WELCOME TO THE TRACK!

  • Justify Heavily Favored in Preakness

    May 19, 2018 by

    —May 19— Bob Baffert’s undefeated colt, Justify, is the heavy favorite to win the 143rd renewal of the Preakness Stakes. The Derby winner will face a decidedly average field, with only Good Magic, who finished second in the Derby, and Bravazo, who failed to draw in to the Derby, likely to offer much competition. Chad… Read more

  • Red Ruby Goes in Black-Eyed Susan

    May 18, 2018 by

    —May 18— It’s fair to say the best of the three-year-old fillies division competed in the Kentucky Oaks two weeks ago at Churchill Downs and that the $250,000 Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes has attracted fillies firmly rooted in the second-tier. Nonetheless, the six fillies who will vie in the race are not without merit.… Read more

View all posts

About the Retro Horse Racing Game

The Retro Horse Racing Game (aka Retro Racing) was inspired by the Kentucky Derby Racing Game produced by Whitman Publishing Company at various times beginning in the mid- to late-1930s. The Kentucky Derby Racing Game was a spinner game featuring a field of five previous Derby winners. The game I own features (in post position order): Tim Tam (1958), Swaps (1955), Needles (1956), Dark Star (1953), and Jet Pilot (1947).

The Kentucky Derby Racing Game by by Whitman Publishing Co. © 1960

The game was simple to play. You (and presumably your friends who were taking a break from flipping a coin and counting how many time it came up heads or counting blades of grass in the local park), took turns spinning the spinner and moving whichever horse it landed on forward one space. The first horse to reach the finish line was declared the winner.

There were no odds, no betting, and worst of all, every horse had the same chance of winning! What was the point of using great horses from the past if only their name, and not the abilities that made them great, were represented? It got me thinking: How could I bring the fabulous boredom of endlessly spinning a spinner to a contemporary audience while at the same time realistically simulating match-ups between great horses?

My answer to that question is the Retro Racing Horse Racing computer game and this website.

The Retro Horse Racing Game simulates races between great and not-so-great horses in a simple but realistic manner. I didn’t try to quantify Silver Charm’s penchant to relax on the lead, Zenyatta’s brilliant closing speed, or Secretariat’s track-record setting prowess. But I did develop a comprehensive set of ratings that reflect each horse’s chance of winning races over various distances against various levels of competition.

Jockeys are rated, too, so you can expect horses ridden by jockeys whose surnames are Longden, Arcaro, Shoemaker, Pincay, McCarron, Bailey and Day (or, more recently, Ortiz, Velazquez, Prat, Smith, Castellano, Saez and Van Dyke) to perform better than if ridden by less talented riders.

But I didn’t just rate a bunch of horses and jockeys and assume great results; I ran tests… millions of them. The data from these tests was enough to convince me that despite the simplicity of the game it produced very good results. By and large, horses performed as they did in real-life, posting similar records, and jockeys won at about the same rate they did in real-life, too.