Road to the Roses
 

Does anyone know when/if the game is going to start back up?...I enjoyed playing it the last to years. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Brandan

The website still isn't updated from last year, which seems odd. It says last years sign-ups started Feb 5th, and the contest started Feb. 11th.
Perhaps they decided to start a little later this year.
But I agree, it's a fun contest to play.

I thought I read last year that they were not having the contest but I could be mistaken.

o well...maybe some one will get the urge to try something like that here...i would but i do not have the time...i got to school full time and i work 30-35 hours a week...

randy moss didn't get fired. wire2wire moved to espn dot com, but moss is still employed.

Being that Churchill fired its entire web site staff with the exception of a tech guy, I doubt there is anyone there to run the game

randy moss is on the espn horse racing page for the donn preview--on wire2wire on the web. so if he left, it's within the last couple of days. and i can't find anything on it.
anyone?

Edit to not in any fashion seem to be a personal attack....

The Road to the Roses website is now up and it says coming soon. The official 2007 Oaks and Derby pages are now up as well.

thanks for the heads up, I'd had just given up on that. :)

You can now go and build your stable!

It might be wise to wait until later in the week when entries are confirmed for the stakes races this weekend.

can someone who has done this before fill me in a little, is it hard to manage and keep up on?

has any member of this every won one of the prizes in the contest before?

I won prizes in the Arlington Million one but haven't won anything in the Roadfortheroses contest.

It requires much less thought and homework than the TVG contest.
You just pick 10 horses on the derby trail, 2 jockeys and 2 trainers.
Once you confirm your stable, those are the selections that you keep for the entire contest.
The only management required, is that you need to keep 5 horses active each week, so every Friday just make sure any horses you have running that weekend are on the active list in your stable.

Also there are two drafts later on; the first for 2 additional horses, the second for 2 or 3 or 4, i can't remember, it's changed over the years.

Yeah, this year you can add 2 in the first and 3 in the second, or you can skip the first and add 5 in the second.

this is the fourth year i've played. never won anything but my goal is just score more points each year. last year was my best so far.:)

someone that is a member here came in second or third last year...I can't remember who...maybe stevepopyak????

My brother Ed took 3rd last year, he's also a DT'er but rarely posts. He actually had the lead going into the Derby and did have Barbaro and Prado, but failed to activate Bluegrass Cat or he probably would have won. The guys that passed him had the top 3 Derby finishers in their stable (and activated) and also Prado as their jockey and Matz as their trainer. Still got some nice prizes including a Gateway computer system and a bunch of Derby stuff. Good Luck.

Pick 6 Challenge
 

Anybody know whether there will be a Pick 6 Challenge this year? Looked at the Uber Schedule, but did not see it, but I think they left it off last year too and added it a couple of months before the Derby.

Anybody have any insight on who is running in these minor stakes this weekend, particularly the Sam F. Davis?

Pletcher's Any Given Saturday will be an odds on favorite in the Sam Davis

Excellent. Many thanks!

Ahh, thanks for reminding me. Forgot all about the drafting of horses later on.

Road to the Roses--PAY TO PLAY
 

Here's a new twist to this year's game. Aside from the regular prizes, contestants can also compete for a pool of money players contribute. $10 entry, top 10 players get paid. Interesting idea. The overall game is still free. ( I know there's already a thread on RTTR, but I thought this deserved it's own)

Here are the rules:




PAY TO PLAY OPTION:

The Road to the Roses fantasy challenge is free to play. However, new to this year's Road to the Roses game is a "Pay for Play" option. First, and most important to note, that this is a completely optional feature. If you choose not to use this feature, you will still be able to play the game just as you have in years past with all other features and functionality available to you. You also remain eligible for the top 25 regular prizes, the weekly prizes, and the stage prizes. Odds of winning and amount of the entry pool depends on the number of players and selecting the proper horses, trainers and jockeys from the official lists.

Briefly, here is how "pay for play" works:

As a player in the game, you can run through the payment process in the upper-right corner of the website.
For a small $10 fee, you will become eligible for cash payout.
All players in the game that pay, their money will go into one pool.
At the end of the game, the top 10 "paying" players will receive cash payout. See Prizes for distribution of the entry pool to the top 10 pay to playing participants.
Any ties in the monetary payouts will be broken using the Derby 133 attendance estimate.
Players may sign up multiple stables in the Pay to Play option, but must have a unique email address and username for each stable. In other words, the same person at the same address may sign up as many stables as they desire, at a cost of $10 per stable. Note that Pay to Play participants are also eligible for the regular game prizes in addition to any monies available.

Very important to note that if you do not pay, you are not eligible for a payout! However, you do have the option to sign up and create your stable without immediately paying, yet can still become eligible for the cash prizes. There is a ten-day window from after time of sign-up in which a player can change their status from playing for free to Pay for Play. You will see this option and how much time you have remaining to change your status when you log in to view your stable. After the ten days have expired, and you have not chosen to Play for Pay, that option is no longer available.

The final pool size will be determined at the conclusion of the signup for the game, which is April 27, 2007. All payments must be verified by Churchill Downs Incorporated prior to announcing the Pay to Play pool total dollar value.




http://www.roadtotheroses.com/G=46/official_rules.phtml

Has anyone tried to actually add horses yet? For some reason I am getting all the horses from 2005. It would be nice to have Afleet Alex again but somehow I can't see him getting me too many points.

I have Any Given Saturday, Hard Spun, etc., in my stable.

i built my stable, jockeys and trainers yesterday. it was the 2007 list.

Mine were from 2007.
Here is my advice for the contest this year: Take Nakatani. He is the regular rider on more of the top 30 contenders than almost anyone else.

Way ahead of you, already have Nakatani on my list. It's a stone cold lock he'll have a runner in the Derby, IMO.

my stable,
nakatani, j. velazquez
o'neil, plecter
air commander
circular quay
drums of thunder
great hunter
liquidity
nobiz like sobiz
notional
ravel
rescue party
street sense

i sign up yesterday. so its up in running.

I signed up, took the usual suspects (Any Given, Hard Spun, Great Hunter, No Biz, etc.) and threw in a couple of longer shots that look to be running some of these earlier preps such as the Southwest. We'll see how that works out for me. Incidentally, I tried to find some of the favorites in either the Borderland or the Turf Paradise Derby, and Tie West, Another Brother, a bunch of the others, they're just not nominated I'm guess.

I went with Going Ballistic instead.

So am I really the only one getting the list of 2005 horses? It is pretty amusing to look through them but I don't think they will score me many points.

Any interest in a DT League in the RRTR Contest
 

The 2007 Road to the Roses Contest allows leagues ti be set up is anyone interested in forming a league for DTers?

See the excerpt from the Q & A? Maybe we could even have a tie in with ATRAB and they could give away hats or shirts or something. Just a thought.

Q: Tell me more about the League feature that was added for 2006?

A: One of the two new highlights of the game (along with weekly prizes), the League creation adds an exciting element to the game no matter where you rank in the overall standings. During the signup process, every player will have the option to create their own league in which they can compete against friends, co-workers, etc. Basically, you will be able to invite as many people as you want to join your league by simply inputting their email addresses in the appropriate box. Once they accept, all the people in your league can track their rankings within your league each time they log in to the game. This is a great new addition to the game; even if you find yourself far out of first place overall, you still could be doing much better than everyone in your league, earning bragging rights over your co-workers, family, or friends.

That seems like a good idea, not sure who will run it though.