HGG Community Forums

How does the rankings work? Is it by how many foals are futurity locked? Or by the quality of the foals that have been locked?

A stallion has to have at least 10 futurity-eligible foals to qualify for the futurity leaderboard. Futurity-eligible means those foals were: bred by a player who never owned the stallion, the same era as the stallion, and under 6 years old. The ranking is determined by the total lifetime points of the 10 highest-point foals. The points of foals lower than those top 10 don't count, but having lots of foals showing makes it more likely that the top 10 will be the best possible. Foals don't have to be locked to count, that's just a safety measure that was added to the game so futurity foals aren't accidentally sold back.

Why can't I sell foals that are locked?

You can sell futurity-locked foals to other players, just not back to the game or auction bidder. Locking foals is a way of offering a guarantee to the owner of the stallion that they will count towards the stallion's futurity standings until they age out of the program. Except in the newest era, it's always the 5-yo foals that have the most points, so if foals are auctioned or sold back to the game before they turn 5, the sire might lose his place on the leaderboard. Players often give discounted/free straws or offer other incentives for locked foals, because then they can be sure that the foals will count until they age out of the futurity program at 6. As soon as they turn 6, they can be sold or auctioned back to the game.

Does the foal have to be by a stallion that you don't own to be able to lock it?

The foal has to be bred by you (or someone else who never owned the sire, if you bought the foal), by a stallion that you have never owned, and the same era as the sire.

The mare must be the same era or a more recent era.
To get futurity colts from an era 12 stud, the mare can be era 12,13, 14 ,15, or 16

Yes the categories are by era. And as you might imagine era 0 is the most competitive

Eras are also super important for leaderboard breeders.