Have you seen this...??

[Donnie]

I came accross a site today...don't know if I have ever seen this posted here..it's called:

www.unrealracing.com

you set up a complete racing "program" for your "horse", right down to the workout routine you want for him/her. You pick the medications and length and varity of workouts, and you enter it into a real-time race for real dollars! Don't be too quick to fill out the form though, to get your horse registered....it's gonna cost you $29 a month to "board" the horse...I wonder what the meds are gonna cost...and oh, it says you will be billed this month and "then on"...

I wonder if anyone is actually using this "service"?

[Eric]

Donnie, folks,

I don't know if many people are USING unrealracing.com but a lot of folks seem to be promoting it. According to unrealracing.com's affiliate program write-up, they pay $30 for each new member signed up. After searching the web and newsgroups for a short time, I could find only one comment from someone who apparently uses their service:

http://www.sportsterminal.com/uboard/message.asp?board_id=865&message_id=18121

Probably more interesting is that I found NO negative comments other than some griping about misleading advertising based on the "sign up now and get a free horse" without mentioning the $30 (per month?) "stable fee" accessed. (The above post at sportsterminal.com also notes that fact)

The company itself (unrealracing.com) appears to be a subsiderary of TOAST.COM based in Brisbane, Australia. (unrealracing.com also shows a "whois" address in Brisbane with the domain (unrealracing) being registered in March 2000.

Bottom line? Given the absence of negative feedback, the firm would APPEAR to be on the up and up. However, (my personal feelings) there are a couple of issues that would prevent me from subscribing to their service:

1> They're NOT located in the US. I have a (self-imposed) policy on never providing my credit card information to a non-US firm. It's tough enough when one runs into a credit card problem/dispute with a firm here in the states.

2> No matter how you slice it, and while it appears to be a pretty slick simulation, it's still just a computer program. As such, the results could easily be controlled by those "in charge" ... with preference (jn terms of who wins) to a chosen few, if desired. I'm not suggesting that they do this but the potential is there and it's a variable that I'm definitely not comfortable with. It's also something would be EXTREMELY difficult (if not impossible) to prove.

In my case, I'd prefer to use that $30/month for investments based on HTR rather than "feed" a virtual horse in Australia ... :-)

Just my $.02

[hurrikane]

Well, quite an imagination here. I'm guessing even after all the tremendous training plans the end result is a RNG. maybe CJ is running the site. :D

Looks like a very creative way to waste 30 bucks a month.

[Carl]

Board bud at Majorwager gave me this one.

http://www.digiturf.com

Says it is "way better".