We played this game in Germany and in Portland at our game club. It's lots of fun to play with experienced gamers and anyone else too. You need both a little bit of strategy and luck too. We really recommend this just for lots of fun it doesnt bore people who arent used to playing hard strategy games and its pretty affordable too.

Petra

I was completely caught off guard by how much I enjoyed Royal Turf and how well received it's been by my gaming groups. The rules are simple and straightforward, but despite the first glace that this is a simple game, there is far more at work.

Players take turns moving horses around the track to get them to Win/Place/Show after each race. By observing your opponents' actions -- which horses they move how far, how they react to other player's movement of certain horses -- you can try to determine who is rooting for which horse. Since there is a 'zero' or fake bid in the mix, you can never be quite sure which horses a player is pulling for except through their behavior.

The game plays very quickly, and since you play several races back-to-back for a complete circuit, you are never truly 'out' of the game if you perform poorly in the first race or two. There is also often collusion among players to completely decimate a horse they believe the current winner is bidding large on -- which can sometimes have unpredictable results!

A fine game with excellent components, a quick learning curve and incredibly high replay value. Highly recommende.