Discussing the term "The Racing Game" in the Thoroughbred industry, many people would relate the phrase to TOBA's amazing The Racing Game mission of Thoroughbred Ownership.
However I am talking about a virtual horse racing game. We have had this game on BloodHorse.com for over a year and people who play it seem to have a blast. I have personally played it and of course named the horse "Sumthingwonderful" =) The racing and training is fun, but it is especially neat to own your race horse and watch it's progress. Easy access and always on as you get to race against other real people online.
Aside from the game being a great product, I am mentioning it due to the holiday shopping season. The game is a great idea for those of you looking for something new and creative as a gift.
When I was talking with Mike Calderone, his vision and mission for this virtual racing game was founded on his interest and enjoyment of the sport. I also talked with Mike a few weeks before the Secretariat movie was released and he explained that he had some really unique deals getting ready to hit the market.
A packaged game in stores, bonus features on the Disney DVD Release of Secretariat, and most exciting to me was the race of champions. He has set up calculated races between Zenyatta and other Thoroughbred champions as well as Secretariat facing multiple champions. I did not expect the finish to result as it did, so the stretch run was very exciting! You have multiple camera angles and can customize how you view the race.
Mike sent a few more points to make about the Secretariat game specifically;
Jockey the greatest race horse that ever lived in some of his most memorable races, including some races in which he lost.
There are 12 races in total – 10 actual replications/simulations of career races that include all the Triple Crown races. In addition, we created two fantasy races featuring some of the greatest champions that ever lived that Secretariat never competed against.
Every time you run the race, the race sets up differently based on your jockey instructions and how you ride Secretariat.
The game is fun for the whole family, whether hard-core enthusiasts or casual racing fans.
The game received rave reviews from Michael Ciardi, the producer of the “Secretariat” Disney film.
The game will work on just about any PC utilizing XP, Vista or Windows 7.
The game can be downloaded or a hard-copy CD can be purchased.
There is a link under our racing channel/section on the home page, but you can also just favorite this link to our page on BloodHorse.com.
I also want to point out that we are not being paid for have any angles in this post, I am genuinely interested and wrote this blog.