Welcome, horse fans!

We’ve made some quality of life updates to the way breeding works in Rival Stars Horse Racing, in order to help make your breeding attempts even more successful. This new breeding guide will cover the main points of what’s going on under the hood of horse genetics, stats, and bonuses in Rival Stars Horse Racing.

Appearance

A horse’s appearance is determined through Rival Stars Horse Racing’s genetics system:

Base Color: The base color affects the horse’s coat, mane, and tail. 

A foal’s base color will be one of the visible or hidden color genes from its parents! For example, breeding two horses with the base color Classic Brown together will not result in a Rich Brown foal, unless there was Rich Brown in either of the parents’ hidden genes.

The list includes four variants of chestnut, four bays, two browns, one white, and our two black variants: classic and exotic. In the visible genes section, a color swatch shows you the primary color of your horse’s coat, with the shade of its mane and tail in the bottom right corner. There is also a color swatch for your horse’s hidden coat color, but you will need to research your horse’s hidden genes in order to see it.

The rarest coat colors in Rival Stars Horse Racing are white and black. For the highest chance of getting one or the other, try breeding them together! This increases your chances of getting a coat that’s black OR white, either as visible or hidden genes.

Dilution: Dilution determines any variation to the base colors for the horse’s coat, mane, and tail, and can be expressed as either a single or double variation. 

In Rival Stars Horse Racing the dilutions are: None, Cream, Champagne, and Gray. Dilutions and double dilutions will change the appearance of base colors! Dilutions are inherited from a foal’s parents; however, breeding two horses with the same single dilution can result in the foal having the double dilution variant, even though neither parent had it! 

Pattern: This refers to any patterning that’s visible on your horse’s coat, mane, and tail. 

From the start of the game you’ll find the following categories: None, Dapples, Pinto, Spotting, White Face, Roan and Leopard Complex, with many more waiting to be discovered as you increase your Prestige in the game. Patterns are inherited following the same rules as coat colors. For example, breeding two horses with the pattern Pinto together will not result in a Dappled foal, unless there was a Dapple in either of the parents’ hidden genes.

Visible and Hidden Genes: Each horse has two kinds of genes for its color, its dilution, and its pattern — Visible and Hidden. Visible genes determine the appearance of your horse. Hidden genes are not visible, but may be passed down to become visible genes on the new foal. 

If you’ve been breeding for a particular color or pattern and don’t see it on your foal in the foal reveal, check its hidden genes! A gene is just as likely to be passed down whether it’s visible or hidden, so your foal might be able to pass it on to future generations. Note that double dilutions cannot be hidden genes.

Markings: There are a range of different head markings and leg markings that you may find on your horses. 

A foal will inherit a similar head marking to one of their parents. For example, if one parent has a star and the other a stripe, the foal will end up with one of the many variants of either a star or a stripe.

Stats

A horse has five stats: Speed, Sprint Energy, Acceleration, Agility, and Jump.

In Story Races, the most important stats are Speed, Sprint Energy, and Acceleration. 

In Cross Country, the most important stats are Speed, Agility, and Jump.

Your horse’s stats are ranked by quality: A+, A, B, C or D. A+ is an Excellent stat, and D is Ordinary. These are a horse’s Base Stats, and these never change. Higher Base Stats means your horse will be more powerful when fully trained! 

A newborn foal’s Base Stats are most likely to be the average of the parents’ respective Base Stats. For example: if the mare has A+ Speed, and the stud has B Speed, the resulting foal is likely to have A Speed. 

Grade

There are 10 Grades in Rival Stars Horse Racing. As you make your name in the world of racing, you’ll start being able to buy and breed horses of higher Grades, which can compete in the most prestigious and challenging competitions.

A horse’s Grade determines the highest level it can be trained to, the number of Diet Plans it can have equipped, and the Live Races it can participate in. 

You’ll unlock access to higher Grades of horses as you increase your Prestige and upgrade your Foaling S talls. 

A foal’s grade is determined by their parents: it will either match or be one grade higher than their lowest-grade parent. 

When there is a significant grade difference between the parents, and the foaling stalls are of a high level, there’s a higher likelihood that the newborn foal will be born at a higher grade. 

Percent chances of each grade are displayed on the breeding screen when choosing a stud and mare.

Higher grade foals have higher base stats and can be trained to higher maximum stats. 

When a foal is born at a higher grade than one or both of its parents, its stat quality will be lower than the average of its parents’ stat quality.

To breed for the best stat quality and resulting base stats, make sure your foal is born at the same grade as its lowest grade parent. You can use Modify Outcome to ensure this.

Horse Breed

All horses within Rival Stars Horse Racing have a breed they belong to. These distinct horse breeds can be found throughout the game and can add a lot of diversity to your stable!

In addition to looking unique, different breeds come with different additional bonuses to their stats, in the form of a primary and secondary bonus. Thoroughbreds are excellent racers on the track and get a primary bonus to Acceleration and a secondary bonus to Sprint Energy. While Selle Français gain a primary bonus to Jump and a secondary bonus to Acceleration. 

When breeding a Thoroughbred and a Selle together, there is a 50% chance the foal will end up as either breed!

Different breeds are suited to certain game modes as well as personal playstyles, so try them out, consider what’s right for you, and check a horse’s breed when raising foals to make sure you get bonuses to the stats you care about most!

Preferences

Your horse has three preference categories:

  • Position (front, middle, or back).
  • Distance (ranging from 800m to 3200m).
  • Track Surface (very soft, soft, medium, firm, hard, or very hard).

The exact preferences a horse is born with are likely to be similar to the preferences of one of its parents. If both of a foal’s parents have the same preference, the foal is even more likely to inherit that preference.. It is possible, though less likely, for a foal to have a preference held by neither parent.

Horses that have preferences that match or are similar to a course’s characteristics will perform better on that course, so having a diversity of preferences in your stable helps you be prepared for any and all events in the game! TJ will let you know which of your horses is best suited for a track.

Foal Care and Bonuses

If you’re not completely happy with your newborn foal, you can sell them on to a new home in a yearling sale! This can only be done when they’re a newborn —- once you decide to care for a foal, you won’t be able to sell them again until they’re fully grown. 

A foal’s mother will stay in the Foaling Stall until the foal is born, so she won’t be able to compete during this time. Keep that in mind when breeding your best horses together.

Once you’re happy with your foal, you can either age them up to be race-ready, or (from Prestige 6) you can start Foal Care. 

By caring for your foal regularly and feeding them, you’ll help them develop extra bonus stats.

If you’d like some help caring for your foal, you can hire a Caretaker. Each Caretaker has their own level of skill and each guarantees a certain amount of bonus stats.

If your foal doesn’t need the extra care, or if you’ve already hired a caretaker to guarantee a certain amount of bonus stats, you can click “skip to mare/stud” at any point to instantly get your foal race-ready! 

These bonus stats will be randomly assigned across your horse’s stats. They can’t be inherited by that horse’s future offspring, but they do give you an extra edge in competitions!

We will keep the community updated as more features continue to be released. Thank you for playing Rival Stars Horse Racing and we hope you find this information useful!

Regards,

The Design team,

Rival Stars Horse Racing.