competition if you have the standing that opens it. There is no cup: the game's cups are not created by the players.

The status, on the other hand, changes at will. Active and Paused are the two values you handle; the third, Deactivated for lack of sulkies, is the one the game sets when a deduction has not gone through. You can choose it by hand, but there is no point in doing so — to stop a calendar, pause it.

The planning

The Planning field commands the one next to it:

Every day: nothing more to set.
Every week: Plan for asks for a day of the week.
Every month and Only once: Plan for asks for a day number, from 1 to 31.
On demand (model): nothing is planned any more, the calendar becomes a pattern for typing in.

One detail to know about Every month with a high number: the game looks for the next day of the month bearing that number. A calendar set on the 31st will therefore skip the months that have no 31st.

Race start gives the time slot, by whole hours. As for a race created by hand, you do not choose the minute: the game draws one at random among those still free within that hour, so that two races of the same class never start together. If the sixty minutes are already taken, saving is refused — change the hour.

The time offered at creation is 00:00. Remember to change it: a night race finds fewer entrants, and the evening hours are the busiest.

The two delays, which must not be confused

This is the point where one goes wrong most often, because the two fields follow one another and both speak of delays.

Create the race … day(s) before the start, from 1 to 31. It is the moment when the race appears in the game, and therefore the length of time during which one can enter it. Two days, and the owners have two days to come. That number also pushes back the first occurrence by as much: a calendar set to seven days before will not produce a race for a week.

Entry deadline … before the start. It is the moment when the entries close: the numbers are allotted, the handicaps worked out, and you are paid. As for a race typed in by hand, it is fifteen minutes before the start, and only competitions allow it to be brought forward, up to six hours, to leave the participants time to prepare their horses.

In other words: the first delay opens the counter, the second closes it.

One point to keep in mind if you have trouble filling a competition: a deadline at six hours is comfortable for the jockeys, who have time to prepare, but it closes your counter six hours earlier. Owners who make up their minds the evening before will find the race already closed.

The values offered at creation

A new calendar arrives set like this: Regulated, every day, at 00:00, created 2 days before the start, two postponements allowed, flat over 1,000 metres, minimum 2 entrants, entry cost 100 sulkies and winnings on Automatic.

That setting runs just as it is, and it cannot cost you anything since it is on Automatic. All you are short of is a name — and a busier time of day.

Saving

On saving, the game immediately works out the next due date and then displays it in the Next starts column. Two refusals are possible: a name is missing, or the hour asked for is saturated.

On an existing calendar, Create a copy starts afresh from a double of the one that is open, without saving anything. It is the way to put a meeting together: one sets a race, one copies it five times, one changes nothing but the hour.

Changing a calendar does not touch the races it has already created: they keep the settings they were born with. Your corrections will only take effect at the next creation.