All the existing reviews of this game on BoardGameGeek have been positive, albeit acknowledging one or two flaws. For me, the various flaws add up to make this game a highly frustrating experience.

The biggest problem is that the game is highly luck dominated:

Luck issue 1 – If you roll high numbers you win. Virtually any tactical thinking you might have had is scuppered by the guy next to you rolling consecutive sixes and storming to victory by a country mile. Each race is nowhere near long enough for luck with the dice to even out. Wait, you say, surely a really nasty card can even that up? Well no, because if a horse gets into a sizeable lead then it can normally avoid landing on fences and only the slipped up on the flat card can stop them. Which brings me on to issue 2…..

Luck issue 2 – Some of the really nasty cards are miles better than other. The aforementioned slipped up on the flat card is easily the best card – used properly it should get you a first place and/or secure victory for the horse you have bet on. As there is only one of these, being dealt it is a huge advantage. Other cards with some use include the Faller at Briars Brook cards (much better than the other faller cards as Briars Brook is two spaces wide so horses are more likely to be forced to land on it). Compare that with the largely useless riderless horse card or the objection cards (gambling £10,000 on rolling a 1 does fit with the game mechanics)!

Luck issue 3 – The Lane Draw. The lane draw is random, but has a large impact on the result. It is very difficult to win if you are in Lane 6 as you are often forced to land on fences by not being able to move across. Even if you play the full six races (see below) luck of the lane draw is unlikely to even up. Although you can obviously make money through betting on a race even if your horse hasn’t got much of a chance, you generally need to earn a couple of place finishes initially to give you the cash to make meaningful bets.

Luck issue 4 – The final race is everything. Most money is the only thing that matters for victory, so the final race betting normally follows a pattern whereby everybody except the current leader wagers everything on a horse. If that horse wins then the person who had put the most money on it wins. Nothing else matters. Of course, you have had to accumulate enough money over the previous races to be able to place a large bet, but the multipliers are such that it can be far less than the leader has won and you still have a chance if you are lucky enough to back the correct horse in the final race.

Other problems –

Odds' calculations make little sense: Odds are calculated by multiplying the horse grade and the lane draw (with some adjustments for large outsiders). Whilst lane draw does affect the result, horse grade rarely does, as a) there are relatively few spaces where you can “double up” your roll through having a good horse and b) everybody plays their best horses in the same races, i.e. the ones with good prize money. Issue b) also means that there are fantastic odds on offer for the low value races, as all the horses have high multipliers. Yet this does not make any sense – your local bookies won’t offer 12:1 on the second favourite just because all the horses in a race are rubbish. Nor will the rank outsider only be 6:1 in a race with lots of good horses. Odds should be relative to the other horses, yet the game is not sophisticated enough to do this.

Length: The game is best played with 5 or 6 players as that can lead to more excitement with blocking and also prevents boring races where everybody is guaranteed a prize just because one or two horses have been taken out. Yet if you play with a full complement of races and a full roster of players you are looking at 3 hours or so for a game that lacks the depth to justify such a long playing time. As I’ve noted above, it all comes down to the final race anyway, so much of that time is wasted.

Perhaps I’m being over-critical for a game which is light and accessible, however I feel its flaws are such that it is not fun to play.