Six Year Old Horse- NIGHT SHIFT x ROBERTO x BOLD COMMANDER
Owner / Trainer - RBGSTABLE

2001 Record: 15/ 6-1-4
Earnings: $7,384,391

2001 Stakes:

WON: Breeders Bowl Turf(G1), Japan Classic(G1), Coalminer Cup(G1), Sword Swallower Stakes(G1), John Scott Appreciation Stakes(G1), Little Guppy Classic(G1)
2nd: Man Of War Stakes(G1)
3rd: Doomben Cup(G1), San Francisco Capitan Handicap(G1), Royally Modest Cup(G1), Golden Platter Handicap(G2)

Innovation. The bringing in of new ideas, new methods. Implementation. The fulfillment of those ideas, the accomplishment. For quite a spell late last spring, the Sim found itself yet again square in the path of its utmostly necessary, yet nagging challenge: money. The game had outgrown its costly third-party webhost. Its dragging scripts, monstrous files, and hurly-burly nuts-and-bolts needed its own new home -- its own server.

He’s far from just a plain old “Joe.” He’s a “Cayenne:” red-hot pepper style..... and, boy, did he smoke ‘em when the cards were on the table, and it was championship time.....

We were all used to that idea though -- after all, one had only to look at the massive size of the Sim and bear through many of the old script errors, little nuisances, and occasional website-on-the-fritz “oh no, I can’t get into the game again” chaos. We knew that eventually something like that had to be done, but we were caught off-guard last spring when the Sim’s latest hay-wire act took place. The Sim returned with a new “Pay Options” discussion board. All of a sudden, money and how the Sim could possibly make more of it, was the overwhelming topic of the week. It was a topic about the Sim’s future.

At the topmost level, Joe Cayenne competed in a textbook campaign -- one so carefully planned and patiently implemented. From January to December, his 15 calls to the post came entirely in Grade 1 and Grade 2 events -- nothing less than competition with the very best of the older horse turf division. Rbgstable trained Joe Cayenne undoubtedly with a championship in mind -- he was a top turf star in 2000, but he came into his own and rose to the highest levels a year later.

Serious expenses. Billgulch and his partners did not shy away from the facts and they did not shy away from their users. In a collection of detailed posts and letters to the Sim, they explained that SimSports needed to come up with new ways of income to meet their website’s ever-growing operating expenses. For many of us, the Internet is all a point-and-click experience -- we had no idea about the fall of Internet advertising and maybe only “evening news” knowledge of the collapse of the dot.coms. We were startled, but Billgulch assured us that the game was safe and strong in its own corner of the web.

Joe Cayenne ran 100-plus speed figures in nine of his 15 outings in the deeply-talented turf division. He mastered the art of 12-furlongs -- five of his six Grade 1 victories came over that classic distance. And, with his storybook total of six Grade 1 scores, Joe Cayenne won twice as many top-tier stakes than his 1999 peer Gatling Prospector, two more than 2000’s School Kris(GB), and one more than his 2001 Horse Of The Year rival, toplight’s Cecil Roo. By the numbers, he’s the next step in Sim Horse Of The Year.

“Pro-active” was the phrase -- he insisted that “Pay Options” discussion was to meet the inevitable challenge of assuring that the Sim would survive and pay its way for a long cybernetic life. Above all, he firmly stated that the Sim would not take the quick-fix path of a “Pay-Only” website. The goal was to keep the game free and a delicate balancing act between the two extremes followed. Billgulch and his partners asked us for ideas and players poured in suggestions -- the “Pay Options” board was one heckuva scrolling read and there was general excitement as we were all thrust aboard one critical roller-coaster ride. Many of us were stoked by the seriousness of it all and even argued for SimSports to abandon it’s “free game” stance and go to a “Pay-Only” website. Luckily, Billgulch and his partners weren’t and aren’t the types to back down from a good fight. Instead, they reasoned that both players who play for free (clicking on ads, contributing tipsheets, articles, and spreading the word of the Sim) and players who contribute monetarily to the game were essential halves to their userbase.

Rbgstable’s charismatic turf star starred in his own picture-perfect play: he not only won his Breeder’s Bowl championship test in dramatic style ..... but took the Japan Classic for kicks to cap off one extraordinary year. For a horse to win his championship event and arguably the next big championship in the million-dollar Japan test, it’s a remarkable achievement and quite a bit of training. He devoured the best and inhaled all the rest for good measure, and all when it mattered the most. Of the three Sim Horse Of The Year’s, his campaign was by far and away the most undisputed championship yet.

In late summer, the new Credit Option was presented. First, it allowed players to bid on or buy races easily. Safe to say, it was a slow but steady beginning as several weeks later, the credits-for-breeding horses really kick started and polished this new innovation. It strikes a balance, and even settles the overused sires issue by capping off the number of times each sire can be used each week. We don’t know what other uses for credits are in store, but it is a successful beginning.

In a year when at times our thoughts turned far and away from gameplay itself -- whether we contemplated the possible future and survival of the game online, or whether our thoughts turned to real-world events, making us realize and be thankful for our little corner of the World Wide Web, our own escape with people from all over the world, all fans of thoroughbred horse racing -- in this year, it is wonderful to step back now and see a successful beginning to SimSports’ biggest challenge. Its goal is to stay on the cyberspace track -- to keep on going and tackle whatever problems it may face along the way with foresight, reasoning, innovation, and accomplishing implementation.

All so we can all have fun in a day at the “Sim” races. And all so we can keep reveling in this game’s lovely allure -- between the numbers and the names, there are all possible kinds of stories to tell. And all so we can tell the biggest Sim racehorse story of 2001 in a six year old son of Night Shift, six-time Grade 1 winner, Breeders Bowl Turf conqueror, picture-perfect campaigner at the highest level. And as champions shall be crowned, and the champion of all champions shall be crowned......

Race ID	Trk	RST	S	D	Race	Time	SP#	#	PP	C1	C2	C3	FIN	Jockey	Odds
1222.5004	JP	3yo+	T	12	Japan Classic -G1		114	14	13	3 2-1/4	2 3-1/4	2 1	1 3-1/2	E Baldwin	3.70
1194.0414	NY	3yo+	T	12	Breeders Bowl Turf -G1	2:29 3/5	115	14	4	4 1-3/4	3 2	1 2-1/2	1 6-3/4	M Dorsey	4.30
1173.5314	A1	3yo+	T	12	Coalminer Cup -G1	2:30 3/5	109	8	3	2 3-1/4	2 4-1/2	1 1/4	1 7-1/2	K Ryan	2.00
1145.0415	NY	3yo+	T	11	Man Of War Stakes -G1	2:15 4/5	112	12	9	3 3	2 4	1 1/4	2 hd	C Tool	4.70
1117.0414	NY	3yo+	T	12	Sword Swallower Stakes -G1	2:31 2/5	104	6	5	2 1-1/4	2 hd	1 4-1/4	1 6-3/4	G Smith	2.00
1103.3315	E1	3yo+	T	11	Royally Modest Cup -G1	2:15 4/5	110	14	2	6 5-1/4	5 8	3 6-3/4	3 2-1/4	J Wesselman	7.80
1061.2914	C1	3yo+	T	10	Golden Platter Handicap -G2	2:01 2/5	106	7	7	5 6	5 9-1/4	4 8-1/2	3 8-1/4	J White	3.80
1047.5513	A3	4yo+	T	10	Doomben Cup -G1	2:00 3/5	108	11	1	6 5-3/4	5 9	3 11-1/4	3 11-1/2	V Wakeman	8.40
1019.5415	A2	3yo+	T	16	-G1	3:28 4/5	94	14	14	2 2-1/4	2 4-3/4	7 14-1/4	7 28-1/2	C Alexander	9.70
1005.0113	CA	4yo+	T	12	San Francisco Capitan Handicap -G1	2:30 3/5	98	6	5	4 3-1/4	4 5-1/4	3 6-3/4	3 13-1/4	L Jones	4.90
984.6212	FR	3yo+	T	11	Little Guppy Classic -G1	2:17 3/5	99	6	1	6 3	5 3-1/4	1 1/4	1 3-3/4	J Stivers	1.60
977.5112	DB	4yo+	T	12	Sand Castle Golden Turf Classic -G1	2:30 1/5	96	9	6	5 3	7 4-1/4	8 9-1/4	7 19-1/2	T Tippett	4.10
956.5315	A1	4yo+	T	12	John Scott Appreciation Stakes -G1	2:32	100	10	5	7 5-1/4	7 7-3/4	2 3-1/4	1 4	N Love	4.10
921.0315	KY	4yo+	T	14	The Desucko Handicap -G1	3:03 3/5	85	7	1	3 3-1/2	3 5-1/2	5 5	4 14	B Alt	1.50
907.3913	GA	4yo+	T	9	Sanders Stakes -G2	1:49 2/5	97	9	6	5 3-1/4	4 5-1/4	4 5-1/4	7 4-1/2	I Centers	2.20