Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to the show.
Speaker: This is episode 10 and today I am really, really happy to be joined by Megan from Mace Racing.
Speaker: Megan, how are you doing?
Speaker: Doing great.
Speaker: How about yourself?
Speaker: Absolutely fantastic.
Speaker: Thanks for taking the time.
Speaker: Despite a hiccup or two, we finally got there.
Speaker: We did it.
Speaker: We managed it.
Speaker: It's really good.
Speaker: You're episode 10.
Speaker: So the last of the Genesis episode.
Speaker: So this will be yourself and Bella from Rockabella Racing.
Speaker: Oh, awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Pretty happy about that.
Speaker: So how about yourself, like Mace Racing?
Speaker: What's the story behind your stable?
Speaker: When did you start playing Zed and how did you get involved?
Speaker: Started in August of 2021.
Speaker: I had a real life friend that we like to gamble.
Speaker: That's our thing.
Speaker: And my husband, like we're just huge gamblers.
Speaker: And he was like, hey, we live in Texas and we like to go to the horse races, things like that.
Speaker: And he was like, I kind of fell into this game.
Speaker: I think you might be interested.
Speaker: It's almost like gambling, but not quite.
Speaker: But it's horses.
Speaker: It's real fun.
Speaker: He was having a blast with it.
Speaker: And we said, you know, sure, like send us the send us the stuff.
Speaker: So my husband started about a month before me.
Speaker: I was not interested at all until he started breeding.
Speaker: And then once he started breeding, I was like, oh, I want to make babies.
Speaker: Like that's that's going to be my thing.
Speaker: So I got my own stable.
Speaker: He is calm racing.
Speaker: And we got our stables and kind of went from there.
Speaker: So we still play with our friend.
Speaker: He's upscale stables in the game.
Speaker: So it's really kind of nice because it's just something we get to do together.
Speaker: And it's real fun for me and the husband.
Speaker: It's amazing.
Speaker: kind of taken over most of our life i guess for all of our free time uh so we really enjoy it so um yeah it's just it's just a really fun hobby and you get to make money so even better okay very nice indeed if you're doing it right that is yeah yeah one of us is doing a little bit better than the other and it's definitely not me that's for sure so
Speaker: So about the stable, like how many horses have you got in your stable?
Speaker: Oh, Lordy.
Speaker: How many do you actually run?
Speaker: Um, so I have, I think almost 400.
Speaker: Um, wow.
Speaker: How many I actually run.
Speaker: I'm, I'm very flavor of the week.
Speaker: So I have, you know, I'll look through my stable with 400 of them.
Speaker: I'll look through my stable and I'll say, Oh, I haven't ran this guy in a while.
Speaker: So then I start running them for two weeks or a week.
Speaker: And then, um, yeah.
Speaker: you know, kind of shelve them or something else gets my attention.
Speaker: Right now it's a little harder because I don't have extremely profitable racers.
Speaker: I have like just a few.
Speaker: Um, so I run them.
Speaker: I probably have six to nine that I run regularly and paid.
Speaker: Um, and without the tournaments right now, it's just kind of dead Z's.
Speaker: Um, but it has been really, really fun, um, with the new class system because I, uh,
Speaker: I've gotten to rediscover a lot of horses and a lot of, a lot of old horses.
Speaker: So, um, some of my older horses that were used to be good previously are not very good now, but then now I have some, uh, old dusty ones that got off the shelf and are making a little bit of wet.
Speaker: So it's kind of fun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: So where do you find like in those horses that you've rediscovered, um, and that are actually, you know, starting to turn maybe EV positive, um,
Speaker: Where are you finding that result?
Speaker: Is it sort of double up racing, top three, even the new one-on-ones?
Speaker: Like where are you starting to find success?
Speaker: A little bit of combination.
Speaker: I like to run them in double ups.
Speaker: It's a little bit safer on my bankroll.
Speaker: And then, you know, after...
Speaker: you know, 10, 20, 30 races, whatever, whatever the case may be, just depending on the horse and how strong it looks.
Speaker: Um, I, you know, we'll look at the results and look at who he's raced against.
Speaker: And then I'm like, okay, let's try, let's try five top threes now.
Speaker: Let's, uh, or, you know, 10 top threes.
Speaker: Let's, let's try that.
Speaker: And then, um,
Speaker: then just kind of reevaluate.
Speaker: Um, the one thing that I'm not great at is discovering six horse, like top two, six horse.
Speaker: Um, I don't understand it.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know what makes a good top two horse, um, for six horse racing, but I have one of them.
Speaker: Um, it's just, that's where I started running it and it can't run top two, you know, top three, 12 horse to save its life.
Speaker: And that's okay.
Speaker: It's, it's kind of doing its thing.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But, yeah, just I like the story.
Speaker: I was going to say, like, what you said in there that was that sort of grabbed my interest, you spoke about thinking about blocks of paid races.
Speaker: When you say, I'm going to run a horse, I'm going to run for 10 races at a time.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Can you say a little more about, like, what is behind, what's the thought behind that approach?
Speaker: Like, when you're thinking...
Speaker: And do you bail out at five or do you stick to 10?
Speaker: You're like, I'm going to- No, no, no.
Speaker: You got to stick to 10 at least.
Speaker: I feel like, I really feel like 10 minimum.
Speaker: I've invested so much into this game that 10 paid races isn't going to kill me.
Speaker: But it really has to show promise.
Speaker: So prior to that, I do 10 freeze.
Speaker: See, you know, reevaluate, graduated up to the paid double ups.
Speaker: I may say 10 there, 20 there, just depending on how strong I think it is.
Speaker: But yeah, you never bail out.
Speaker: You never bail out.
Speaker: I one time.
Speaker: long ago with uh zombie racing when it did its uh seasons i don't know if you you do all that stuff but um i love all the external tournaments and such so i was a season one i did a race and it was like if you placed you know top i don't know what it was 30 you got to pick a horse so i um
Speaker: They had all these, so buy all these horses for prizes.
Speaker: So I got a horse.
Speaker: I actually got two horses, brother and sister, same dad.
Speaker: And I just, you know, five, six races in, I couldn't get flames.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Flames were a thing then.
Speaker: I couldn't get flames.
Speaker: I couldn't get them to place.
Speaker: I just was like, you're doo-doo.
Speaker: My husband looked at the horse and said, it's a donkey.
Speaker: And I was like, okay, well, I'm going to sell it then.
Speaker: So I sold it.
Speaker: And it's like the one source of contention with me and my husband on, on horses, because I sold it.
Speaker: He said, it's a donkey.
Speaker: And I said, fine.
Speaker: And I didn't race it very much.
Speaker: And that thing was just a variance monster made so much money, so much with so much everything.
Speaker: And I like to check up on horses or, you know, babies and things that I've sold or, or made, um,
Speaker: And I just really regret it.
Speaker: So now, I mean, I think 20 races is really a sweet spot if you think it has any variance or anything.
Speaker: And I also think it's really important about when you're racing.
Speaker: So sometimes just the monsters come out.
Speaker: You got to be really careful with that.
Speaker: So within 20 races, you should be able to see something.
Speaker: And if that's a combination of 10 paid, 10 free, or whatever.
Speaker: you know, freezing double ups or whatever, 20 is what you need.
Speaker: And if you bail out sooner, maybe you save a little bit, but you can miss out on a lot.
Speaker: So I don't do it anymore.
Speaker: I learned my lesson.
Speaker: Yeah, very nice.
Speaker: And so when you're running your 10 to 20, you've targeted, I guess, a funnel or do you run it at a single distance?
Speaker: Or do you try to run those across a funnel or do you run them across multiple funnels?
Speaker: So 1.0s, I just run them anywhere because I have several 1.0s that are specifically good in just one distance.
Speaker: Like that's where they're going to flame.
Speaker: That's where they're going to podium.
Speaker: And the other two distances in that funnel, they're not going to do anything for me.
Speaker: Um, so, or at least that's the way it seems with some of my horses.
Speaker: Um, now 2.0, it was a lot easier because of the breeding changes and things.
Speaker: So I, um, I definitely try to experiment in that same funnel and maybe one off.
Speaker: So if they're a 16, 18 runner, I'm going to try 12 and 14, um,
Speaker: If I don't see flames or if I don't see favorable placements, then I'm not going to spend too much time there.
Speaker: But I definitely have some horses that even with this last maiden, they were supposed to be sprinters.
Speaker: They were supposed to be 1K, 1200 sprinters all day long with variants.
Speaker: And they didn't get the DP role, but they got the variants and they run 16s.
Speaker: And that's what it does.
Speaker: So you can't really stay locked in.
Speaker: if you want to try to maximize your horse and until you know it at least.
Speaker: And then once you know it, that's kind of the thing.
Speaker: So that's what I do.
Speaker: To get your, like from your maiden horses you've just created and probably switch to tomorrow's maiden that starts.
Speaker: Have you got some lined up ready to rock and roll?
Speaker: Not yet.
Speaker: I have resets today, so I'll probably get three to five today.
Speaker: And then my next one will be all my resets again, pretty large.
Speaker: I like to run about 10 to 15 in a maiden.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So really like, like moonshot ranch, like Mike from moonshot, you really showing us how to DJ proper.
Speaker: Oh, I love breeding.
Speaker: Even if they're trash, I still love it.
Speaker: There's a lot of promise and just the excitement.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And do you breed typically within your own stable?
Speaker: Like you've got studs in your stable or do you sort of go outside and look in the breeding in the stud barn?
Speaker: A little bit of both.
Speaker: A little bit of both.
Speaker: I have some...
Speaker: Good options in my stable.
Speaker: Last Christmas, well, not, I guess, 2021 Christmas, me and my husband said we're going to buy each other Genesis for Christmas.
Speaker: So we had a set amount and we bought each other horses.
Speaker: So that got me some Genesis studs, which was really nice.
Speaker: And then we also do breeding between our stables.
Speaker: So he has some really good DP and variants in his.
Speaker: and he never breeds as much as I do.
Speaker: So I'm like, Oh, let me see some of those.
Speaker: Let's see some of those boys.
Speaker: Um, but, um, there are a few that I have some really good horses or what I would consider good, or that really have good babies.
Speaker: And I go, um, I go outside for those to try to get a better tier of baby.
Speaker: Um, and then, um,
Speaker: In the community, I've made friends, things like that, where if they're not going to use a womb of a really good anything, I'm like, oh, let me see that.
Speaker: Let me see that and I'll pay for the stud and I'll pay you a little bit for the womb and we can go from there.
Speaker: So kind of a mix, a hodgepodge, in stable, out of stable, all the things.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And that's a lot of foals certainly running into a maiden.
Speaker: And once you've done, I guess, your initial, you know, Gryffindom out and we've got, you know, a level these days, getting back to that conversation around, well, you know, how many races do you budget for to discover that horse?
Speaker: Again, is that like a 15 or 20 race thing for you or is there actually more?
Speaker: Do you kind of need to run more across multiple funnels to really sort of discover that horse completely?
Speaker: So this one was kind of unique, this one that passed, not the one that's about to start, because it was a six horse freeze.
Speaker: And so what I found was a lot of my horses that looked super promising in six horse looked not great in 12 horse.
Speaker: So, um, so those I'm spending a lot more time discovering, um, than I have previously, um, because I'm only waiting for 12 horse.
Speaker: I don't want to do any more six horse.
Speaker: I did 20 of them.
Speaker: I'm good.
Speaker: Um, but, um, you know, and then some, I, I,
Speaker: started immediately into pades after doing their 20 and six horse, um, just going to 12 horse pades in, uh, in double ups.
Speaker: And some of those worked out, some of those didn't.
Speaker: Um, but it really, uh, reinforced the idea that I just need to run my, my 10 and 12 horse freeze and then reevaluate.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So yeah, you, you're doing that discovery process in the free racing.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yeah, nice.
Speaker: So when you look at your breeding approach, and again, we need to talk about last maiden or this maiden coming up tomorrow.
Speaker: Are you targeting, like what's your plan for targeting certain classes, funnels?
Speaker: Are you trying to run and target a C1 event or are you sort of looking at other classes to, like how do you like to breed?
Speaker: Um, right now I'm trying to, I don't pay attention to the classes over much, honestly.
Speaker: Um, most of my C1 horses that, um,
Speaker: You know, came out last time they with the conditionals and things like that, they're still doing fine.
Speaker: So I'm not as scared of C1 as I used to be.
Speaker: But I really like C3.
Speaker: C3, I think, is is where I like to be.
Speaker: But I don't pay attention to that too much.
Speaker: I, you know.
Speaker: Overall, really like to just line up my either my DP or my variants, whichever the one.
Speaker: I tried to make some specific double up horses last time and that did not work.
Speaker: I don't know what happened to them.
Speaker: It was just all VA.
Speaker: It was no variants.
Speaker: And somehow I got some variants on one of them.
Speaker: And I don't know.
Speaker: It is what it is, but they just didn't get the roles they needed to.
Speaker: But, um, you know, I try to match up as much as I can still, um, to, to really maximize what they're, they're going into.
Speaker: But, um, I think this time I'm going to really look at, um, a lot of the, the cross and exclusives.
Speaker: Um, last time I did a lot of legendaries, um,
Speaker: And with my resets, I'm just going to go into it with a lot of exclusives and crosses this time.
Speaker: It's like my B string resets.
Speaker: So yeah, nice.
Speaker: And that's, that's kind of, um, like when you get into targeting for those specific funnels and those, um, like you say, you're matching BA and well, sorry, you're matching DP and variants in the parents.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: What do you think is more important there?
Speaker: Say if I'm trying to breed that double up runner or what if I'm trying to breed a one-on-one monster in a C3?
Speaker: What do you think I should be trying to breed for?
Speaker: Should I be looking at distance preference with big BA?
Speaker: Because I think for that one-on-one thing, maybe you want to steer away from variants.
Speaker: Is that...
Speaker: That is my experience.
Speaker: I think variance is not great.
Speaker: In general, I love variance.
Speaker: So I stay away from the one-on-ones.
Speaker: They did nothing great for my bankroll, so I was all out.
Speaker: But I think, yeah, the BA and, you know, DP to a lesser extent, but a lot of BA, I think, is, and no variance, just no variance whatsoever in that line.
Speaker: And, you know, that's what I'm seeing go through.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And some of the horses that are really doing well are used to be like a shapers.
Speaker: Um, so I'm looking at one-on-ones and, um, you know, kind of seeing what they used to run previous.
Speaker: And it was, you know, there's a lot of a shapes that are doing really well and kind of cleaning up in that area.
Speaker: So it was just BA horses that couldn't get, you know, the right hand side of the placements.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Well, I've got plenty of a shaped horses.
Speaker: We should do well then.
Speaker: I might go and dust a couple off.
Speaker: Interestingly enough, like once I try and get a bankroll back together, what do you think about this idea?
Speaker: And I am on board with this conspiracy theory 100%.
Speaker: Honeymoon period for new horses.
Speaker: This just happened to me last week.
Speaker: I bred some new horses before the maiden.
Speaker: I didn't run in the maiden, the last maiden.
Speaker: But I had some new horses and they were fantastic.
Speaker: And then 1v1 came out and they had, I think I won seven in a row with one of them.
Speaker: I was like, you beauty.
Speaker: And then he got to his like 40 races, crushed.
Speaker: I've just been crushed.
Speaker: I've just been crushed in the last like seven or eight days.
Speaker: Blew my whole bankroll.
Speaker: Went on tilt, as you do.
Speaker: And I'm just...
Speaker: I'm like, damn, didn't pick the honeymoon period.
Speaker: Do you think horses have honeymoons when they're new?
Speaker: Um, I don't personally think that, but I would not.
Speaker: I mean, if that came out, that wouldn't surprise me, I guess, either.
Speaker: The thing I have found that's been extremely difficult myself is just the leveling process that some horses level so much faster.
Speaker: So if you fall behind even the smallest bit, you're kind of done for.
Speaker: So there's definitely horses that...
Speaker: have been bred around the same time, like running in the same maiden.
Speaker: I see some of the names and I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, we were competing against each other and I dominated that guy.
Speaker: But then I look and I'm like, oh, man, this thing is
Speaker: gained 10 levels on me before I can even level two levels, racing fairly diligently with work and kids and all that.
Speaker: So, you know, it's the disparity between some of the levels, I think, really hurts some horses, or at least that's what I'm seeing.
Speaker: When you say disparity as in
Speaker: the number of XP you need, like between the breeds, right?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, I have some horses that it takes, you know, 10,000 XP and then some that it's like five and, you know, or, or even less than that, they just leveled so much faster.
Speaker: But unfortunately the ones that are leveled so much faster are not my great, you know, good horses.
Speaker: So it's unfortunate.
Speaker: So, you know, I guess the, the question for me would be, did they just get outpaced or, um,
Speaker: Is it something that's built in?
Speaker: Either way, I definitely think there's something.
Speaker: I'm sure of it.
Speaker: It's happened to so many of my horses.
Speaker: And not just in the recent, like I'm going back 12, 18 months where I've bred horses and they've been like winning, winning, winning, winning.
Speaker: This is fantastic.
Speaker: And then just brick wall, which is super odd.
Speaker: But again, that's...
Speaker: as I say, pure conspiracy theory.
Speaker: But as we talk about levelling, sort of brings me to this other question that I'm kind of fascinated to get people's opinions on as well, which is this concept of what is the lifespan of a horse?
Speaker: Like when you breed a horse, how much time are you thinking, okay, well,
Speaker: If I come out at say, you know, a 404, for example, into, um, into class two, I'm like, what do I think with that horse?
Speaker: How much time do I spend on it?
Speaker: Um, you know, it seems to be, if it gets that level, but it's got that Evo in class two, it should have either a DP or a variance to kind of justify its existence in that spot.
Speaker: Um, how much do I pump levels in it?
Speaker: Like what's, what do you think the lifespan of a horse is from, from that regard?
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: You know, I personally think it just depends on how good you think that horse is and it depends on how much time you're going to spend on it.
Speaker: I will say I don't think variance was weighted extremely heavily.
Speaker: I could be wrong as far as, you know, where it got placed even now.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: I don't think variance plays into it that much.
Speaker: So it may just be a really good DP and really good BA horse that has a lot of that and it got placed high.
Speaker: But in a lot of my experience, it needs a touch of variance to be able to really
Speaker: get, you know, T3s.
Speaker: I like T3 horses, top three horses.
Speaker: That's my thing.
Speaker: So double ups are fine, but there's something special about a, you know, top three horse.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I get the podium and the banner.
Speaker: It's a whole thing.
Speaker: But, you know, I for me, I just look at the parents and I look at, you know, what it's doing.
Speaker: And, you know, I say, is this worth my time?
Speaker: Sometimes it's not, or sometimes it only is when I'm bored.
Speaker: You know, I don't know what a lifespan should be.
Speaker: I will say I never get rid of a horse.
Speaker: I could never, I can't sell horses.
Speaker: I get so attached to my horses.
Speaker: So when aging comes out and I'm not going to be able to play with them and race them, you know, as much as I want, when I want, I'm going to be very sad about that.
Speaker: Well, let me re-ask that question then in, I guess, the context of aging, which is probably a better way to think about it.
Speaker: How many races should a horse have before it ages, do you think?
Speaker: I'm in the unlimited camp.
Speaker: I think you should just let the monsters run.
Speaker: Why limit it?
Speaker: I don't understand why we want to.
Speaker: to age them out.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's, um, that's a very good take.
Speaker: It's, it's, um, I mean, I say that not having any monsters by the way.
Speaker: Um, but I hope years from now, I'm still seeing our two and, you know, some of the other guys really just dominate because I look at those horses and I'm like, man, that's
Speaker: such a good horse.
Speaker: Like why, why would you want that, uh, benched?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's fascinating, isn't it?
Speaker: The, the current state where they've kind of evolved the game into
Speaker: The old horses, especially the version one horses where, I mean, one of the things I loved about Zed back in the day that super breeds, I guess, kind of give some of this back is, but that any breed you did, you could land something special.
Speaker: Like any breed could get a monster variance role.
Speaker: And there was, you know, it gave...
Speaker: It gave a lot of people a chance, I think, to, okay, well, I'm not going to breed with whatever, RSB, or I'm not going to breed with, you know, one Morticia or whatever, one of the big best horses in the game, because frankly, most of us can't afford that, right?
Speaker: But if I breed with this other horse, there's a chance that I get a role.
Speaker: I...
Speaker: I personally, I agree 100%.
Speaker: I miss the lottery or, you know, however you want to say it, I miss that.
Speaker: And I don't think that super breeds fill that void for me personally and some of the other people I talk to.
Speaker: You know, just looking at...
Speaker: you know, in my history, I never landed one of those like 1.0 amazing horses, but my husband was breeding for a maiden and he bred, oh, I don't even know what it is.
Speaker: It is a high Z. And I helped Z32.
Speaker: He brought a Z32 and he did it and he said, I don't have any hope for this horse.
Speaker: It's a Z32.
Speaker: What is it going to do?
Speaker: I don't even know.
Speaker: And I was like, no, no, no, it'll be good.
Speaker: And we named it and we ran it.
Speaker: And that man is a monster variance horse.
Speaker: Just so much variance in that horse.
Speaker: What's the horse's name?
Speaker: uh jacob grimm it was um he had brothers so we named them the grimm brothers uh unfortunately the other ones were not nearly as good but jacob grimm does does the things and wins lots of money and you know it's it was just so exciting and he had a few 1.0 hits but
Speaker: Looking at that and seeing those and seeing it on Twitter and in Discord where these really high Zs that just were thrown together for fun are really good horses.
Speaker: That's something that Super Breeds just isn't giving me those vibes.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Yeah, I tend to agree.
Speaker: I tend to agree.
Speaker: I'm not sure if, and I think the way you put it was spot on.
Speaker: I don't know if it fills that void.
Speaker: That void of...
Speaker: Because breeding is so critical to the success of the game, like financially as well as for Zed.
Speaker: That's where the revenue is.
Speaker: So this idea of giving me an incentive or whatever, creating some kind of incentive just to breed, see what happens with these two.
Speaker: Because I don't think that exists today.
Speaker: Like if I've got a couple of horses that aren't great, I'm probably not going to smash them together just to see what happens.
Speaker: Because I know...
Speaker: that that lottery thing's not there.
Speaker: So maybe, yeah, we'll wait and see.
Speaker: We'll see how that evolves over time.
Speaker: I mean, the one good thing is, I mean, it did give Genesis some value.
Speaker: So I, you know, I guess I'm, in some ways I'm on the fence because I do think that was good because you get the best chance at a super breed with the Genesis.
Speaker: So, you know, that's great, but yeah,
Speaker: You really just lose the excitement and like you said, you're not going to just smash anything together.
Speaker: You got to be really planned and if you want a chance for the super breed.
Speaker: So it's just different, just a different day.
Speaker: Well, I'm looking at Jacob Grimm and 99 variants.
Speaker: Bang.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: What a monster.
Speaker: Mr. Grimm has the variants.
Speaker: That is for sure.
Speaker: And does he breed well?
Speaker: Does he pass that down?
Speaker: So he, we never, and I say we, my husband never bred him very much.
Speaker: But he did recently throw out a few that did the Lucky Maiden.
Speaker: And they won some money there.
Speaker: And they've won some things.
Speaker: So like Marie Grimm and Dorothea Grimm, they seem to have gotten some of it.
Speaker: um so 86 variants for marie grim yeah yep yep so looks very good and i can see three three babies waiting waiting for us in in the maiden this week from jacob grim everyone be aware be be wary no no no he doesn't have that many breeds left we have to be really um
Speaker: This is interesting too, like the breeding decay as well.
Speaker: Like I put a horse in stud today called Moonshine Man who's got just great stats, good DP, excellent variance, sprinter, has spat out some foals that's passed that down really well.
Speaker: He's got some like a lot of the foals are like 10% win or more out of it.
Speaker: And I was looking at it's got its last three breeds before breeding decay.
Speaker: It's like a Buterin Elite.
Speaker: And I'm like, I'm not putting that in at minimum, no way.
Speaker: I'm not going to breed for this maiden, but if no one takes them, it's like I'm not going to get paid for them.
Speaker: I'll just keep doing that until the next time he goes in at min, they'll be for me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sure, sure.
Speaker: The one thing, you know, the breeding decay is an interesting aspect and I do like it because it does add some value.
Speaker: You know, some of those pacers and crosses, you just...
Speaker: You don't get enough of them, especially if they're good.
Speaker: So that's pretty unfortunate.
Speaker: But, you know, the one thing I do hate is the ones that have like four breeds.
Speaker: I'm not even sure which ones.
Speaker: I think it's a Pacer.
Speaker: Because, you know, I think that was really ill thought out on Zed's part because you put it in and with the Zed UI, you know, somebody's going to take some decayed
Speaker: Decayed babies.
Speaker: Not meaning to or not knowing possibly.
Speaker: So I've always had to, I have some decayed babies in my stable because I'm like, well, I'm going to take this one, but I don't want it to sit there for, you know, two more to screw somebody else out.
Speaker: So I'm going to take all three.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: These guys are just going to be trash.
Speaker: Well, the good Samaritan, you are.
Speaker: Yeah, well, I would feel just incredibly guilty.
Speaker: I would not be able to do that.
Speaker: Just some stranger not being able to get a good baby out of it.
Speaker: No, thank you.
Speaker: So I wish they would have thought of that and kind of evened it out a little bit more with like full studs, you know, three cycle.
Speaker: There are three covers per cycle and kind of looked at that.
Speaker: But
Speaker: Oh, I see.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And so it seems to be though, like, and I guess it's just once you hit that, even that tier one of decay, forget about it.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: BG told me, by me, I mean Twitter, but he said, don't do it.
Speaker: They're so bad.
Speaker: And BG is gospel.
Speaker: He said, don't do it.
Speaker: I'm never doing it.
Speaker: And I mean, I have some that I've played around with, like I said, because I don't want it to sit in stud for someone else to accidentally take.
Speaker: And there's been no promise at all in them.
Speaker: So I'm definitely in the camp of decayed babies or bad babies.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I've never even tried, which is kind of interesting.
Speaker: So when we talk about...
Speaker: You know, all the planning and everything you do across your racing and also your breeding, like what are some of the tools that you guys use to get this done?
Speaker: Or are you doing this with just the free tools?
Speaker: Like what's your approach to, I guess, investigating either a racer or a stud or a man?
Speaker: um so for studs we heavily believe in zedge um with shady um me and my husband both got uh passes as soon as they came out and you know that's just something our stable has to have um you know he has his and i have mine and
Speaker: We love it.
Speaker: And it's really so useful with the studs.
Speaker: Also evaluating those babies after their 20 races or 10 races or, you know, whatever the case may be.
Speaker: And just looking at where they're hitting.
Speaker: And for me, the variants, those things.
Speaker: So on the breeding aspect, I use Zedge just 100 percent.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So can I just jump in there for a second?
Speaker: With Zedge, and I put this out on Twitter and tagged Shady, and he didn't answer me a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker: So I'll just keep asking the question.
Speaker: How many races does a horse need before those numbers in Zedge become meaningful, do you think?
Speaker: The more the better.
Speaker: Statistically significant.
Speaker: I don't know what Shady would say.
Speaker: I say 50.
Speaker: I think at 50, you should have a pretty dang good idea.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He may have a different number.
Speaker: When it first came out, I think the number was like 100, but it's gotten so much more refined since then.
Speaker: 50, and I feel like you have a pretty good handle on the horse and what it's putting out in variance or DP or any of those things.
Speaker: Even babies at that point.
Speaker: Um, so that's what I, I like to use on the breeding aspect and racing aspect.
Speaker: Um, I am a, um, stack next pro believer.
Speaker: Um, as every, every month I, you know, re up and.
Speaker: I just say the first race I win, that pays that one off.
Speaker: And using ZLead and Stack Next Pro, not only does it give me a lot of information, but it does make racing easier.
Speaker: You can put in your horse's filters.
Speaker: It'll tell you when races are up, that match those filters, things like that.
Speaker: it saves me a lot of time and I don't have to just sit there and wait.
Speaker: Um, so, so those are the two big tools.
Speaker: And then of course, hockey, hockey, and, and know your horses are great.
Speaker: Um, I try to stay off Haku though, cause, uh, I just ended up buying more horses.
Speaker: So if I, if I go on there, I'm like, Oh, this looks like a great deal.
Speaker: Um, I did that this month.
Speaker: I, um,
Speaker: put some money in to do some breeding for this maiden.
Speaker: I'm like, okay, this is going to be my breed fees.
Speaker: And then just was browsing Hawke and went, ooh, I like this one.
Speaker: If I go on for anything, it's just I see something that I'm like, this is a great deal.
Speaker: I should just buy this.
Speaker: Why am I not?
Speaker: Same thing for Stack Next Pro.
Speaker: With the tournaments, you could look at all the qualifiers and it would tell you if a horse was listed and for how much.
Speaker: So for, I don't know how many horses I have of this, but there'd be some that, you know, it was like $5.
Speaker: And I was like, this is like a lottery ticket, $5 to maybe win some money in a, in a tournament.
Speaker: Let's do that.
Speaker: And so I have so many horses that just $5 here, $10 there.
Speaker: It's not great of a addiction, but I definitely have the addiction.
Speaker: What is, I think those of us, anyone who's playing Zed at the moment still is in the same boat, I think.
Speaker: But for all the glue in your stable, like what's the answer to that?
Speaker: Because glue is glue, right?
Speaker: And we've all got heaps of them.
Speaker: What are the answer to those horses?
Speaker: Like I don't, you know, I really don't like this idea.
Speaker: And one of the things that kind of terrifies me about any marketing that Zed do is if it's successful and a whole new bunch of players come on board,
Speaker: And the rest of us just try and unload our glue on them in Horku, which is going to happen.
Speaker: As much as we all like to say we won't do it, it is going to happen, which is the worst outcome for a whole bunch of new players that could just kind of defeat the purpose of the marketing altogether.
Speaker: So what would be a good solution for some of the glue in our stables today, do you think?
Speaker: You know, that's a great question, and I really hope somebody has a great answer for that, but that is not me.
Speaker: I was really excited for Catalysts back in the John Lee days.
Speaker: That's really when I started holding on to a lot of the horses.
Speaker: And why I have so many now, just because the market is so down, I'm like, well, this horse kind of sucks, but for $2, do I really want to sell it?
Speaker: You know, USD?
Speaker: No, I'd rather keep it for $2 because...
Speaker: the state of the game changes so frequently.
Speaker: Um, and especially with the class changes and things like that, where I had horses that were not good whatsoever and now they are good.
Speaker: Um, I have that fear.
Speaker: I'm going to, I'm going to sell something worth something.
Speaker: So I either need to be able to burn it for something, um, that I can utilize, whether that's said token or, or something, I don't know.
Speaker: Um, or I'm just going to keep on holding glue.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So Zed's answer, I think has to be something that brings utility, um, for all this glue and breeding fees that we've put into it, but hell if I know what they're going to do about it.
Speaker: So I, I, I like catalyst, but nobody else.
Speaker: Um, yeah, catalysts were interesting.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But you know, we can all see arbitrage burning four catalysts to breed with super seed.
Speaker: You're not wrong.
Speaker: You're not wrong.
Speaker: Um, I heard somewhere the other week and I don't know if this was rumor or, um, where it came from, but talking about burning for breeding tokens.
Speaker: So you could kind of burn four to breed one or something.
Speaker: I don't know what the ratio would be, but that was kind of something that was interesting to me.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I burn a lot of horses.
Speaker: I also would burn a lot of horses.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Because as I say, getting back to that whole point, like I don't want to sell a horse to the bots just because of that.
Speaker: Exactly what you're like, really?
Speaker: I did pay 30, 40, some cases, 200 bucks to breed this thing.
Speaker: I'm not going to sell it for $1.50 regardless, even though it is glue.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Well, it's glued today.
Speaker: It may not be glued in a year.
Speaker: I got a lot that are glue.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, maybe, maybe.
Speaker: Glue is glue.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Let's be honest.
Speaker: Oh no.
Speaker: Until they find a space for it.
Speaker: We may get pity points back.
Speaker: There's Dan Chan tournaments where, you know, he used to do the three, five, sevens where it's like a horse that always came in sevens still could make me money.
Speaker: You know, there's, there's places for some of it.
Speaker: There's definitely non-redeemable horses though, for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, interesting.
Speaker: So you talk and there's been so much action in the outside tournament space recently, which is really cool to see.
Speaker: And you've obviously been around playing these for some time.
Speaker: So for others in the game who perhaps aren't in the external tournament space, like what's the state of this today?
Speaker: Like how do you sort of use those tournaments to leverage horse value in Z?
Speaker: Like how are you using them?
Speaker: And which one?
Speaker: I mean, I only... Unfortunately, since they don't integrate, the...
Speaker: it really holds no value in Zed for these external, you know, horses or whatever.
Speaker: Like, it doesn't elevate their worth because nobody really knows that that horse has won you X amount of width in the Lucky Maiden or, you know, any of those other things.
Speaker: I wish they would integrate it in some aspect, but, you know, it just...
Speaker: For me, I like to support content creators, for sure.
Speaker: Zombie, Lucky Jacks, and DanChan are my favorites.
Speaker: The DanChan tournaments are really interesting and really fun.
Speaker: And there's a good variety, which I really, really like, at different price points.
Speaker: So they're a little...
Speaker: They used to be a little difficult to sign up for, but he's fixed that in a large degree.
Speaker: So, you know, I just use it to help pay off breed fees.
Speaker: Honestly, if a horse pays its breed fees off, then I'm pretty happy.
Speaker: You know, that's a successful breed for me.
Speaker: So I got a free horse and then anything it can do in the future is just icing.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: I don't think it makes horses worth more though, I guess, you know, nobody will know unless you tell them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a wonderful point you made, um, for the, for the product managers as they, um,
Speaker: understanding like a leaderboard of its of its profit rating, but where it's winning from external tournaments.
Speaker: Obviously hard to do from a technical point of view without doing the full tournament integration, which I think they should be doing anyway.
Speaker: Like this whole idea of there's enough players in the market.
Speaker: that are doing external tournaments that if they kind of open the platform up in like a tournament white label type view where you could use the racing engine and, you know, it's still Zed powering it, but, um, you know, maybe you could buy a, an NFT that's your own race course.
Speaker: And then you've got, you know, I'm sure Dan Chan would have Dan Chan.
Speaker: Dan Churn racing.
Speaker: Um, and then, you know, tournaments running on that and just have to get that point, to get your point, like having that integrated experience.
Speaker: So, you know, you've got this thing that's, that's might be winning three, five sevens more money in three, five sevens.
Speaker: And you're like, Hey, there is a way, there is a path to value for this horse, um, that you could show inside Z on leaderboards and stuff like that.
Speaker: It's really good.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: When you talk about the breeding bit again, and I started jumping around because this conversation is so much fun.
Speaker: I talk a lot, so sorry.
Speaker: No, no, it's good.
Speaker: This is, as I said, I'm jumping around because it's so much fun.
Speaker: But when we talk about the breeding piece again, and when we talk about bred horses, right, like obvious with Genesis, the equation is, you know, reasonably simple and you get to the role of
Speaker: the role that you get and away you go.
Speaker: But as we look down to you, and you mentioned before, you're going to start some exclusive and crossbreeds for this maiden.
Speaker: What do you think about this concept of bloodlines and how does that work when you look at
Speaker: breeding at that level um like are you looking all the way back up to the genesis in the bloodline around its stats or are you just saying okay these are the numbers the parents have got um and this is the highest role or the highest chance of get of the the mix of these two like how how valuable is a bloodline um down in those bread horse trees um i think it's pretty valuable um
Speaker: I don't think it's the gospel, but I do think it's pretty valuable.
Speaker: So for them to, you know, um,
Speaker: you know, looking at a pacer or something like that.
Speaker: I don't know that going back to great grandparents is, you know, all that impactful.
Speaker: I look at parents and then I look at grandparents.
Speaker: I, at that point, if I'm going to breed something like that, I like to do it.
Speaker: It's a horse that I've bred in house all the way down almost.
Speaker: So, you know, maybe I went outside for the sire for, you know, the original legendary, but
Speaker: All the other ones are going to be in, you know, something that I've done.
Speaker: So I've controlled it to a large degree.
Speaker: But I think that's really important.
Speaker: And matching DP and traits, I think, is really important in the bloodline.
Speaker: I think...
Speaker: that the caliber of some of like the great grandparents, things like that doesn't matter nearly as much, especially when you start looking at the 1.0s where maybe the great grandparents were 1.0s and the grandparents or whatever the case may be were 1.0s.
Speaker: I think that only matters once you get into 2.0 and beyond and making sure everything matches.
Speaker: But if everything's aligned,
Speaker: then even better.
Speaker: So I just try to match everything as far as I can, but I really just look at the immediate, like what were the parents, what are their variants, what are their DP?
Speaker: And that's how I'm going to match it for this upcoming meeting at least.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Well, hopefully,
Speaker: you get some good horses out of your escapades.
Speaker: I'm actually, I'm running one in this maiden, so only one.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, good luck.
Speaker: Good luck.
Speaker: All you need is one.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: That's all you need.
Speaker: You'll see he's already bred.
Speaker: I can't even remember as a boy or a girl.
Speaker: And it's like, I don't know.
Speaker: Getting back to my Hawku thing I was saying before, like going on tilt on Hawku, that horse I bought was even a pink colt.
Speaker: Um, and it was like a couple of days later, I'm like, why did I buy a pink horse?
Speaker: Anyway, um, just again, the, the zeitgeist around the pink cults.
Speaker: Um, I actually, I know why I bought it for breeding, but, um, it's a knacker legendary.
Speaker: That's got some stats that I liked.
Speaker: Um, interestingly enough.
Speaker: So when we talk about the stats matching, um,
Speaker: And again, another question around distance preference and those kinds of things.
Speaker: And I think we were talking about this on an earlier episode as well.
Speaker: I'm kind of curious to get your thoughts on this from like another Zedge user, right?
Speaker: The distance preference numbers go from minus 100 to 100, right?
Speaker: What does a minus seven mean?
Speaker: in distance preference.
Speaker: Like we understand minus 100, great to Sprinter, 100, 2600.
Speaker: Is it a linear thing?
Speaker: Like if I've got a minus seven, I'm at sort of 14, 16s.
Speaker: If I've got a 22, I'm at like 18s, 2000.
Speaker: I think there's a small amount of buffer.
Speaker: You know, you may be a negative number, but you still may be a 16 runner.
Speaker: But the further away should be where you lean.
Speaker: So, you know, if you're at like a negative 50, let's say, you know, I think you're you're pretty.
Speaker: soundly in the 1200, maybe 1400, maybe, you know, and all those things are so subjective based on the field and things like that, where, you know, you may not be the best 1400 runner, but the fields may be weak enough that you're going to be the best 1400 runner in that field.
Speaker: So, you know, the numbers, you
Speaker: are manipulated by many things.
Speaker: Um, you know, not necessarily even maliciously, just, there's a lot of variables to go into that.
Speaker: Um, but I mean, I do think there's like a, a buffer, like a, you know, maybe negative 20 may still be a 16 and then, uh, a 20 may still be a 16 too.
Speaker: I mean, it may, that, that may just be where your horse runs.
Speaker: Um, but the further away you get,
Speaker: The more sprint you should get and the higher the number, the more marathon you should get for sure.
Speaker: So when we talk about these numbers, I guess they're just dependent on where you've run the horse, right?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: It's only where you've run the horse.
Speaker: So how do you go about identifying horses that are not run in the right funnels?
Speaker: So it does take the theory.
Speaker: It is based on where you've ran, but it does integrate based on your placements where it thinks
Speaker: you should be based on 1600.
Speaker: And I'm not, I'm not the technical person.
Speaker: So for me, I don't understand how that works.
Speaker: That, that formula.
Speaker: I suck at horse math too.
Speaker: Don't worry.
Speaker: Oh, my husband's so great at it and statistics and things like that.
Speaker: I'm, that's just not my thing.
Speaker: But, you know,
Speaker: That is why you want like the best sample size because even if you say because in 2.0 that happens so much where they're like hey it's supposed to be a sprinter.
Speaker: We're going to run it in sprints and that's just where it's going to happen.
Speaker: So it takes those races and then makes its own assumptions based on placements and things like that by using 1600 as the neutral is how I understand it.
Speaker: So if at 50 races, it should be still fairly accurate for sure.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: For sure, maybe, I guess.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Like 67% of the time, I'm right 100% of the time.
Speaker: It's one of those things I go back and do a statistics course just for Zed.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I was good at mathematics, like calculus and complex mathematics.
Speaker: And I don't know why, but for me, just statistics just broke my brain.
Speaker: I didn't get any of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm awful at it.
Speaker: I don't understand almost any math.
Speaker: I run restaurants, so I understand like real life math, food costs, labor costs, things like that.
Speaker: So anytime I see something interesting on Twitter that BG post or Dan Chan or anybody.
Speaker: And it's a graph.
Speaker: It's something very mathematical.
Speaker: We have a Discord where we have a lot of horse friends in there.
Speaker: And we just kind of all talk about horses and what tournaments we're in and breeds and whatever.
Speaker: Just horse talk.
Speaker: So I'll post it.
Speaker: And I'm like, all right, somebody explain this to me like a simpleton because I don't understand anything, but I want to understand what this means.
Speaker: And so somebody in there will be like, oh, this is what they're saying.
Speaker: I'm like, all right, great, thanks.
Speaker: So it takes a village to run a good stable, for sure.
Speaker: You have to have the community.
Speaker: And again, this is a constant theme that pops up everywhere.
Speaker: And everyone I speak to has this same theory.
Speaker: It's like, to be successful, you've got to get out there and interact with the community and meet people.
Speaker: And the community is so helpful.
Speaker: I think when you just reach out to people and ask them stuff,
Speaker: everyone's kind of free with their time around it.
Speaker: It's a really interesting space to be, I think.
Speaker: It's quite positive.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Well, look, Megan, we're kind of nearly at time, so I'm super interested in watching your next 24 hours.
Speaker: I'm going to keep an eye on your stable to see what your breeds are for the maiden.
Speaker: Okay, okay.
Speaker: To check it out.
Speaker: But is there kind of one thing...
Speaker: from the Zed format at the moment, like what's the, what's the biggest change?
Speaker: I know we get so much change.
Speaker: Um, but what's the, what's the biggest change they kind of need to make to keep the evolution and keep this game moving in the right direction.
Speaker: Do you think?
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I don't know what the biggest thing is.
Speaker: They've really fixed a lot of things, which makes me feel very, you know, engaged, just like classes and things like that.
Speaker: I do feel there is a boredom setting in, even across Twitter and some of the social medias, without tournaments, without...
Speaker: active engagement, maybe not daily, but something to do.
Speaker: Right now, people are just racing and that's great, but people get bored of that without an ulterior endgame.
Speaker: I don't know what they're going to do about engagement with the player base that we have now, because even if they bring in new people,
Speaker: it's going to be the same thing, especially if they get people's glue and they don't win any money, then they're really going to be bored with racing.
Speaker: So, um, you know, I think bringing back the tournaments, even if they're not super, you know, well-funded or let us buy in and do sit and go tournaments or something, I'm not sure.
Speaker: Um, and, and mix them up a little bit would be,
Speaker: what I think they need to improve on at least in the recent weeks.
Speaker: Um, cause the maidens have been great, but outside of that, man, there's just nothing to do except for regular old racing.
Speaker: Just grind it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just grinding.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's interesting.
Speaker: Like having,
Speaker: long running kind of achievement, like lay it on top of tournaments.
Speaker: So you might have sit and goes, but you might have an achievement for one horse that you're trying to get over a period of three or four weeks or something.
Speaker: That'd be kind of cool to like to have a most podiums in like all the stuff they did with the, um, uh, the metaverse cup.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Like those kind of things that had you, you were racing, but there were little mini tournaments within the overall tournament as well.
Speaker: I think that generated a lot of interest.
Speaker: Um, and then, you know,
Speaker: I mean, even once, you know, Wagme just dominated it pretty soon.
Speaker: It was pretty early on who was going to win, but there were still all these other things that people were still competing for.
Speaker: So it still kept the interest going like all the way through the tournament, which I thought was kind of cool.
Speaker: I mean, absolutely.
Speaker: And even, I mean, even with, you know, Wagme,
Speaker: really dominating.
Speaker: I mean, there were still a lot of avenues to make money and to be active and things.
Speaker: So, I mean, yeah, he cleaned up, but so did a lot of other people.
Speaker: So I don't know.
Speaker: Like I said, I like the content creators.
Speaker: So right now when everything's really quiet and Zed,
Speaker: I every day go to, you know, go to the end chance tournaments and, and look to see what he has to offer because, you know, his or one day or, you know, a few hours or whatever the case may be.
Speaker: And that's really keeping me engaged, but not everybody does that.
Speaker: And there just needs to be something to keep people busy.
Speaker: However, that may be, however, they're going to do it.
Speaker: I don't know the answer, but yep.
Speaker: I often scratch my head about the challenge in front of that team that sort of bring us there because it is, you know, it is so easy to make a misstep, I guess.
Speaker: And there's what is essentially a pretty hostile audience in terms of willing to exploit, right, because there's financial gain.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: you know, you make a misstep, people are going to exploit it, um, actively.
Speaker: And in that regard, that's where I'm like, it's hostile in that regard.
Speaker: So, um, not a, not a challenge I'd be looking to do for my day job.
Speaker: Absolutely not.
Speaker: That is not for me.
Speaker: I just, I just roll with the punches and try to do the best we can over here.
Speaker: All right, cool.
Speaker: Well, fantastic.
Speaker: Thanks so much for taking the time with us, Megan.
Speaker: It was a genuine pleasure.
Speaker: I really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker: As I said, I'm going to go dust off some old A-shapers and see if I can't throw more money at 1v1s.
Speaker: Thank you so much for doing the pod.
Speaker: And as we say to everyone who comes on the show, we're going to see you on the track.
Speaker: Well, thank you for having me.
Speaker: You're welcome.
