- I’m writing this FAQ because there aren’t any on the net that I’ve run across
and I’m sure there are lots of people with questions in this game. Please
don’t copy this as your own or put it on a site without asking for my
permission by emailing at feartheclown04@hotmail.com otherwise I could
prosecute you and I would to the full extent of the law.
- I’ll be adding more to this faq per request of ANYBODY who has enough
interest in this game to take the time and ask me for something to be added
I. Getting Started
II. Racing
III. Career mode
IV. Breeding
V. Tips
VI. Thanks
I. Getting Started
Controls in Gallop Racer 2001 are really simple, basically to control your
horse you push up on the D-pad to loosen the reins and encourage your horse to
accelerate and push down on the D-pad to tighten your hold on the reins and get
your horse to slow down, push the d-pad once to have less of an effect and push
it multiple times for a greater effect. You move your horse from side to side
by using left and right on the d-pad and you can whip your horse by pressing
circle or square for the left or right side respectively to get your horse to
spurt at the end of the race.
There are a lot of questions on what makes the perfect horse or the best horse
and some stats people don’t understand are these along with their explanations:
1. Guts(Gts) - In the last furlong or 2 of a race if your horse is matched up
going neck and neck up against an equally matched horse
the guts will affect how hard your horse tries and wins, this is very good for
front runners
2. Temperment(Tmp) - This is how well your horse likes to be handled, if it
takes you a long time to get your horse onto the pace of the race or you have
to jockey into position a lot the horse will get very touchy and its condition
in the race will often go into yellow or red. Also, some horses with low
tempers will run poorly if you whip them in the final stretch. The higher the
temper the better because it is easier to manage is recommended for anyone new
to the game.
3. Incline(Inc) - This stat is very important because it directly affects your
horse’s spurt in the final stretch. A low incline means your horse will run
out of stamina long before you want it to, usually horses with a low incline
will be best going shorter distances than longer. A high incline is definitely
recommended for front runners, one with a low incline is for the most part
useless.
4. Track Condition(Con) - This affects how well your horse will run in bad
weather. I don’t see this stat affecting my horses very often and can pretty
much be ignored because its not very important if you horse is good in other
areas.
5. Pacer(PCE) - This will tell you how fast your horse’s spurt is. A slow
spurt will last longer while a fast spurt will last less. The best to have is
a horse with a fast PCE and a high incline.
6. Horse’s Rating - This is your horse’s speed rating. The best way to look at
it is 100 is the track record so if your horse’s rating is 95 it can almost run
the time that is the track record. The turf rating is how well your horse runs
on turf and the dirt rating is how well your horse runs on dirt. A horse rated
102 on the dirt can win any dirt race in the game while a horse rated 102 on
the turf can win some grade 1’s but not all. There are not many ratings over
115 and usually anything over it has poor stats like incline and guts which
matter more than speed rating in my opinion.
II. Racing
The point of any race is to win, what sets this game apart from the Gran
Turismo’s of the world is you do it riding in the saddle on a horse. There are
many more factors to horse racing than there is in auto racing because you are
dealing with flesh and blood and so you can’t predict anything.
1. Before you start the race you’re going to have to check what leg type your
horse has:
A. Front Runner - these horses love to be the leader and most will give up if
they don’t have the lead at the end of the race because they have no closing
power. If you’re racing this type you will need to break well every race so
that you are in the top 3 horses out of the gate and try and get on the rail as
soon as possible. Don’t be afraid to get your horse in front of another horse
if he contests you because if you decide to save energy and sit in 2nd or 3rd
you should have tried for the lead because you will probably end up out of the
money. If you are in the lead(where you should be)you should wait to ask your
horse to make his move until the horses around you are almost about to take the
lead away. Your biggest challenge here is having enough energy at the end and
holding off closers.
B. Stalkers - this type of horse loves to sit right off the lead in about 2-4th
position(some will sit back further but its not recommended). Usually these
horses have good spurts and I definitely recommend this type for anyone
starting out. Basically, you want to be about 2 - 3 lengths behind the leader
and depending on your spurt wait until you get to about 2.5 furlongs left in
the race and you should make your move. Your biggest challenge here is getting
past that stubborn front runner with a ton of guts.
C. Pack Runners - this kind likes being surrounded by other horses and should
sit back around 6-10th depending on how many horses are in the race. Don’t let
your horse get to close to the leader or too close to the closers behind you or
it won’t be very happy! You should just try and stay on the pace as best you
can and wait to make your move at about 2.5 furlongs. Your biggest challenge
here is timing your spurt just right so that you don’t take off to early or too
late and should win the race right at the end.
D. Closers - this horse is a loner, they aren’t very friendly, they like to
have all the other horses in their vision because they become nervous if there
are too many horses behind them. This horse likes to sit in last or next to
last. Just try and not drop too far back in a race. About 3.3 or 3 furlongs
you should get your horse up to about 6th or 7th before asking them to run full
out and then at about 2.3 furlongs you should start whipping them. This type
usually has a very fast spurt and you won’t win too many races by more than 2
or 3 lengths. Your biggest challenge is finding an open lane(75% of the time
there is plenty of room on the rail so always look there first).
E. Pace horses - this type will run in any position, all they want to do is be
right on the pace meaning they don’t want to be losing ground on the leader or
gaining ground on him. With this one try and break well and I suggest running
him like a stalker.
2. Finding the right horse for you:
Before you start a career you should try out the practice mode and take a go
with the different style of horses. This will help you find out which type of
horse you can run best right now because in career if you pick the wrong horse
as your first one it could be career ending if you don’t make any money with
it. Make sure to look at the growth rate of a horse before you buy it, it’s
the little graph you see when you push square on the horse screen. The best
ones usually peak around age 4.
3. Picking the right race for your horse:
After buying a horse you should always try it out in a open race no matter what
his rating is just so you can try and figure out his quirks and the best way to
ride him. Make sure you stick him in the right distance for him and also if a
horse goes 7 - 12 furlongs he runs best at 7 furlongs but can make it 12
furlongs. Don’t start putting your horse into graded races until his rating is
about 88 when you should try him in a Grade III. Start putting him in Grade
II’s when he can win consistently and fairly easily in Grade III’s. Start him
in a Grade I only once you’re pretty confident and his rating is about 98 at
least. On a side note: 2 and 3 year olds are less matured than anything older
so 2 year old Grade I’s are about the equivalent of a 4 year olds and up Grade
III and 3 year old Grade I’s are about equal to a 4 year olds and up Grade II.
III. CAREER
After you’ve tried out practice mode a little and gotten a feel for the game
you should go ahead and start a career mode which is the only real mode in this
game that’s worth playing for more than an hour or 2. If you’ve gotten pretty
good in practice mode go ahead and start playing on normal but if you’ve gotten
really good for hard mode for a little bit of a challenge then pick the colors
you want for your silks.
1. Your first horse
You start out with a measly 10000 credits but that is enough to buy a decent
enough horse to win you some money in opens. You should look for a horse
around 2k-6k$ because you will need to pay for him his stall and feed pay for
him every month which shouldn’t be too much but like I said, don’t spend all
your money on your first horse in case he is a complete loser. Find a horse
with decent stats in guts and incline and also look for one that goes around
7-10 furlongs and runs best on grass since that is where most of the races are.
Your first horse will probably never make it to Grade III so try and stick
with opens with him and don’t be worried if he doesn’t win many races because
5th place is still in the money.
2. Jockey Evaluation
You probably noticed your jockey evaluation at the end of the race. The higher
the better(duh), unfortunately this stat is usually affected more by what place
you finish in rather than if you really gave your horse a good ride because
sometimes you can just be plain outmatched. What the jockey evaluation does is
basically, after you get to a predetermined number a new horse shop will open
up and you’ll be able to purchase more expensive and better horses.
3. Unlocking races
There are a lot of Grade I’s in the game, too many to list, but you are only
able to see that these races are ever there, let alone enter them, if you enter
into a qualifying race for this Grade I but the problem is that these
qualifying races don’t say they are qualifying races for a Grade I. A lot of
the un-lockable races will become available after winning a few grade ones like
the Diamond Cup or the Paris Cup etc but there are a few like the Kentucky
Derby(louisana derby), Preakness, and the Belmont which only become available
after beating a certain race(in the case of the triple crown this race is the
Grade II on the dirt in the 4th week of December(2yr olds only)). Later on I
might update on what races update which but that will take some work since I
haven’t paid attention to what races unlocked what.
4. Secret Events
There are a couple secret events in this game, here they are:
A. WSJS(I think?) - this is the jockey cup, you get a little automatic message
if you are in the top 4 jockeys ranked by number of wins. In this you get the
horse you are riding picked for you(never one of the ones you own)and you have
to race for points. You race 4 races and the jockey with the most amount of
points, gotten by what place you finish in each race, gets 50000 and a little
trophy.
B. Dream Cup - this is for your horse and you have to win 3 or 4 top Grade I’s
in the year with one of your horses and its possible he will qualify for this
honor. When you do qualify you get to select what distance you want to go if
it gives you this option. Usually, you will end up racing in a distance best
for your horse since that is usually the distance you ran in Grand I’s
throughout the year. What you get if you win this race is one of the Sammy
horses, either Sammy’s Pace or Sammy’s _____(note: if you race 8 furlongs or
shorter there is another horse who’s name slips me at this time). The horses
in the Dream Cup are EXTREMELY tough. You’re usually going to want and try to
block out the Sammy horse by getting in front of it if you want any shot at
winning. Another horse to watch out in the Dream Cup is Mums Da Word. MDW is
tough because even if you manage to block out the Sammy horse MDW will usually
still beat you because he is such a good horse(I don’t recommend buying Mums Da
Word if you ever get a chance to because he is soooo expensive and he peaks at
3 so you never get a chance to make your money back with him).
IV. BREEDING
Having a successful Career depends largely on how well you can breed your
horses. Finding the 2 right horses for each other always helps and knowing
which horses you should and shouldn’t breed helps too.
1. Deciding which horses to breed
You probably shouldn’t try and breed that first horse you got, or even the next
one. Don’t worry about breeding any horse that only wins opens because it’s a
waste of your time more often than not. The horses you’re going to want to
breed are the ones who can at least win Grade II’s and don’t breed anything
with a rank under B otherwise what you come out with won’t be so good.
2. When to retire a horse for breeding
If your horse has a high enough rating you can probably drop him down a grade
even when his speed rating drops so you can still make money with him. When
you retire your horse he ends up with the highest speed rating he had when he
peaked and not the rating he had when you retired him but unfortunately the
same can’t be said about his rank so make sure you don’t lose a lot of races
with your horse when you’re about to retire him because his rank will affect
how good the foal is that you end up with.
3. Finding the right 2 horses
Its best to find 2 horses that are pretty equal in everything. You don’t want
to breed a dirt horse to a grass horse because you’ll end up with something
that isn’t good in anything. Also, horses that are both have the same leg type
usually have the best foals.
4. When you finally decide to breed
Since you can only breed each horse once you should always make sure and save
your game before you breed in case you end up with a real dud. Now, pick the 2
horses and watch them breed.
5. Weeding out the nobodies
After your horses have ‘merged’ you should make sure and check every stat on
your new foal before you decide to keep it. Try and get horses with a growth
type that peak around 4 years old(you can tell what year they peak at by how
many dashes down the first line is). Make sure the horse you get isn’t like 20
points on its speed rating under its parents because if it is you can do a lot
better. Once you’ve decided on keeping a horse give it an original name and
get ready to race.
V. TIPS
- Having trouble winning a race with my strategies? Look for a strategy that
best fits you and your horse.
- Can’t find all those hidden Grade I races? Try buying a 2 year old because a
lot of the hidden Grade I races are 3 year old races whose qualifying race is
for 2 year olds only
- Not breaking well? Try and memorize the breaking countdown, remember, 3
ready’s flash across the screen and then the gate unlatches almost when a 4th
ready would flash across the screen. Try and time it so you push up exactly
when the gate unlatches.
- Can’t win enough races to get into the WSJS? Try and buy horses that go
different distances so they aren’t all getting ready to enter in the same race
so you can race in more races. Also, buy some horses that aren’t very good but
can win opens fairly easily to get your win count up.
VI. THANKS
- Thanks to everyone who bought Gallop Racer 2001 on PS2 and thanks to all the
horsemen and gamblers out there keeping this great sport alive at dieing tracks
all over America.
- Thanks to the people on the GameFaqs boards for posting a couple suggestions
- Thanks to GameFaqs for being so awesome
Questions? Comments? Email them to me at feartheclown04@hotmail.com or post
them on the gallop racer 2001 boards on GameFaqs.
