My other thought is...what if residents "loaned" stables to those who do not have 3. I currently only have 4, but they are all decent and I would be happy to loan out my 4th - in other words - with my 4th stable that I am not using towards the contest I would just enter and run horses as I normally would and the player that "borrowed" the stable would use the finishes towards their scoring. OR - to avoid any chicanery (like "gee I forgot to enter any horses" in the final week in an attempt to lower the lender's score), the borrower just overtakes training and entering/racing horses for the duration of the contest - I am unsure of the logistics issues this may create, however.
Sledges Structure is great although i Like the FOUR ACE idea. 4wins is more reachable than 5 wins but still a lot harder than four of a kind. It adds an interesting factor. I'll play for sure!!
So, if this started this week, I would need to nominate the 3 barns I am playing my hand with before the races are run? Or do I see how my stables fared and then place my best hand from any of my barns, 3 in total, to go for the pot?
And then the following week, I can select my hand from any of the barns I have entered or would I need to go with the same barns from the week previous.
This contest is going to favour players with a larger number of barns, like myself ... I run 5 different stables for the NWRC on any given week, so my ability to select the best hand from any three of those 5 barns gives me a major advantage (should i place my horses better) and that might wear thin for some of the smaller numbered members.
Then again, if I have read the rules wrong, I guess it may be tighter than I presume.
May I also suggest a dummy round this week, set up a thread with our best winning hand and see how people fared, with no credits up for grabs.
Agree that the 3 stables should be declared BEFORE the start. If trainers could nominate different stables every week, guys like me with only 4 active stables would have NO shot.