Post by Sylvanna on Jun 3, 2008 3:00:53 GMT -6
Disclaimer: Much of this information is taken from various sources as well as my personal experiences(FFXI Wiki is awesome)
-----
Well kids, I take it that by reading this section of the forum you're interested in raising a chocobo with a focus on racing. I'm not going to lie or sugarcoat it, raising a chocobo, be it racing, digging, or just plain personal use. Is going to be time consuming and expensive, but at the end of it, it will be worthwhile. Did you know a win in the C1 race of the Chocobo circuit can make you 100k? Did you also know you can do it once a day? That's where the money comes from racing.
-----
Now that the introduction is done, lets start the show. Your goals for a racing chocobo our First Class capped strength, with average or above endurance, with a mix between receptivity and discernment, the latter taking importance. You will also need to have the ability 'Gallop' and 'Canter'. An explanation of what these stats do will be explained further down the post.
-----
Stats and what they influence:
Strength(Str): This is the stat that influences your speed on the track as well as off. Having this capped will put your bird on par or slightly above a rental. The ability 'Gallop' raises a level of str.
Endurance(End): This stat influences how long your bird can maintain top speed in race and how long the bird will stay with you in the field. Having this capped will allow a bird to stay with you for a full 45 minutes. The ability 'Canter' raises this a level.
Discernment(Dsc): This stat influences how well your bird paces itself during a race, the timing of item use, and possibly items from digging. Also increases the odds of learning an ability from a story. Do not neglect this stat when it comes to racing, it does make the difference between winning and losing. No known abilities increase this stat in racing.
Receptivity(Rec): This stat influences the chance of preventing an accident during a race, resisting attacks from other chocobos, and is rumored to effect the chance of offspring inheriting stats and abilities from their parents. Also believed to increase the rate of meeting trainers on the various walks from the active care plans.
As with anything in FFXI, raising stats are a give or take process. The raising of Str and End will lower Rec and Dsc. There is an exception to this when it comes to raising. Race training can raise a stat with no negative effect to its opposite stat or others unless the hard cap to stat allotment is hit. Chocobo stats can be compared to crafting in that it's impossible to cap every stat. You have about 640 points to work with. Each Level of gain is about 32 points. So you could have a bird with stats sorted like this 8Str/7End/3Dsc/2Rec or a variable of above. That format will be used to describe your levels as well further down.
The Term for levels are listed as below in scales of highest to lowest:
Firstclass(SS to SSS): The highest level the term SSS is described as capped(Further training would injure the bird, Achieved at having 255-256 points invested into it.)
Outstanding(S): The second to the highest level.
Impressive(A): Third to the highest.
Above Average(B): Fourth from the top.
Average(C): Fifth from the highest. Also influences birds appearance if achieved before it turns to an adult. Str will have birds with thicker legs and enlarged feet. End will make your bird have more tail feathers. Dsc will make your bird have an enlarged beak and more feathers on the head. Rec has no affect on appearance.
A bit deficient(D): Sixth from the highest.
Substandard(E): Seventh from the highest, one rank above the lowest.
Poor(F): The lowest level, all chicks will start with poor stats no matter how great the parents are.
Affection: Influences how often your bird gains bonus effects, the success of passive care plans, and possibly chances of illness. Your goal is to keep this close to capped. Watching the bird about 150 times or more during the egg phase(there is no energy drain during this stage) will almost insure you of a chick with maxed affection upon hatching.
Energy: Influences how often an active care plans can be done, success of passive, and chance of illness or injury. Do not run your bird to empty on active care plans, leave enough energy for your passive plan the next day. Choco-Elixirs can replenish energy to full and can cure some status ailments. Link to the effect of this and other 'feeds' will be posted below.
Levels of affection from lowest to highest:
* Regarding affection, it does not seem to care about you.
* Regarding affection, it seems to be able to endure your company.
* Regarding affection, it seems to slightly enjoy your company.
* Regarding affection, it seems to like being around you.
* Regarding affection, it seems to like you pretty well.
* Regarding affection, it seems to like you a lot.
* Regarding affection, it seems to want to be with you all the time.
* Regarding affection, it seems to regard you as its parent.
Active Care Plans:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Care_for_your_Chocobo
Passive Care Plans:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Care_Plans
Chocobo Feed:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Feeding_Your_Chocobo
Status Effects:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Conditions
Kamp Kweh:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Kamp_Kweh
Matchmaking:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Matchmaking
-----
Step 1: The beginning of the process
First thing you're going to need to start the raising process is obviously an egg. These can be from a merchant, the reward from the quest from Brutus, ISNMs, or the breeding from an adult pairing. My first two birds came from the vendor in Jueno. The warmest she had available. There is talks of the warmth of eggs influencing what color the chick will be, but this is not set in stone yet, also believed that warmth influences the rate at which certain stats are gained. Further investigation is needed on this. You will know if your bird will be a special color by the time it reaches adolescence, the tips will show what it will be, all other tips will be the color except yellow, if your bird has white tips it will be a yellow bird. I am personally wary of eggs from two parents that I don't know what abilities they have and could possibly pass on. A racing bird doesn't need an ability that helps digging. If you do go this route ask the person(s) who provided cards what ability and stats the parents have before you select the honeymoon plan.
Now I know some people like colored birds but thats not your goal. You want a bird that can race and win, down the line you will have the option of dyeing your bird for the exchange of chocobucks. But enough of that.
You have your egg, now its the choice of where you want to raise it. This doesn't have any influence on the bird aside from the order that stories will be given by trainers. For a racing bird you want it to learn Gallop and Canter. The first ability is from the Sandorian Stablemaster, so starting in Sandoria would be wise since you will meet him on short walks there. Gallop is learned from a story from Brutus who will be met on long walks no matter where you start a bird.
Once a place has been picked out and egg has been traded to the Stable master there, you must begin the next stage of the process. Your egg will hatch on day 4, your goal in the mean time is to watch over it at least 150 times while its an egg. This can be done all at once or spread out, it doesn't matter as long as you do it 150 or times before it hatches. From now on the guide will be split into sections based on the days.
Day 4-19: Your egg has hatched into a chick. Now you can influence it. Also after a day or so your bird will develop a personality, these seem to be an indication of what stat has a slight boost over the others. My two birds as well as Ik's had a patient personality, a suggestion that our birds had a boost to End, this was further proven when mine increased a level a full 3 days ahead of Str when using a passive care plan that raised both stats equally. Hopefully you will have either Patient or ill tempered, signs of a slight boost to End or Str, if you have ill and you focus on Str you may have a bird that will be red.
During this time you have the option of taking the bird for a walk, which boosts Str and End, Basic care which doesn't do much of anything, Rest which lets the bird recover energy(Shouldn't need this ever!), or Listen to music which boosts the mental stats(Dsc/Rec) for passive care plans. For active you get Take a walk(short), Watch over, or scold the bird.
For this period you want to use Take a walk for passive care, Walks mixed with Watching over for actives, and a diet of Vomp carrots or carrot paste(both boost physical stats by about 2 per 2 carrots/one paste) with various greens if your bird comes down with a condition or you need a boost in affection. If something happens that requires a green, be sure to feed the green first to the bird then the stat food. You don't want to overfeed it, any item given after the completely full message will be useless and you might make the bird sick. Give it an item one at a time to be safe. Also remember to leave enough energy the care plan the next day.
Day 19-29:
Your bird is now an adolescent. More options for care are open to you. For passive you change from a Walk around town to Delivering messages to increase the gain in Str/End. Active you will have the ability for a regular walk, tell a story, and compete with others after your first regular walk and the cutscene with the 3 npcs. During this time to you will want to focus on telling a story if you have the Story from the Sandoria npc, regular walks to boost affection if you have the story(short if you dont yet), and the occasional compete with others if the bird is restless. The diet at this time focuses on vomp carrots with the occasional green/elixir if need. Your bird should be able to eat 3 carrots at a time now before being completely full now.
Also if your bird is going to be colored you will now be able to tell which by the color of its tips.
Day 29-64:
Your bird is now an adult, if it had average or above Str or End by now you can see the change in physical appearance. For passive you want to still use Carrying packages till your bird is First class in both Str and End. Only switching to Digging for treasure to boost Dsc once both are at that point. Here is where you see the effects of the give and take system FFXI is famous for. As you see your Dsc increase in levels, your End will lower. Don't panic! This is normal as Dsc and End are opposites. I'm personally still at this point myself. For active care programs you will still want to use tell a story to teach it Gallop followed by Canter. Long walks are now available and this lets you retrieve better items from your bird and a chance to meet Brutus who gives you the story for Gallop as well as the Windy trainer. Competing with others will be needed to cure the restless status at times as well. Diet during the physical training phase will be 3 Vomp carrots or 2 with a healing/affection green when needed during most of this phase or 2 vomps and an elixir if you want to do more personal care. During the mental the vomps get changed to Zegham carrots.
Also you can begin to race your bird at this time and get a chocobo whistle during this time. The whistle quest is simple, but racing can be difficult. It is advised that you get your Novice circuit of the race done as soon as possible so you get entrance to the free runs. Try to build up chocobucks to spend on race training during this time.
Day 64-Retirement(By Choice or Auto):
This is the time where the effect of care plans to lose a large portion of effectiveness to the point its almost nil. At this point Passive care plan should be changed to Basic Care to maintain Affection and energy level. This is the time you will be focusing on learning abilities and raising stats by use of race training(will be explained further down). The goal is to maintain high affection and bonus statuses at this time. Feed at this time should be Stat boosting carrots and greens. Racing should be your focus at this time. By now you should be competitive in the free runs. Keep working on building those chocobucks and use them to purchase race training. With Str being first to the point that anymore will injure the bird. Once capped spend training on what you feel should have among the rest of the stats. Personally I'm trying to emulate the Windhurst Super. Once you get the message that raising a stat through training has the effect of lowering the other stats, you have hit the hard cap. Any further trainings will lower the other stats. Do so at this point at your own risk.
If you haven't learned an ability by the time your bird auto retires you are going to need to try again. Hopefully this wont happen to you but if it does, DO NOT THROW AWAY any of the documentation you receive. This will be needed to sign up whistles, register for races, and get cards if you wish to breed your bird.
Racing:
There will be no illusion that racing is easy. In the beginning it will be barely competitive and you will need items to insure you do not place last. The races can be split into two categories. Official and Free runs, Official races past the novice circuit cost chocobucks to participate in. Free runs are the races needed to be done to recieve chocobucks. I'll split this into 2 parts.
Free runs:
These are the races I'm focused on at the moment. These are where a large part of the expense to chocobo raising comes in. Both diggers and racers need to participate in these for chocobucks needed to raise stats post day 64. These will also show you how a bird with First class End and Str will get beat by a more balanced bird.
Free runs are run on a cycle of 8 races. You will also meet the supers and their annoying partners. You can tell a super by their stats, always First class Str, above average End, around average other stats and the abilities Gallop and Canter. All supers travel with a partner whose sole purpose is to prevent you from getting second or higher. Also you will meet two racers who could be called your rivals. For me one tries to take out whoever is in lead, the other messes with the whole group. All but one free run has the npcs use items. Remember this, it doesn't change no matter how many free runs you do, just the timing.
The order of the races goes like this. First race will have all the supers and their partners along with a wild card racer, followed by 5 races with 1 super and there partner. Your rivals will appear the the 2 races that repeat(for me it would be Bastok and Sandoria) with fifth being the team you havent raced in the first 4. Following that will be a race against randoms from all the teams with no item use. After that is another race with 5 randoms from the other teams, plus your rivals, both who will use items. Once those are done the cycle begins again. Always try to leave the next day's race as the trio of supers since race costs will be reset at Japanese midnight.
You will need items but most can be made with low to mid level crafting skills. Apples and Biscuits are from cooking, Bombs are from alchemy. Use these on free runs as needed as they are the cheapest to make. Your goal at this time is to have a bird that can beat the supers without the usage of items. Once you can do that you're a contender for Chocobo Circuit.
Official races:
We will treat the novice circuit as practice since they don't cost chocobucks. Past that Official races can be treated as an assault mission. To particpate you will be required to pay an admission of fee of Chocobuck and eventually as gil. Once in the Chocobo circuit you have a chance to race against other players birds with greater prizes, such as the 100k winning from 1st place in the C1 cup. Adventurer Class races are limited to 1 race a real life day.
More info on official Races can be found here:forums.ffxiclopedia.org/viewtopic.php?t=5928
------
Various Useful Links:
Chocobo Races Spread Sheet:spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pUYBkvrW9bbkKLQRyaxVJZA&gid=0
Wiki Chocobo Raising Page:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising
Wiki Chocobo Racing:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Chocobo_Racing_Guide
Wiki Racing/Raising Forum:forums.ffxiclopedia.org/viewforum.php?f=81
-----
Well kids, I take it that by reading this section of the forum you're interested in raising a chocobo with a focus on racing. I'm not going to lie or sugarcoat it, raising a chocobo, be it racing, digging, or just plain personal use. Is going to be time consuming and expensive, but at the end of it, it will be worthwhile. Did you know a win in the C1 race of the Chocobo circuit can make you 100k? Did you also know you can do it once a day? That's where the money comes from racing.
-----
Now that the introduction is done, lets start the show. Your goals for a racing chocobo our First Class capped strength, with average or above endurance, with a mix between receptivity and discernment, the latter taking importance. You will also need to have the ability 'Gallop' and 'Canter'. An explanation of what these stats do will be explained further down the post.
-----
Stats and what they influence:
Strength(Str): This is the stat that influences your speed on the track as well as off. Having this capped will put your bird on par or slightly above a rental. The ability 'Gallop' raises a level of str.
Endurance(End): This stat influences how long your bird can maintain top speed in race and how long the bird will stay with you in the field. Having this capped will allow a bird to stay with you for a full 45 minutes. The ability 'Canter' raises this a level.
Discernment(Dsc): This stat influences how well your bird paces itself during a race, the timing of item use, and possibly items from digging. Also increases the odds of learning an ability from a story. Do not neglect this stat when it comes to racing, it does make the difference between winning and losing. No known abilities increase this stat in racing.
Receptivity(Rec): This stat influences the chance of preventing an accident during a race, resisting attacks from other chocobos, and is rumored to effect the chance of offspring inheriting stats and abilities from their parents. Also believed to increase the rate of meeting trainers on the various walks from the active care plans.
As with anything in FFXI, raising stats are a give or take process. The raising of Str and End will lower Rec and Dsc. There is an exception to this when it comes to raising. Race training can raise a stat with no negative effect to its opposite stat or others unless the hard cap to stat allotment is hit. Chocobo stats can be compared to crafting in that it's impossible to cap every stat. You have about 640 points to work with. Each Level of gain is about 32 points. So you could have a bird with stats sorted like this 8Str/7End/3Dsc/2Rec or a variable of above. That format will be used to describe your levels as well further down.
The Term for levels are listed as below in scales of highest to lowest:
Firstclass(SS to SSS): The highest level the term SSS is described as capped(Further training would injure the bird, Achieved at having 255-256 points invested into it.)
Outstanding(S): The second to the highest level.
Impressive(A): Third to the highest.
Above Average(B): Fourth from the top.
Average(C): Fifth from the highest. Also influences birds appearance if achieved before it turns to an adult. Str will have birds with thicker legs and enlarged feet. End will make your bird have more tail feathers. Dsc will make your bird have an enlarged beak and more feathers on the head. Rec has no affect on appearance.
A bit deficient(D): Sixth from the highest.
Substandard(E): Seventh from the highest, one rank above the lowest.
Poor(F): The lowest level, all chicks will start with poor stats no matter how great the parents are.
Affection: Influences how often your bird gains bonus effects, the success of passive care plans, and possibly chances of illness. Your goal is to keep this close to capped. Watching the bird about 150 times or more during the egg phase(there is no energy drain during this stage) will almost insure you of a chick with maxed affection upon hatching.
Energy: Influences how often an active care plans can be done, success of passive, and chance of illness or injury. Do not run your bird to empty on active care plans, leave enough energy for your passive plan the next day. Choco-Elixirs can replenish energy to full and can cure some status ailments. Link to the effect of this and other 'feeds' will be posted below.
Levels of affection from lowest to highest:
* Regarding affection, it does not seem to care about you.
* Regarding affection, it seems to be able to endure your company.
* Regarding affection, it seems to slightly enjoy your company.
* Regarding affection, it seems to like being around you.
* Regarding affection, it seems to like you pretty well.
* Regarding affection, it seems to like you a lot.
* Regarding affection, it seems to want to be with you all the time.
* Regarding affection, it seems to regard you as its parent.
Active Care Plans:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Care_for_your_Chocobo
Passive Care Plans:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Care_Plans
Chocobo Feed:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Feeding_Your_Chocobo
Status Effects:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Conditions
Kamp Kweh:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Kamp_Kweh
Matchmaking:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising#Matchmaking
-----
Step 1: The beginning of the process
First thing you're going to need to start the raising process is obviously an egg. These can be from a merchant, the reward from the quest from Brutus, ISNMs, or the breeding from an adult pairing. My first two birds came from the vendor in Jueno. The warmest she had available. There is talks of the warmth of eggs influencing what color the chick will be, but this is not set in stone yet, also believed that warmth influences the rate at which certain stats are gained. Further investigation is needed on this. You will know if your bird will be a special color by the time it reaches adolescence, the tips will show what it will be, all other tips will be the color except yellow, if your bird has white tips it will be a yellow bird. I am personally wary of eggs from two parents that I don't know what abilities they have and could possibly pass on. A racing bird doesn't need an ability that helps digging. If you do go this route ask the person(s) who provided cards what ability and stats the parents have before you select the honeymoon plan.
Now I know some people like colored birds but thats not your goal. You want a bird that can race and win, down the line you will have the option of dyeing your bird for the exchange of chocobucks. But enough of that.
You have your egg, now its the choice of where you want to raise it. This doesn't have any influence on the bird aside from the order that stories will be given by trainers. For a racing bird you want it to learn Gallop and Canter. The first ability is from the Sandorian Stablemaster, so starting in Sandoria would be wise since you will meet him on short walks there. Gallop is learned from a story from Brutus who will be met on long walks no matter where you start a bird.
Once a place has been picked out and egg has been traded to the Stable master there, you must begin the next stage of the process. Your egg will hatch on day 4, your goal in the mean time is to watch over it at least 150 times while its an egg. This can be done all at once or spread out, it doesn't matter as long as you do it 150 or times before it hatches. From now on the guide will be split into sections based on the days.
Day 4-19: Your egg has hatched into a chick. Now you can influence it. Also after a day or so your bird will develop a personality, these seem to be an indication of what stat has a slight boost over the others. My two birds as well as Ik's had a patient personality, a suggestion that our birds had a boost to End, this was further proven when mine increased a level a full 3 days ahead of Str when using a passive care plan that raised both stats equally. Hopefully you will have either Patient or ill tempered, signs of a slight boost to End or Str, if you have ill and you focus on Str you may have a bird that will be red.
During this time you have the option of taking the bird for a walk, which boosts Str and End, Basic care which doesn't do much of anything, Rest which lets the bird recover energy(Shouldn't need this ever!), or Listen to music which boosts the mental stats(Dsc/Rec) for passive care plans. For active you get Take a walk(short), Watch over, or scold the bird.
For this period you want to use Take a walk for passive care, Walks mixed with Watching over for actives, and a diet of Vomp carrots or carrot paste(both boost physical stats by about 2 per 2 carrots/one paste) with various greens if your bird comes down with a condition or you need a boost in affection. If something happens that requires a green, be sure to feed the green first to the bird then the stat food. You don't want to overfeed it, any item given after the completely full message will be useless and you might make the bird sick. Give it an item one at a time to be safe. Also remember to leave enough energy the care plan the next day.
Day 19-29:
Your bird is now an adolescent. More options for care are open to you. For passive you change from a Walk around town to Delivering messages to increase the gain in Str/End. Active you will have the ability for a regular walk, tell a story, and compete with others after your first regular walk and the cutscene with the 3 npcs. During this time to you will want to focus on telling a story if you have the Story from the Sandoria npc, regular walks to boost affection if you have the story(short if you dont yet), and the occasional compete with others if the bird is restless. The diet at this time focuses on vomp carrots with the occasional green/elixir if need. Your bird should be able to eat 3 carrots at a time now before being completely full now.
Also if your bird is going to be colored you will now be able to tell which by the color of its tips.
Day 29-64:
Your bird is now an adult, if it had average or above Str or End by now you can see the change in physical appearance. For passive you want to still use Carrying packages till your bird is First class in both Str and End. Only switching to Digging for treasure to boost Dsc once both are at that point. Here is where you see the effects of the give and take system FFXI is famous for. As you see your Dsc increase in levels, your End will lower. Don't panic! This is normal as Dsc and End are opposites. I'm personally still at this point myself. For active care programs you will still want to use tell a story to teach it Gallop followed by Canter. Long walks are now available and this lets you retrieve better items from your bird and a chance to meet Brutus who gives you the story for Gallop as well as the Windy trainer. Competing with others will be needed to cure the restless status at times as well. Diet during the physical training phase will be 3 Vomp carrots or 2 with a healing/affection green when needed during most of this phase or 2 vomps and an elixir if you want to do more personal care. During the mental the vomps get changed to Zegham carrots.
Also you can begin to race your bird at this time and get a chocobo whistle during this time. The whistle quest is simple, but racing can be difficult. It is advised that you get your Novice circuit of the race done as soon as possible so you get entrance to the free runs. Try to build up chocobucks to spend on race training during this time.
Day 64-Retirement(By Choice or Auto):
This is the time where the effect of care plans to lose a large portion of effectiveness to the point its almost nil. At this point Passive care plan should be changed to Basic Care to maintain Affection and energy level. This is the time you will be focusing on learning abilities and raising stats by use of race training(will be explained further down). The goal is to maintain high affection and bonus statuses at this time. Feed at this time should be Stat boosting carrots and greens. Racing should be your focus at this time. By now you should be competitive in the free runs. Keep working on building those chocobucks and use them to purchase race training. With Str being first to the point that anymore will injure the bird. Once capped spend training on what you feel should have among the rest of the stats. Personally I'm trying to emulate the Windhurst Super. Once you get the message that raising a stat through training has the effect of lowering the other stats, you have hit the hard cap. Any further trainings will lower the other stats. Do so at this point at your own risk.
If you haven't learned an ability by the time your bird auto retires you are going to need to try again. Hopefully this wont happen to you but if it does, DO NOT THROW AWAY any of the documentation you receive. This will be needed to sign up whistles, register for races, and get cards if you wish to breed your bird.
Racing:
There will be no illusion that racing is easy. In the beginning it will be barely competitive and you will need items to insure you do not place last. The races can be split into two categories. Official and Free runs, Official races past the novice circuit cost chocobucks to participate in. Free runs are the races needed to be done to recieve chocobucks. I'll split this into 2 parts.
Free runs:
These are the races I'm focused on at the moment. These are where a large part of the expense to chocobo raising comes in. Both diggers and racers need to participate in these for chocobucks needed to raise stats post day 64. These will also show you how a bird with First class End and Str will get beat by a more balanced bird.
Free runs are run on a cycle of 8 races. You will also meet the supers and their annoying partners. You can tell a super by their stats, always First class Str, above average End, around average other stats and the abilities Gallop and Canter. All supers travel with a partner whose sole purpose is to prevent you from getting second or higher. Also you will meet two racers who could be called your rivals. For me one tries to take out whoever is in lead, the other messes with the whole group. All but one free run has the npcs use items. Remember this, it doesn't change no matter how many free runs you do, just the timing.
The order of the races goes like this. First race will have all the supers and their partners along with a wild card racer, followed by 5 races with 1 super and there partner. Your rivals will appear the the 2 races that repeat(for me it would be Bastok and Sandoria) with fifth being the team you havent raced in the first 4. Following that will be a race against randoms from all the teams with no item use. After that is another race with 5 randoms from the other teams, plus your rivals, both who will use items. Once those are done the cycle begins again. Always try to leave the next day's race as the trio of supers since race costs will be reset at Japanese midnight.
You will need items but most can be made with low to mid level crafting skills. Apples and Biscuits are from cooking, Bombs are from alchemy. Use these on free runs as needed as they are the cheapest to make. Your goal at this time is to have a bird that can beat the supers without the usage of items. Once you can do that you're a contender for Chocobo Circuit.
Official races:
We will treat the novice circuit as practice since they don't cost chocobucks. Past that Official races can be treated as an assault mission. To particpate you will be required to pay an admission of fee of Chocobuck and eventually as gil. Once in the Chocobo circuit you have a chance to race against other players birds with greater prizes, such as the 100k winning from 1st place in the C1 cup. Adventurer Class races are limited to 1 race a real life day.
More info on official Races can be found here:forums.ffxiclopedia.org/viewtopic.php?t=5928
------
Various Useful Links:
Chocobo Races Spread Sheet:spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pUYBkvrW9bbkKLQRyaxVJZA&gid=0
Wiki Chocobo Raising Page:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Chocobo_Raising
Wiki Chocobo Racing:wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Chocobo_Racing_Guide
Wiki Racing/Raising Forum:forums.ffxiclopedia.org/viewforum.php?f=81