Just thinking out loud… So for a straight up race with equal chance of winning it’s better to make a board? Let’s say 12 horses each with 10 spots and use a single 12 sided die. No scratch. Or even just a 6 horse race with a single die. At $5 a race that’s a nice pot (1st, 2nd, 3rd).
I made almost exactly that except currently track uses 8 horses.
Players pay an agreed upon amount for a certain number of races.
The D8 dice are placed in the cup.
Each player picks a die until all are gone.
If more than 8 players up to 11 chip colors, remaining players will not roll, only bet.
Players receive a stack of chips the color of their first die picked along with the matching color D6
Betting takes place at center of track before race.
2-King cards face down in a pile. Everyone picks a card. High card starts the race in a counter clockwise order.
Move your horse the highest number of the D8 and D6 dice rolled. The D8 with 8 colors on the sides indicates the secondary horse moved the amount indicated by the lower number rolled.
Pass to next player counter clockwise and repeat until first 3 horses cross the finish line.
Pay out chips from bank and repeat number of races agreed on. Chip leader at end of all races gets 1st place payout, 2nd place chip leader gets 2nd and 3rd highest chips gets 3rd.
When I get a chance I plan to redo the track adding 2 more rows and 2 more horses then use D10 dice instead of the D8 I'm using now. Already have pink, grey, and 10 colored D10, just need to redo the track which was a decent amount of work on the layout.
This is really just a useable prototype.
I just found this thread now and glad to hear there's more interest in horse racing on pcf. I posted on a few board game groups when designing it that helped change a few of the mechanics to where it is now.
It would be cool to add some type of side bets during race with cards but unsure how to implement.
Any ideas?