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Whether you’re a horse racing “newbie” or “know-it-all,” you’re going to enjoy PLAAY at the Races, our horse racing simulation board game! Inspired by our stock car racing game (Red White & Blue Racin’), but dialed in to reflect the nuances of the “Sport of Kings,” PLAAY at the Races debuted during the 2025 holiday season and became an instant print-and-PLAAY community hit! We’re pleased to present the official full-color printed-and-boxed version of the game. PLAAY at the Races now takes its place in the long-running PLAAY games suite of sports simulation games, ready to recreate the pageantry and excitement of authentic American saddle racing on your game table!
First and foremost, PLAAY at the Races is easy, fast and FUN to play! You don't have to know anything about horse racing to understand and enjoy the action. A typical race takes less than fifteen minutes to run. The game uses descriptive qualities which makes it easy to grasp. No calculations to make, no previous book-keeping experience required!
Horses are rated based on actual abilities and tendencies. Front-runners. Stalkers. Middlers. Closers. Speed AND stamina matter (greatly!), based on the length of the race and the competitive make-up of the field. The game will call for a specific key quality for each furlong—if a horse has that quality, it gets the chance to move up! If not—well, it will have to hold on for dear life, try to maintain its position in the pack and hope for a chance in the next furlong! It’s that simple. The better horses will get more/better chances. But ANY horse can have its day, where the track conditions and/or competitive field fall in their favor and they come home as the winner.
Jockeys matter, too! Better jockeys provide better maneuvering in the tight spaces with split-second decisions that give their horses better opportunities. Again, no calculations to make or indexes to adjust. The jockey impact is seamlessly designed into the game and will provide its own share of memorable horse racing moments.
Based on the community response after the game’s original release, there are two main ways to enjoy this game...
• “What If” races between Historical horses from different eras: We’ve created a set of all-time great horses and jockeys (available as a modest additional purchase) which will allow you to settle the G.O.A.T debate on your own game table! Organized “season,” eliminationtournament setting or simple one-off “races of greatness,” you get the opportunity to enjoy time-machine-like feature races that will be both thought-provoking and entertaining.
• “Daily Racing” Fun: Our betting module makes it easy to set odds, place bets and determine winnings. You can set up a daily program, place your bets, and watch the action unfold—just like a real day at the race track! See if you can clean up and go home in the green! Or, DON’T wager—just watch your racing season unfold and track the results—horses, AND jockeys, if you desire—leading up to your own “Run for the Roses” featured national horse racing event!
Unusual and rare results are included on PLAAY at the Races! A jockey can be thrown, a horse can stumble down the stretch, an issue can cause race officials to consider voiding race result--these are just a couple examples (we’ll let you discover others on your own!). These things won’t happen often, but you’ll enjoy knowing that they COULD happen and you’ll be entertained, sometimes amazed when they do. If it happens in real horse racing, it can happen on your game table with PLAAY at the Races horse racing simulation board game!
Even if you’re NOT an active horse racing fan—even if you’ve never attended a horse race in your life!—we think you’ll enjoy this game. PLAAY at the Race captures all the excitement, drama, thrills, surprises and outright JOY of horse racing, in a compact, easy-to-understand and fun-to-play format.