Delete a race
The confirmation before deleting one or more of your races. It recalls the name and the date, and it warns you that a penalty is owed to the entrants.
This page sets out that penalty in detail, because it can be heavy and because it is worked out on the number of entrants.
What can be deleted
Only your races, and only those still in the Registration state. A race already closed, run, or belonging to another manager is refused with a message naming it.
The deletion can bear on several races at once, through the selection menu of My races. Each one is then dealt with separately: those that pass are deleted, those that fail are listed, and the window stays open so that you see it.
What it costs
Nothing if nobody is entered. An empty race is deleted at no charge, and that is the right moment to give up a formula that is not catching on.
As soon as there are entrants, on the other hand, for each horse entered:
- its owner is refunded in full for their entry fee;
- they receive compensation on top;
- and it is you who pay it: 10 % of the entry cost is debited to you, of which 9 % goes to them.
On your side, you get back the money the race had cost you: the total of the winnings and the punter's jackpot are returned to you.
An example. Entry cost 2,000 sulkies, eight horses entered: each of the eight owners gets their 2,000 back and receives 180 in compensation, and you are debited 8 × 200, that is 1,600 sulkies. Your winnings are returned to you besides.
The penalty therefore grows with the success of the race. Deleting a well-filled race is one of the most expensive operations in the game — and that is intended: the owners entered on a word given.
Two consequences one does not expect
“Automatic” mode does not protect you. It saves you from putting up the winnings, but it changes nothing about the compensation: you will pay the 10 % per entrant without having any winnings to recover in exchange.
The operation is refused if your balance is not enough. The game checks that you can pay before acting, and tells you so, naming the race. A very full race can therefore become impossible to delete: all that is left then is to let it be run.
What happens next
The owners receive an internal message naming their horse, and stating that they have been refunded and compensated. Their horses are released and become available for another race again.
The race itself goes to the Deleted state and stays in your lists. Its number of entrants is displayed there in brackets, to recall how many horses were there.
Deleted or cancelled: these are not the same thing
Two neighbouring states that are better not confused:
- Cancelled: the race did not gather enough entrants and the game stopped it. The entries are refunded, with no compensation, and you lose 500 sulkies in penalty. It is the ordinary accident of the trade.
- Deleted: you are the one who gave up. Refund, compensation, and a bill proportional to the number of entrants.
Deleted races are counted in no statistics, neither yours nor the owners': see Statistics. The game considers that a race given up on did not take place.
The habit to have
Before deleting, ask yourself whether it is not better to let it run. A badly calibrated race that starts anyway costs you at worst the difference between your winnings and your takings; deleting it with eight entrants can cost more, and displeases eight players.
Deletion is justified above all when you have made a setting mistake that the entrants would suffer from — an absurd distance, a badly set handicap. In that case, warn them by message: a manager who explains keeps their entrants for the next time.
For the rest of the trade, see the racecourse manager's trade.