GAME SETUP
Set the handicap tokens 2 each of , and plus 3 on the board in the space marked Race Handicap tokens.
Shuffle the Green Race Track cards, deal two faced down on top of each other near the board and set the rest in the box. Do the same with the Purple Race cards, placing two face down on top of the two Green Race cards. These will be the races for the game.
Each player takes a set of Bet tokens, one player token and a scoring cube, all of one color. They place the player token in front of them to signify their color, and place their cube on the Score Track. Each Score Track space equals so each of the players begins with $50,000
Now the players must ‘draft’ horses to create their stable. When playing with 2 or 3 players, use only the blue horse Share deck for the entire game. For players the red horse Share deck will be added in the second draft.
Shuffle the 22 blue horse cards together and deal a hand of cards facedown to each player. Place any leftover cards aside.
- Look at your hand of cards, select one card to keep and place it face down in front of you.
- Pass the remaining cards in your hand face down to the player on your left. Receive your new hand from the player on your right.
- Repeat selecting a card to keep and passing the hand until all the cards have been taken.
- Flip the cards you selected face up and total the value of all your shares.
- Pay this total by adjusting your Scoring token on the score track on the board.Once each player has a starting stable of horses, the first race begins.
RACES
RACE SETUP:
Place the horses in their respective lanes in the Start space with the horses facing toward space #1.
Flip up the top Race card to determine the handicaps and purse for the race.
Add the handicap tokens shown on the card to the race lane of each horse, behind the starting position.
BETTING:
Place bets by laying your Bet tokens (number side face down) on the Tote board in the spots of the Win (1st), Place (2nd) or Show (3rd) lines below the desired horse’s number (See ). Each spot shows the payout for that bet. Bet token numbers are in $1000’s and will multiply the payout. So a bet on 11 to win will pay $30,000 while a bet on 7 to Place will pay just $2,000. •
- The player(s) with the most money on the score track bets first, placing all 5 Bet tokens, but only one token per spot bet on the board.
- The other players follow in order of next highest score to lowest. (Tiebreaker: alphabetically by color. starting with Black.) Different players may place bets on the same spot. They may place up to as many tokens per spot as their place in the scoring. So a 2nd place player may bet two of his tokens per spot. The player in 3rd may put up to 3 tokens per spot, and so on.
Note:that any player may bet ahead of their order if they so choose. So for example the 3rd place player can choose to bet with or before the 1st or 2nd players.
RACING: Once all bets are placed, the race begins. The track has 9 spaces, so horses must move a total of 10 spaces to cross the finish line and win. Players will roll the two dice and total them together to determine the number of the horse that will move.
The Start Player is always the player with the least money. In case of a tie, decide by highest die roll.
Start Player rolls the two dice first. He may either: move that horse 2 spaces then pass the dice to the next player clockwise
OR
move the horse only 1 space and re-roll. Whatever number is re-rolled, that horse moves 2 spaces.
NOTE!See exception on page 3 for horses that finish.
That player’s turn is now over and the dice are passed clockwise to the next player.
On any given turn, a player may only roll the dice once or twice maximum.
Note!Handicap tokens always affect the first move of a horse. Once used, discard them back to their pile.
Horses with a Handicap token at the Start add spaces equal to the + token to their first move.
If a horse has an , it cancels the movement value for the first time its’ number is rolled. Discard the token back to the pile. Future die rolls with that horse’s number will move that horse normally.
WIN, PLACE & SHOW
WIN, PLACE and SHOW: The first horse to pass the finish line goes onto the board on the Win line under its’ number space. The 2nd finisher goes to its’ space on the Place line and likewise the 3rd finisher goes to its’ space on the Show line. (See ) 8 Wins, 11 Places, 9 Shows
IMPORTANT!Once a horse has finished the race, rolling that horse’s number counts as one of your rolls, but causes a special move. Choose one of the horsesin last place on the boardto move 1–3 spaces. The number of spaces to move is based on the difference of the two dice as per this table:
Example:
Horse 8 wins the race. Starting his next turn, Jon rolls a 6 and a 2. Since 8 has already finished and the difference of the two dice is 4, Jon must move one of the last place horses forward 3 spaces. He then re-rolls and gets a 2 and a 4 and moves the 6 horse forward 2 spaces. Anna now rolls a 5 and a 3 and chooses a last place horse to move up 2 spaces, and re-rolls. Anna then rolls a 4 and a 4 and chooses a last place horse to move forward 1 space, ending her turn. Frank rolls a 5 and a 3 and moves a last place horse forward 2 spaces. He chooses not to take his re-roll and ends his turn.
PAYOUTS:
Once three horses finish, the race ends. Remove losing bets and move the winners to the left.Pay the Win, Place and Show purses on the Race Track card to the shareholders of each winning horse. Divide each purse equally by the total number of shares in play. • If only one player has shares of the horse, they receive the entire purse.
- If 2 players each have one share, they each get ½ the purse.
- If a player has two shares and another player has one, the player with two shares gets ²/ ³ of the payout and the other gets ¹/ ³ .
- If 3 players each have one share, they each get ¹/ ³ .
Next, pay out the winning Bet tokens. Multiply the bet payout marked on the Tote board under a winning token by the number on the Bet token(s) there. On the board, only the Bet tokens on or below the placement of the horse pay off. So a winning (1st place ) horse pays out on WIN, PLACE and SHOW bets. The horse that Places (2nd place ) pays out on only PLACE and SHOW bets and a horse that SHOWS (3rd place ) pays only for the SHOW bet.NOTE: All payouts advance a player’s scoring cube on the score track.
2ND CHANCE BUY
After the first race, there is one more chance for the players to purchase up to two more horse shares.
Deal face up a number of horse share cards equal to the number of players, placing the rest in a deck face down beside those.
Going in order from lowest score to highest, each player may do one of the following:
- Buy one face up horse share
- Buy a face down share off the top of the deck (if any are left) for $3000 plus the cost of the horse that is revealed.
- Pass
Immediately adjust a player’s scoring token when they choose their horse. After each player has bought one or passed, refill the face up cards again so the face up cards equal the number of players. Again in order from lowest to highest score, each player gets one more chance to buy/pass. Then discard any remaining cards out of the game and proceed to the next three races.
Last place Green chooses the 5 for $8k, next to last Blue follows picking the ten for $6k, 2nd place Yellow picks the 7 for $10k and 1st place Red buys the top card for its’ value plus $3k. Replenish the 3 missing face up cards, then repeat selection one more time.
GAME END
After 4 races total, the game is over. The player with the most money wins the game! Ties are broken by the player with the highest total value of horse shares. If still tied, then by the owner of the most Longshot shares followed by the owner of the most Field horses followed by most Favorites . If still tied, rejoice in a shared victory!
2 PLAYER START RULE
During initial card drafting, deal each player 5 cards and deal a third ‘ghost’ player hand of 5 as if there is a third player between them. Each player and the ghost hand will draft a 5-card hand by selecting a card, then passing their hand to the left. Just remove a random card from the ghost hand before each pass and place it with the leftover blue cards. Continue drafting until each player has selected 5 horse Shares
Fast-paced family game that will have you cheering your horse across the finish line! Buy your own stable of horses and race them at various tracks. Place bets to win, place, or show and collect big race purses when your horse wins! Over 20 unique track cards are included so every game will be different. A little luck and skill in picking the winning horses can bring you riches. Add Homestretch into your regular stable of games for great family fun!
Ages 14+ | 2 to 6 players | Playing time 60 minutes
