Minnesota Downs

chuckrock · Immortal Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 2169 Location: NYC

I would like to take a moment to say thank you to all of my fellow Minnesota Residents. This has been a tough year for our residency, the toughest since I have become a member, but I think we made it through. When Theo left, I doubted that we would still be an active residence by the end of the year. When I decided to try and run things here I knew it would be a difficult task. A task that would only be possible if others had my back and chipped in to help where they each could.

I want to say that I have been floored with everyone and their contributions. From Darnath sending me contest updates on the Tag, Stallion, and Homebred contest, to Jrodneyg who updates the $$$ and BP contests, to Wenlock scoring the Cup, to Dundey holding down the High Speed and Pick 4. These contests have survived, and will continue on next year (see below for specifics).

I think the greatest testament to this fine residency is that we had 24 different residents score points at the festival. I didn't check to see if there was anyone who entered who didn't score, but I think its terrific that we have such a large group. There were even a few noticeably absent trainers from the scoring list; residents who i know are active around here. It was terrific seeing Richgins run in the festival even though he hasn't been active lately, and it was equally terrific seeing Twaits win the second leg of the Came Home Series, CMD win the trainers contest, and Brando be extremely competitive in the festival.

This year we grew the festival into a second week. This is a tradition I hope we continue. Maybe next year we can fill the entire second week with races. Doza, this year, took us all to school at the festival. However, I also proved that as long as you have runners you have a chance. I had a runner in each race and wound up second in the competition even though I only had 1 winner. It should be a goal next year to make sure each of the races fills with 20 runners.

I am going to continue to sporadically recruit new members, as i think new members only benefit the current ones. Us old timers like Randy, Dundey and myself can attest how much better the residency contests have become now that we have so many residents playing. To me the weekly contests make the sim that much more fun, as I am sure you all feel.

Theo has seemingly disappeared again. In my gut I feel its only a bump in the road though and he'll be back soon. BigRick is still MIA even though he is still playing the sim. Pazz and Rich (despite running at the festival) are also missed around here. We have our work to do in order to bring everyone back into the fold. Luckily these absences are tempered by our new additions.

This year we competed in Smackdown and Equinics. We had residents step up and enter their best in these events in the name of the residency. I hope 2009 brings more of the same. Without Equinics and no guaranteed invite to Smackdown I may reach out to other residencies to set something up. I was thinking about perhaps Blazing Saddles or CR Racers; but we'll see. This years events produced a new resident superstar in selurnivek, and maybe in 2009 we'll uncover another one.

Our contests, for the most part will continue. I have put some thought into each of them recently and a couple will be tweaked. I'm going to go through each of them below. Nothing is set in stone, so your comments/ideas/criticism are welcome.

Minnesota Cup: Wenlock has agreed to score this again.I will post a new signup thread soon but I don't want to take away from the current championship; but either wenlock or doza will have a cup to defend. The goal is to start the new one in February. I will work on a new schedule after the holidays. There will be a tweak in the tie break system as we won't track the +/- points. Tie break will be either head to head or we'll have a play-in week before the playoffs. This will make things easier to score from week to week.

No Mercy: This will continue in its current form.

High Speed: This will continue in its current form unless Dundey says other wise. I will try and remember to post my ID # along with my horse. Dundey has my full backing in not scoring those that don't post an ID number (especially since i am culprit #1).

Pick 4: We had this hit a few times this year; more than in the past if memory serves. It seems like this contest is the great equalizer among residents and will definitely continue.

Mountains of Money: My personal favorite contest. This will continue business as usual.

Minnesota Homebred Contest: This starts right up after the New Year so be ready. I've learned in the past that those early points are valuable. I am going to be a little stricter about posting your horses when they run this year, just to make the standings relevant. A post right after they run is fine but one a month later no longer will be.

Minnesota Stallion Contest: I would like to use this contest as a motivation for new residents. I know Kaif runs Minny breds but who else besides him and us? I'd like to find out. I expect to post something on the message board this week regarding this.

TAG: While this should be known as the Darnath contest, it was fun. It was a little difficult without being able to replace a horse throughout the year but that is what makes it different than the two contests above. We shall continue this again and it starts up right away in the new year.

Mt. Everest + Claiming Tour: These on going contests will continue. It amazes me that the Claiming Tour has yet to be hit. I have found Mt Everest nearly impossible since winning it twice. I love it.

Sire Series: With the Came Home series just starting recently I won't touch it. I like the tweaks we made prior to this one and i think we'll have another.

BP Contest + Money Contest: The tweak i want to make here has to do with the pay out on the BP Contest. I want to make it a set amount rather than a %. This will make budgeting the residency credits easier. As long as we have someone to track it we will continue them.

Fantasy Stable Contest: This is Dundey's baby so I will let him decide if its worth continuing. This is one of the contests i don't play so I shouldn't have any say in whether it worth keeping.

10th Race feature: I kinda stopped tracking this when i didn't have time to continue writing the weekly articles. I will start this again in the new year. My apologies to anyone who might have won in the last couple of months. I'm sure fab must have won with a nonresidency horse. And this brings me to the next one...

BP Stable: We have been using this as a method of raising prize horses and I would like to continue. We have ten stables but we haven't had 10 residents willing to run a stable. Cothill just was able to donate a very nice prize from Duluth and this proves to me that it is a good concept. One tweak i would like to make, and its something that we tried to do earlier, is to make a thread each week to discuss the stable's accomplishments. This may help us take more of an interest in them and may attract different residents to participate each week. Make no mistake THIS 'contest' gave us the ability to give out so many prize horses for the festival and allows us to continue the 10th race feature. If your looking for a way to say thank you to your residence, running one of these stables is a good way to do it.

Last Man Standing Contest: This is fun i think. I will put together another/different contest to start in February/march. Details will follow.

Head to Head: This will return. It will have tweaks. The tweaks will be designed to gain more resident participation each week. I have not finalized my thought set though so I will announce them when I do. My goal is to have this start again in mid-January.

Email: Everyone should have received an email from me recently re: a Christmas present. If you did not,please PM your email address to me (as if your still reading Smile

). I didn't receive any negative comments on my idea and we have even received several donations to be put towards same. The gift will be sent by Wednesday. I want to thank everyone for backing this idea.

Ok, I think that is it. Once again thank you to each and every resident for helping me continue the Minnesota Tradition. From the days of Supertoy7, Johnno, and Theo this residence has a big place in the the sim and its some place I consider to be 'home'. I can only hope that we have even a fraction of the success we had under those guys. I will continue to my best ad with your help I believe we can.

Happy Holidays.

cothill · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 8:40 pm Post subject:

Chuck,

I know we had some bumps when Theo was out, but the way you and several others rallied to keep things alive is the difference between us and several other residencies that no longer exist.

Thank you for leading us through a great year. I am looking forward to 2009 Exclamation

Tom

cmd · Allowance Joined: 27 Aug 2008 Posts: 122

Wow! That is a mighty long post you have there! Is someone compensating for something Question

randy · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 9:44 pm Post subject:

You've done a great job of keeping MN afloat along with all those that pitch in each week. Way to go !! And we have the best contests of any group i've seen.

Thanks Again

marmac · Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 12:40 am Post subject:

Just completed my first year at MN and it's been most enjoyable. Things were looking bleak there in the spring but Charlie stepped up and got the job done with the help of some other hard-working residents. As a residency run by many it seems to be much stronger and more populated now. I'm looking forward to a fun 2009 at Minny. Thanks to all and Happy Holidays.
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hamster-early-marmac0-rbaze3

dundey · Immortal Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1219

I been in MN since Dennis (supertoy) ran the place. It has always been one of the best during the last what, 6 years I think!
It was my original home, along with GSR.

The incredible part is that its kept going, through several different leaders, each time I think the previous guy can't be topped someone steps up and does it.

The key I think, is that in this res, the sum has always been stronger then the parts. I don't know if any other res has been through as much and just keeps coming back stronger.

When Theo left I really thought it was over here but Chuck really stepped up and was able to bring others into the workings of the res. He has really done an INCREDIBLE job, and I would like to thank him for his time, hard work and allowing me to be a small part of Minnesota's resurgence.

I'll post more about the contests I handle soon, but do want to touch on something Chuck mentioned.
I would like to call on each active resident to take over running a BP stable. It does not require too much time and allows all of us to give back a small part to this res that gives us all so much. We should have no trouble getting 10 people to do this each round, we should be turning people away.
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27 and counting!
The Jets, that's another story...

Brando · Allowance Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Posts: 124

New around here so not sure but what is a BP stable...are these RES stables used to generate BP's for prizes?

If you guys are comfortable with a newbie managing one of these stables
I am willing to assist as I only have 5 of my own.

chuckrock · Immortal Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 2169 Location: NYC

Brando · Allowance Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Posts: 124

Chuck, OK....what happens after 13 weeks, the stable is transferred to another person to manage?

chuckrock · Immortal Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 2169 Location: NYC

yep. if you want to sign up again at that point you would be given a different one. it makes them sort of like community stables.

Brando · Allowance Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Posts: 124

Yes that makes sense....So the object is to generate BP's and then breed a horse for the prize pool. Gather we have flexibility on claimers.
OK send me the stable password.

Brando · Allowance Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Posts: 124

Hellava job running this RES Chuck! Kudos to you and the rest of your team for such a wonderful job. I joined the SIM about two years ago and once I got somewhat acclimated with the game I decided to join a RES for some added fun and decided on MN DOWNS which turned out to be a good choice....only wish I had made such sound decisions with some of my ponies last week Very Happy

Two in particular I gave about 8-10 weeks off prior to the derby day races and they ran like they were rusty Very Happy

Ironically though one of my other horses that ended up being the pace setter in the CLASSIC was a SIM pool horse that I got when I opened the stable and he surprisingly held on for 5th place. For all the other newbies out there keep the faith and have patience as you just never know as evidenced by someone's reject running 5th in a $1 million race with a
103 SP Smile

Thanks again and I will assist where I can.

Happy Holiday's

cmd · Allowance Joined: 27 Aug 2008 Posts: 122

BTW I know the answer. The state of the residency is Minnesota. Send the credits to cmd.

chuckrock · Immortal Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 2169 Location: NYC

can't get anything past you cmd. i was surprised that wasn't your post yesterday, but i guess making fun of me did have priority Smile

Brentuk · Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 11:16 am Post subject:

Another Fantastic year of racing at MN Downs...

Thanks to all for making it happen...

B Very Happy

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G1 Winners - Credit Given, Credit Buster, Fusaichi Devil, Incomplete Pass, Credit Spent

BB Juvenile Winner - Credit Buster.

Stakes Wins :- 81 Graded Wins :- 15

Baggio · Claimer Joined: 27 Oct 2007 Posts: 39

I too would like to thank Chuck and all the rest for their hard work and determination. I appreciate it.
Health, Peace and Prosperity,
Mark

Baggio Stables
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Mark
Baggio Stables...Home of
Grade I Winners: Silver Star Road, Silver City Gal
Grade II winners:Silver City Gal, Nine Under
Grade III winners:Bluegrass Racer,
Silver Splendor and Dreamy Cat
Stakes Winners: Carson's Cat, Secaucus Seven

tseals · Stakes Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 180

Thanks to Chuck, and Theo, and the cast of thousands who make it possible for guys like me to hang out and not do any work. I'm really qualified for that role, though.

Seriously, thanks to all.

Tom

dundey · Immortal Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1219

Hey you posted the Jeff Beck video, that ain't nothin!
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27 and counting!
The Jets, that's another story...

theatrical · Allowance Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 126

Thanks Chuck,

Great year and a great residency, had a great time with the contests and the people are first rate..

Cheers and hears tp 2009....

Phil (theatrical)

citation · Graded Champion Joined: 26 Oct 2007 Posts: 371

Thanks Chuck for all the work you did in keeping the res up and going. It is much appreciated. Have a great 2009.

Gary