With this Host Your Own Race Night game by Cheatwell Games, you can now host your very own horse racing party in the comfort of your home! This is a great party game if you are looking at getting everyone involved. It does require a DVD player, but if you have X-Box or PlayStation with DVD players, it should work too. It is suitable for ages 14 and above and for two or more players.
This game comes with two discs, £50,000 in paper cash (£25, £50, £100, £500 and £1,000), 10 small cardboard betting cards, a square cardboard bookmakers ledger, a black score pen, a race form guide/rules.
There are a total of 32 races on two DVDs (16 races on each DVD). The DVDs are not in high definition hence the races are slightly blurred on a 55 inch television set. Through the DVDs, you are able to navigate the races, the information about each race and the horses, watch the race itself and see the results screen.
Before playing, each player starts with a total of £5,000 split into £25 x 2, £50 x 3, £100 x 3, £500 x 3 and £1,000 x 3. You may bet as much as you like on each race up to the maximum cash at your disposal.
Select someone to be the Bookmaker. They will record the bets on the ‘write and wipe’ bookmaker’s ledger and fill in the ‘write and wipe’ betting cards after receiving the stakes. They will also pay out the winnings after each race. If the bank runs out of money, write your own IOU on a sheet of paper which players can total at the end of the whole game. I do find the ‘write and wipe’ betting cards can be accidentally wiped off and quite small to hold. I prefer to write my own betting slips for my punters instead. Anyway, this is my personal choice.
For each race, punters are able to study the form of the horses either via the DVD or the race form guide. If you are playing with a big group of people, you might even want to take photocopies of the details before playing. Or take a photo of each race and send it to the group chat. My daughter is visually impaired and she has to stand very close to the television set in order to see the details. By sending her a photo, she was able to enlarge the text to her comfort before betting.
Once everyone has bet, you may start the races. Each race typically lasts between 2 to 4 minutes. At the end of each race, you will see the camera focus on the winner, and where appropriate, the horses that came in second and third. It will automatically end with the Results Screen which shows you the first, second and third horses’ names and the odds that were offered. Now it is time for you to claim your winnings.
We all absolutely love this party game. It is like watching and betting on real horse racing. The voice of racehorse commentator Mark Johnson is very funny and it adds much excitement to the game. It is such a shame that there are only 32 races. Once we’ve played it all, the game is pretty much useless. I will still recommend it as it is fun and exciting to play especially in a big group of people. This game is available to buy from good stores, online and on Amazon.
Disclosure: We received the sample for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own. We have included an Amazon affiliate link to the product. If you click on this and buy, we may earn a small commission but at no additional cost to you.