Pick a game
Two games on the same track. The duel is the standard one; The Book turns it inside out.
Who's playing
Two-player and watched races don't touch your record.
How it works, in four lines
- You own six horses, one in each lane.
- Every turn you take two dice. One is the Lane die: it says which horse moves. The other is the Stride die: you write that number in the horse's next box, and it moves one box along.
- The catch: a horse can gain any ground, hold its place, or slip back one length. So each number you write must be no more than one lower than the last number in that lane. Write a 6 early and that horse only takes 5s and 6s from then on.
- The further a horse gets, the more it pays you. Most money at the end wins.
That is the whole game.
1. Roll for Track Layout
One die, rolled once, sets where the Carrot and Camera bonus stations sit for this race. The finish line never moves.
Optional extras Side Wager and Jockeys
2. Jockey (optional, the duel only)
For riders who know the game. Every jockey rewrites one of the rules you have just learned, so leave this alone for your first few races. Ride it straight is the plain game and is the right answer until the plain game is dull.
After that: each one bends the numbers a different way, and they are close enough in value that picking is about how you like to ride rather than which is best. Both riders wear silks or neither does.
3. Side Wager (optional)
Which lane gets the first horse home? Name it now, before the first roll. Any horse in that lane counts, yours or theirs.
Right: +$40. Wrong: −$10. Skip: nothing. A blind guess is right one time in six and the price breaks even at one in five, so it only pays on a lane you mean to race yourself.
3. Draw for the Rail
Both sides draw one die for the inside position. High draw takes the rail and rolls first. A tie draws again.
Race log will appear here…
How to Play
- Before racing: one die each, highest starts. Then roll 1 die under Layout roll: it sets Carrot & Camera (table below). No rerolls.
- Roll all 6. The roller keeps any one as their Lane die, any other as their Stride die.
- The roller cuts the other 4 into two pairs and duels the player on their left: that player takes either pair, the roller is stuck with the other. Everyone else drafts any pair from those same 4 dice, repeats included.
- Write your Stride number in that lane's next box.
- A move fails only if the lane is shut, full, or your number is more than one lower than its last. Try the pair both ways round. Neither way? A False Start is what your own decision costs, so shade one for a pair you picked, and nothing for the pair nobody wanted.
- Pass clockwise: the next player rolls.
Game End & Scoring
Ends when everyone's Scratched or 3 horses are home. Each lane scores the furthest station its horse reached, not the numbers written. Add Photos, $20 per lane you were first home in, and the Side Wager (+$40 / −$10); subtract False Starts. Biggest Purse wins.
| Layout Roll | Carrot | Camera |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Turn 1 | Turn 2 |
| 2 | Turn 1 | Stretch |
| 3 | Backstretch | Turn 2 |
| 4 | Backstretch | Stretch |
| 5 | Turn 2 | Stretch |
| 6 | Turn 2 | Backstretch |
×2
×2
×2
×2
×2
×2
Start
×2
×2
×2
×2
×2
×2
Start
The one rule, and dead dice. A move fails only if that lane is shut, full, or your number is more than one lower than its last, whoever wrote it, so try the pair both ways round. A False Start is what your own decision costs. These horses are nobody's, so there is no board of yours to be stuck on: a pair that goes neither way is no move, no mark. Turning down a move you could have made still costs a box.
Start
Start
Your lanes count down. Each number must be no more than one higher than the last in that lane. Equal still counts. Your slip turns with you: shade a Slip box when you write a number higher, never when you write one lower.
Everything you cannot use, they can. Cut carefully.
A lane you open on a 1 pays double. A lane you open above 2 pays nothing at all.
Four of the six numbers will not open a lane for you.
Once a race: write the same number twice running and that horse takes an extra box. That number is then spent in that lane and may never be written there again.
Spend it late. It is worth more the closer a horse is to the Wire.
Open a lane with a 6 and that lane may slip two lengths instead of one for the rest of the race. A longer slip is still one Slip box, not two.
The worst opening in the game becomes the freest lane on your sheet.
Five of the same number in one lane and that lane pays double.
It comes off about one race in six. Do not steer a whole sheet at it.
Once a race, turn one lane around. From that box on it counts down, and its slip turns with it: in that lane only, a number written higher is the slip.
Save it for a lane that has run itself into a corner.
Your six lanes must each open on a different number. With all six open, take +$60.
You will finish fewer horses and be paid for the spread instead.
Riding alone
One sheet, no opponent. Roll all six dice, keep any two as your Lane and Stride and play them, then cut the other four into two pairs and play whichever you like less. You are the cutter and the chooser both, and cutting honestly against yourself is the whole game. Three horses home ends it, as ever. A False Start is what your own decision costs here too, so turning down a move you could have made is one, and so are the two you keep off the roll if they will not go. The half the book leaves you never was your pick, so it is free. A move only fails if that lane is shut, full, or your number is more than one lower than its last.
The purse to beat, measured over thirty finished solo sheets: $125 to place, $170 for the money, $205 a win, $235 a track record. A quarter of sheets clear a win and one in ten reaches the record. Past $275 is rare enough to be worth writing down.
What you need
Six dice, a pencil each, and one sheet each. For The Book, one field card for the table plus a bettor's slip each. Nothing else.
The two games
THE DUEL. You each own six horses, one per lane on your own sheet. You are racing your own stable, and the only things you share are the finish line and the clock.
THE BOOK. One set of six horses on one card, and everybody's dice move them. You own nothing. You back horses and are paid on where they finish, which means advancing a horse can pay the player sitting opposite you.
This page applies to both. Page 2 is what differs, page 3 is edge cases.
The two dice that matter
Lane die: which horse moves. A 4 means lane 4.
Stride die: the number you write in that horse's next box.
A turn, in order
- The roller throws all six dice. Rolling passes clockwise every turn.
- The roller keeps two (any one as their Lane die, any other as their Stride die) and writes that number in that lane's next box.
- The roller cuts the remaining four into two pairs. Any split they like.
- The player to the roller's left takes either pair and uses it.
- The roller must use the pair that was left.
- Anyone else at the table drafts any Lane + Stride pair from those same four dice (see page 2, where this step is different in The Book).
Whoever ends up holding a pair decides for themselves which of its two dice is the Lane and which is the Stride.
The track
| Box | Station | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gate | −$20 |
| 2 | Turn 1 | −$10 |
| 3 | Backstretch | $0 |
| 4 | Turn 2 | +$5 |
| 5 | Stretch | +$10 |
| 6 | Stretch Run | +$20 |
| 7 | Wire | +$30 |
A lane pays for the furthest station its horse reached, never for the numbers written in it. Opening a lane you cannot advance is worse than never opening it.
Before the race: the layout die
Roll one die, once, and write it down. It fixes where the Carrot and Camera sit for this race. Look the number up here. The finish never moves. No rerolls: an early Carrot and Camera are worth roughly double a late pair, so rerolling until the track is generous is the whole game gone.
| Layout roll | Carrot | Camera |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Turn 1 | Turn 2 |
| 2 | Turn 1 | Stretch |
| 3 | Backstretch | Turn 2 |
| 4 | Backstretch | Stretch |
| 5 | Turn 2 | Stretch |
| 6 | Turn 2 | Backstretch |
The two bonus stations
Carrot: a horse landing here immediately advances one more box for free, repeating the number just written.
Camera: write the number you just wrote into your next Photo box. Six Photo boxes; a lane passes the Camera at most once.
The Wire
Reaching box 7 means that horse is home, and that lane shuts for everyone: nobody may enter it again, and being second there is worth nothing at all.
The race is called the moment three horses are home, by anyone, in any lanes. Then finish the round: play carries on until it returns to whoever rolled first, so that everybody has rolled the same number of times. Then score.
Slipping
A number lower than the last in that lane is a slip: legal and unlimited, but shade a Slip box each time, and every third box carries an arrow. Shade one of those and strike the last number in any one lane still running: it falls back a station and that box is spent. A horse already home cannot be sent back.
False Starts
A FALSE START IS WHAT YOUR OWN DECISION COSTS. Turning down a move you could have made is always one. Being stuck is one only when the dice were yours to pick and the board yours to build.
So shade a box for a move you turned down, and for a pair you picked that will not go. Shade nothing for the pair nobody wanted, nor for being stuck in The Book. Six boxes, −$5 each, a seventh Scratches you.
The Duel: 2 players
Each player takes a score sheet. Your six lanes are yours; nobody else writes on them. Play the turn exactly as page 1 describes.
Two things are shared, and they are the whole contest.
First home in a lane takes +$20, once only. That lane then shuts for everybody. Say your neighbour gets a horse home in lane 3: your own lane 3 is now dead where it stands. You cannot advance it again, and it scores whatever station it had already reached.
The clock is shared. Three horses home ends the race for everyone, whoever owns them.
Scoring. Each lane's furthest station, doubled if you circled BET. Plus your matching Photos, plus $20 for each lane you were first home in, plus the Side Wager. Minus your False Starts. Biggest purse wins; ties share.
The Book: 3 to 6 players
One field card in the middle of the table. Six horses, belonging to nobody. Each player takes a bettor's slip.
This is not decoration. There is one field, and if every player moved it, six players would finish the race in under five turns, before anyone had finished betting.
Stakes. Five each. Once per turn, before the dice are thrown, you may back one horse by shading a box on its row. You may stack several stakes on one horse; the multipliers add. An unspent stake at the end is worth nothing.
×3: not yet started, or standing at the Gate
×2: Turn 1, Backstretch or Turn 2
×1: Stretch, Stretch Run or the Wire
You are paid for backing a horse that is behind. Once placed, a stake's multiplier never changes.
Scoring The Book. Every horse pays the station it finished at, multiplied by what you have on it. A ×3 on a horse that stalls at the Gate is −$60. The first horse home pays a further +$20 per multiplier to everyone backing it, including the player who beat you to it.
Photo matches pay triple in The Book: a pair is $60, three of a kind $150. Everything else here is priced in multipliers, so a flat side pot would vanish next to them.
False Starts, the Carrot, the Wire and lane-shutting all work exactly as on page 1. There is no Side Wager, because the whole game is one.
What to expect at each table size
From several thousand simulated races:
| Players | Duel | The Book |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | ~29 turns | ~21 turns |
| 3 | ~26 turns | ~22 turns |
| 4 | ~24 turns | ~22 turns |
| 5 | ~24 turns | ~22 turns |
| 6 | ~23 turns | ~22 turns |
The Duel shortens a little as the table grows, because more players means lanes shut sooner. The Book holds steady at any size, which is the point of capping who moves the field.
Dead dice fall as the table grows, for the same reason: the race ends before your lanes have a chance to die. Measured over watched races, a turn where nothing you hold will go happens about three times a race in the Duel. In The Book none of them costs anything; in the Duel they cost a box unless it was the pair nobody wanted.
Who chooses, and what if they are out
The cut needs a chooser. At two players it is simply the other player. At three or more it is always the player to the roller's left. Every player is the chooser exactly once per round, so nobody is picked on.
If the player to the roller's left is Scratched, the chooser is the next unscratched player clockwise. If nobody is left unscratched, the roller keeps both pairs and simply uses the better one.
Shorter and longer races
For a quicker game, call the race at two horses home. For a longer one, call it at four. Everything else is unchanged. Two horses is noticeably swingier: there is less time for a bad start to recover.
Before the race
Who rolls first? Everyone rolls one die. Highest takes the rail and rolls first, and ties roll again. After that the roll passes clockwise, so it only decides who opens.
Does the first roller have an advantage? No, because the race is called and then the round is finished, so everybody rolls the same number of times.
The cut and the draft
Can a cut make two identical pairs? Yes. Four 2s makes both pairs 2+2 and the choice meaningless. Legal, and sometimes deliberate.
What if both dice in my pair are the same? Then Lane and Stride are the same number and there is nothing to decide.
Must I use my pair if it is legal? Not quite: you may refuse, and it costs you the box. Sometimes that is the right price, because opening a lane at the Gate too late to drive it out costs more. Check it both ways round first, though: either die can be the Lane, and a pair that looks dead one way often goes the other.
Does the leftover pair work differently? Only when it will not go: it is compulsory when it plays.
Why is the Book different? It is not, quite: the roller still cuts and the player on their left still chooses. Those six horses simply belong to nobody, so there is no board of yours to be stuck on. Being stuck costs nothing there; turning a move down still does.
The Carrot
What number goes in the free box? The same number you just wrote.
Can a Carrot trigger a second Carrot? No. It fires once per move. The free box never sets off another one.
Can a Carrot carry a horse over the Wire? No. Every layout puts the Carrot between Turn 1 and Turn 2, so the free box it grants can never be the seventh. You always have to earn the Wire with a die.
Can a Carrot break the one rule? No, and it never needs to: it repeats the number just written, which is by definition legal.
Carrot into the Camera? On layout rolls 3 and 5 the Carrot's free box lands exactly on the Camera. You take the photo normally, and the number photographed is the repeated one.
Carrot on a full or shut lane? Nothing happens.
The Camera and Photos
Which number is photographed? The number in the box that landed on the Camera, including when a Carrot put it there.
What if all six Photo boxes are full? Further Camera crossings do nothing.
Can one lane photograph twice? No. A lane passes the Camera at most once.
Do Photos have to be filled in order? Yes, left to right. You never choose which box.
The Wire and the finish
Two horses home in the same turn? Both are home. For the first home in a lane bonus, and for who won the Side Wager, roll off: high die wins, reroll ties.
Does the race stop the instant the third horse is home? No. Finish the round, so play returns to whoever rolled first. Being the roller is worth an extra move, and stopping mid-round hands the early seats more rolls than the late ones. Simulated at six players, stopping mid-round left the first seat about 20% ahead of the last; completing the round flattens it.
A lane shuts: what does my horse in it score? Whatever station it had reached. It is frozen, not erased.
Can I still enter a shut lane? No. If the other way round of your pair goes somewhere, take that instead; if neither way goes, nothing happens and it costs you nothing.
Scratching
A Scratched player stops taking turns entirely: no rolling, no drafting, no staking. Everyone else plays on. Their score stands as it is.
If the roller Scratches on their own first move, the cut does not happen. The remaining players draft freely from the four leftover dice.
If everyone is Scratched, the race ends immediately.
BET
Only on the very first entry into a lane, and only if the Lane and Stride dice match. You cannot add a BET later, and you cannot decline one.
It doubles losses. A bet horse still at the Gate pays −$40, not −$20.
The Book only
Can I back a horse that is already home? No. Its race is over.
Can I back the same horse more than once? Yes, and the odds are read fresh each time, so a horse you backed at ×3 early may only pay ×1 when you add to it.
Do my odds change as the horse runs? No. A stake is locked at the multiplier it was placed at.
Do I have to stake every turn? No. You may pass, and hold stakes for a better book. But an unspent stake scores nothing, so passing all race is the worst play available.
Two players backing the same horse? Both are paid in full. There is no splitting, which is exactly why moving a horse can be doing your opponent a favour.
Who takes the photo in The Book? Whoever made the move that crossed the Camera. Photo tracks stay personal.