Sport of Kings

First blog post in quite some time. In these difficult times with the world going into lock down, no going out to the pub, no sport to watch, live or on television, and having to stay in the house and self isolate for the foreseeable future. It calls for a little ingenuity to at least get some sport, albeit in board game form.

I have always enjoyed watching horse racing, both flat and jumps and last year I managed to acquire a second hand copy of Grand National (GN), it is an excellent game and I really like the mechanics of the game, no rolling of dice, very tactical as you are the jockey and have to decide on how you run the race.

All good stuff, but it only covers one unique race, run on a specific course just once a year. I wanted something more. Within the last couple of weeks I purchased another second hand racing game, Win, Place & Show (WPS). I had seen a play through of the game on You Tube and liked what I saw and immediately realised the possibilities for being able to run any meeting, jumps or flat.

The two boards GN furthest from camera, is a really lovely board that captures Aintree Racecourse perfectly. The board for WPS is rather more spartan and functional, but is of a similar size and so perfect for my needs.

It is designed for flat racing in the USA, but no problem, I can soon adapt it for British racing. It has start positions for one and a quarter miles (1m 2f), six furlongs and five furlongs. I had already realised that the number of spaces between the start of the 6f and the 5f races were exactly 10 spaces on the board. So each space represents One Chain or 22 yards. As every schoolboy knows ten chains equates to one furlong, so finding a start point for any length of race will be a simple task. It appears the each bend equates to one furlong, though there are more than ten spaces, a quirk of having to make a sharp 180 degree turn, but not a problem as long a you take that into consideration when working out start lines for different lengths of race.

The beautiful GN board didn't need to worry about that, just one start line, twice around the track and then turn at the Elbow to hit the finishing straight.

WPS come with just six horses, very basic but functional and do the job.

However, six horses will not be enough for what I have planned.

GN comes with 24 pre painted horses, much more suited to my needs.

They fit onto the spaces perfectly.

The extra horses to allow me to run much bigger fields.

The GN track/board has, as well as fences, some horse shoes printed on the track lanes, this is crucial for how GN works, remember it uses no dice. When you finish your turn on a fence or a horse shoe, you draw a card from the relevant deck of cards and execute the instructions it shows.

As the WPS track will be used for all races flat and jumps, I will simply add a coloured sticker in similar fashion to the GN board. They will come into effect for jump racing but be ignored for flat racing when the WPS movement system will be used instead.

WPS comes with six of these programs, very neat and give a lot of information.

Of course every race has just six runners, though three different distances of race are in play.

I won't go into details on how movement works, but if you look at Gunsmoke in the first race, below the purse money for the finishing places will be seen a string of numbers. With 11 twice this horse is a fast starter, with two 9's he begins to slow in the middle of the race and with a 2 and a 1 he tails off dramatically at the end of the race. Other factors do come into moving the horses with bonus movement and dice rolling, but that is the basics.

As discussed, I will be using the GN system for jump races and as such will need to create whole new decks of cards not specific to the Grand National, but suitable for any jump race. That will be very easy, if a little time consuming to do, but hey, we ain't going anywhere soon are we?

New cards will have to be made for all horses, both for flat and jumps and a way figured to give speed points, pace, stamina etc.

A couple of race cards from the recent Cheltenham Festival meeting, this gives me real horses, form, jockeys and lots of other useful information to create my own race cards.

I could even go down the route of using the performance of the horses in my races to create a form book of my own. Now that would be a fun project.

Grand National Board Game - Race Finish

End of turn eight.

Brown Sugar has the inside track but Hot Pursuit is neck and neck. Joliet Jake is two lengths back in third followed by Greased Lightning.

The leading four have opened a gap to fifth place Golden Boy and Maggie May.

The remainder of the field plods on, but with little hope of catching the leaders now.

Hi Ho Silver is tail end Charlie.

The whole field.

End of turn nine.

As they approach the elbow, Hot Pursuit makes a break from Greased Lightning. Connemara Lad in the red silks and black hat should not be there, I forgot to remove him when I removed all lapped horses.

Brown Sugar suffered horrendous penalties from the Going For Home Cards and is now in a distant third followed by Joliet Jake.

Maggie May is chased by Golden Boy with Mr Whiplash and Full of Running approaching the Canal Turn.

No chance now for these horses.

The back markers. They have been thinned down as I removed all lapped horses.

Fallers and removed horses.

The whole field with Hot Pursuit leading into the final run in.

Almost there, and all horses have enough speed points left to easily finish the race.

A procession to the finish line. Hot Pursuit at 16/1 is the winner. Runner Up is Greased Lightning 10/1.  Cochise third is another error, he should have been removed!

The very unlucky pair of Brown Sugar and Joliet Jake pass The Elbow and head for the finishing line.

With the brutal Going For Home Cards, maybe Maggie May and Golden Boy still have a chance to snatch 4th Place.

The tail enders slog on.

The whole field.

Brown Sugar, despite all the poor cards, managed to finish third with Joliet Jake in fourth.

Brown Sugar 3rd at 8/1 with Joliet Jake taking 4th at 12/1. Ignore the blue silk and black hatted Cochise.

The going for home cards are really brutal to leading horses, giving them lots of penalties and allowing other horses to quickly catch up. It does however lead to a closer finish.

Well a very enjoyable game, one I shall be playing often. I now know I was a little stingy using the speed points, next time I shall be more bold and get the field moving faster. The leading horses should not really be in a position to lap the tail enders!

Grand National Board Game - Leaders begin second lap

End of turn four.

Brown Sugar still well clear of Greased Lightning and Hot Pursuit.

Trying to match the pace are Joliet Jake, Maggie May, Golden Boy and Cochise.

Most of the chasing pack.

The last four horses are from the rear, Marathon Man, Housewives Choice, Mr Pitiful and in the white, Doctor Marvelous.

A view of the whole race, the leader, Brown Sugar is bottom left.

End of turn five.

Brown Sugar turns to start the second circuit with Greased Lightning and Hot Pursuit neck and neck as they approach the water jump.

Running fourth is Joliet Jake followed by Maggie May, Golden Boy and Bouncing Czech.

The main pack.

The tail enders, Mr Pitiful one length behind Housewives Choice.

End of turn six.

Brown Sugar thunders on toward Bechers Brook, with Hot Pursuit closing the distance.

In third place is Greased Lightning with Joliet Jake and Maggie May neck and neck. In the distance is Golden Boy

The leading horses are really stretching the field, but have they gone too soon?

The main pack are biding their time, but cannot leave it too late to make a move.

Mr Pitiful and Housewives Choice remain in close company at the rear.

The whole field. Once the leading horse jumps Bechers for a second time, the turf cards are replaced with the Going For Home cards, which can be brutal for the leaders.

End of turn seven.

Brown Sugar is approaching the Canal Turn with Hot Pursuit steadily making up ground.

Further back and the next three horses, Greased Lightning, Joliet Jake and Maggie May, are all increasing their pace.

A group of five now break away from the main pack, Mountaineer leads Mr Whiplash, Bouncing Czech, Full of Running and Connemara Lad.

Even at the back the horses are starting to increase their pace, but not sure if it will be enough now.

Current positions in the race. The leading five horses, led by Brown Sugar (lower right), are now on the second and final circuit.

The race finale to come...