Going to the track and betting on ponies is one of the few sports that are available to accept bets even when other sports in the state are not. Some make it a tradition to go to the tracks themselves, while others enjoy making a fun combination of their bookies and events at home, like betfair Grand National.
This, however, does not mean that horse racing is only available to the horses, jockeys, breeders, and enthusiasts. Gamers have made it into the horse racing market with some amazing games about the noblest of sports. Here are our top picks.
Rival Stars Horse Racing
Rival Stars Horse Racing allows you to train your horses, breed them, and take care of your ranch. It is an RPG sports simulator, where you can upgrade your horses’ skills, as well as their living and training facilities.
Developed and published by PikPok, the game was originally intended as an app, but there is also a desktop version scheduled for release on June 24 on Steam.
The reviews for the game are mostly positive, with a score of 4.5 on Google Play at the time of writing.
Japan World Cup
What do you do when you want to bet on horses, but can’t? And what if those horses and their jockeys were every bit as bizarre as you might expect from a Japanese entertainment show? You place a bet on one of the horses and see how the race unfolds. Just when you think that you’ve figured things out, you get surprised by the victory of the two people in a horse costume or a dancing horse. There are three installments of the series, though they are essentially the same game with some variety. Many YouTubers had a lot of fun making videos with this game series in particular, including PewDiePie and Jacksepticeye.
Gallop Racer
Gallop Racer is one of the longest-running horse racing video game series and, arguably, the best one there is. You breed horses and compete in 4 different categories: Open and Grade I, II, and III.
These games were originally designed for the arcade and PlayStation, but the later releases are available on multiple platforms.
Instead of classifying horses according to their breed, you get to choose horses categorized on where they can perform the best: Frontrunner, Preceder, Mid-Runner, and Closer.
Starters Orders
Last, but not least, we have Starters Orders, another very successful game series. The latest installment is the eighth game – Starters Orders Classic. While you get to pick a horse and train it in some other games, here it’s more of a matter of management across different races and seasons. There is a real-time commentary engine, thousands of horses, surprisingly realistic UK jumps, and, something that is wonderful, but not often seen in modern games – it’s offline. That’s right, you don’t have to fret about ads, subscriptions or even DLCs.