The four races
| Race | Distance | Who may enter | Fee per bird | Max birds | Base loss risk | Rival strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club Sprint | 100 km | All ages | 10G | 10 | 1.5% | 58 |
| Young Bird Derby | 200 km | Under 1 year | 30G | 8 | 4% | 66 |
| Middle Distance | 350 km | 1 year and up | 50G | 5 | 6% | 72 |
| 600 km Classic | 600 km | 2 years and up | 100G | 3 | 14% | 80 |
Source: scripts/race_data.gd (Races.LIST). A year is 365 game days. You can enter each of the four races once per game day, so up to four races a day if you have enough rested birds. A bird must be at home (not outside, away or in a nest), a batcher (not clipped), not resting, and not entered in a tournament or league round the same day.
Every race has 40 pigeons: your birds plus rivals from the other lofts in the club (so entering more birds does not make the field bigger).
Race ability by distance
Each bird gets one ability score for the race. Distance moves weight from speed to stamina; navigation, power and recovery always count.
| Race | Speed | Stamina | Navigation | Power | Recovery | Average rival ability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club Sprint | 0.83 | 0.17 | 0.45 | 0.20 | 0.15 | 104.4 |
| Young Bird Derby | 0.67 | 0.33 | 0.45 | 0.20 | 0.15 | 118.8 |
| Middle Distance | 0.42 | 0.58 | 0.45 | 0.20 | 0.15 | 129.6 |
| 600 km Classic | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.45 | 0.20 | 0.15 | 144.0 |
The weights add up to 1.8, so a bird whose five stats all equal the rival strength has the same ability as an average rival: 1.8 x 58 = 104.4 in the Club Sprint.
Changes to the score
- Not fed today: -12 ability points. This is as big as raising Navigation by 27.
- Bond:
(bond - 100) x 0.1. A batcher at 100% loses nothing; a bird at 50% bond loses 5. - Breed trait: see the trait table (it multiplies stats or the final speed).
- Energy mix: final speed x1.05 for the next race (vitamins).
From ability to finishing place
| Weather | Speed | Loss risk |
|---|---|---|
| Clear skies | x1.00 | x1.00 |
| Tailwind | x1.08 | x0.90 |
| Headwind | x0.90 | x1.15 |
| Rain showers | x0.94 | x1.35 |
Weather is the same for the whole field. The 39 rivals each have five stats (speed, stamina, navigation, power, recovery) drawn around the race's rival strength with a spread of 9, kept between 20 and 98. The fastest bird wins; birds that do not come home get no place.
What it takes to win
One point of ability is worth 4.2 m/min, and luck is typically 35 m/min, which is about 8 ability points. The best of 39 rivals is usually about 20 ability points above the average rival, so a bird needs roughly 20 or more ability points above the average rival ability in the table above to win often.
Win chances
These chances were found by running the formulas above 4,000 times per cell with a fed bird at 100% bond, no trait and a field of 40 (a bird that is lost counts as not winning). They are close (within about 2 points) but not exact, because weather and luck are random.
| Bird (SPD / STA / NAV / REC / PWR) | Club 100 km | Derby 200 km | Middle 350 km | Classic 600 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter Janssen 76 / 53 / 72 / 63 / 53 | 28% / 57% / 90% | 1% / 4% / 25% | 0% / 0% / 0.5% | 0% / 0% / 0% |
| Sprinter 90 / 50 / 70 / 60 / 55 | 67% / 90% / 98% | 5% / 18% / 55% | 0% / 0% / 2% | 0% / 0% / 0% |
| Stayer 55 / 90 / 70 / 70 / 55 | 5% / 17% / 54% | 1% / 4% / 21% | 0.4% / 2% / 16% | 0.2% / 1.5% / 14% |
| All-rounder 85 / 85 / 85 / 80 / 70 | 95% / 99% / 99% | 69% / 90% / 97% | 30% / 59% / 88% | 1% / 6% / 35% |
What changes the odds most
- Feeding. The starter Janssen wins the Club Sprint 28% of the time when fed. Unfed (-12 ability) it wins only 3%.
- Bond. The same bird at 50% bond (-5 ability) wins 13%.
- Navigation. It adds to ability and lowers the loss risk. Take a bird with 80 speed, 80 stamina, 70 recovery and 60 power in the Classic. At Navigation 40 it never makes the top 10 and is lost 15.7% of the time; at Navigation 70 it makes the top 10 about 2% of the time (12.2% lost); at Navigation 95 it wins 0.4% and makes the top 10 21% of the time (7.8% lost).
- Distance. A sprinter that wins the Club Sprint two times in three cannot win a long race, and a stayer shows the reverse. The all-rounder is the only type here that wins at 350 km.
Loss risk
Every bird in a race first rolls to see whether it is lost on the way. Your rivals can be lost too.
| NAV / REC | Club | Derby | Middle | Classic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 / 30 | 2.1% | 5.7% | 8.6% | 20.0% |
| 50 / 50 | 1.7% | 4.4% | 6.6% | 15.4% |
| 70 / 60 | 1.3% | 3.4% | 5.1% | 12.0% |
| 90 / 80 | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3.6% | 8.3% |
| 100 / 100 | 0.7% | 1.8% | 2.7% | 6.3% |
- Navigation multiplies the risk by
1.6 - NAV/100: x1.6 at NAV 0, x1.1 at 50, x0.6 at 100. Going from 50 to 90 NAV cuts the risk by 36%. - Recovery multiplies it by
1.25 - REC/200: x1.25 at REC 0, x0.75 at 100. - Weather (table above): rain showers x1.35 and headwind x1.15 make it worse, tailwind x0.9 helps. The Classic with NAV 70 / REC 60 is 12.0% in clear skies, 16.2% in rain and 10.8% in a tailwind.
- Consistent Racer (Houben): the same bird in clear skies is 10.2% instead of 12.0%.
What happens to a lost bird
When a bird is lost, one more roll decides what happened:
| Outcome | Share of lost birds | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Astray | 60% | The bird may come back by itself later. Chance depends on Navigation, see lost birds. |
| Hawk | 25% | Killed. It never comes back. Only a History entry is left. |
| Captured | 15% | It never comes home on its own, but it can still turn up as a stray in the Trap after 60 days. |
So for each race the chance of a bird dying is loss chance x 25%, and the chance of a bird that is gone for good (or only recoverable through the Trap) is loss chance x 40%. Entry fees are not refunded when a bird is lost.
Example: a Classic for a NAV 70 / REC 60 bird
12.0% is lost: 7.2% astray, 3.0% killed by a hawk, 1.8% captured. The other 88% come home. With 3 birds in the entry, the chance that at least one is lost is about 32%.
Prizes and fame
| Race | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th to 10th | 11th and later |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club Sprint | 70G | 35G | 15G | 10G (fee back) | 0 |
| Young Bird Derby | 140G | 70G | 30G | 30G (fee back) | 0 |
| Middle Distance | 240G | 120G | 55G | 50G (fee back) | 0 |
| 600 km Classic | 600G | 300G | 135G | 100G (fee back) | 0 |
Fame, which sets your player level (see gold and levels), works like this:
- A place is worth 30 / 20 / 10 for 1st / 2nd / 3rd, and 3 for 4th to 10th.
- With several birds, the best placing counts in full and every other bird at half. One race gives at most 45.
- Ordinary club races are unranked: you get half of that (rounded down), so a win is worth 15 fame.
- All racing together gives at most 22 fame per game day. Unranked racing has its own cap of 22 inside it.
Example: three birds in the Derby
They finish 1st, 3rd and 8th. Prizes: 140 + 30 + 30 = 200G, minus 3 x 30G in fees. Fame: best 30 + half of (10 + 3) = 30 + 6 = 36, halved for an unranked race = 18 fame.
Rest days
After a race a bird rests for round(km / 200) days, at least 1, and cannot enter anything that needs it on those days. Recovery mix halves the rest (rounded down).
| Race | Rest days | With Recovery mix |
|---|---|---|
| Club Sprint | 1 | 0 |
| Young Bird Derby | 1 | 0 |
| Middle Distance | 2 | 1 |
| 600 km Classic | 3 | 1 |
Racing also counts as the bird's toss for the day, so it cannot be tossed on a race day.
Worked examples
Example 1: why the starter Janssen should stay at the Club Sprint
Janssen (SPD 76, STA 53, NAV 72, REC 63, PWR 53) in the Club Sprint: 76 x 0.83 + 53 x 0.17 + 72 x 0.45 + 53 x 0.2 + 63 x 0.15 = 124.6. The average rival is 104.4, so it is 20 points better and wins about 28% of the time with 57% for the top 3. In the Derby its ability is 120.8 against rivals at 118.8, and it wins only 1%. Loss risk is 1.2% in the Club Sprint and 3.3% in the Derby.
Example 2: feeding is worth more than a stat
Feed before you enter. An unfed bird loses 12 ability points; to make that up with Navigation you would need +27 points of Navigation (12 / 0.45), which is about 11 successful 20 km tosses.
Example 3: is a Classic entry worth it?
A Stayer (STA 90, NAV 70, REC 70, PWR 55, SPD 55) has 143.0 ability in the Classic against rivals at 144.0. It wins about 0.2% of the time, finishes in the top 10 about 14% of the time (back 100G) and is lost 11.3% of the time. The fee is 100G. Unless the bird is far better than that, a Classic is a gamble rather than income. The Middle Distance (350 km) gives the same stayer about the same top-10 chance (16%) with less than half the loss risk (4.9%) and half the fee.