Racing Board Game

Each player backs one of the four Aces — Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs or Spades.

The four Aces begin at the start of the race, while seven cards are placed face down on the Hurdle spaces.

Cards are then turned from the Race Deck one at a time. Each time a suit appears, the matching Ace moves forward one space.

As the race progresses, Hurdle cards are revealed and can send horses backwards, meaning the lead can change right up to the finish.

The first Ace to cross the Finish Line wins the race.

Betting is a big part of the fun.

The game includes 100 Horse Betting Tokens, which can be divided between the players before racing begins. Players can compete until one person holds all the tokens, or simply play for a set number of races and see who finishes with the most.

The Main Pot is shared between the Jockeys backing the winning Ace.

You can also create your own Side Pots, with examples including Pick an Ace, Red or Black, Over or Under and individual

Hurdle bets.

You can keep it simple or add as many side bets as your group wants.

The Race Deck contains two special Horse Cards — one Red and one Black.

If a Horse Card appears during the race, the leading Ace of that colour moves backwards by 1 space.

If one appears as a Hurdle card, the penalty is even bigger. The leading Ace of that colour moves backwards by 2 spaces.

If 2 of the same coloured Aces are tied they both take the penalty

That means a horse that looks certain to win can suddenly find itself pulled back into the pack.

The Standard Edition @theACES Racing Board Game includes:

1 × Racing Game Board

1 × Carry Bag

1 × Pack of Playing Cards

10 × Coloured Jockey Pawns

100 × Red Betting Tokens The Drinking Edition @theACES Racing Board Game includes:

Everything listed above, plus 10 × Coloured Shot Glasses.

Everything packs away into the supplied carry bag, making it easy to store or take along to a games night.

The game includes 10 different coloured Jockeys, allowing up to 10 players to have their own coloured playing piece.

More than 10 people can still take part — additional players can simply use another object as their Jockey marker.

For smaller groups, each player can simply be assigned one of the four Aces.

For larger groups, several players can back the same Ace — and if your Ace wins, the fewer Jockeys backing it, the bigger your share of the Main Pot.

Turn the @theACES Racing Board Game into a full Games Night Drinking Game with the optional coloured shot-glass add-on.

Each shot glass is colour matched to one of the Jockeys.

A simple way to play is:

Losers drink their shot.

Winners choose who receives theirs.

The normal racing and betting rules can still be used, so the drinking element simply adds another layer to the game.

One of the best things about @theACES is that you don't have to play exactly the same way every time.

You can keep things simple with casual races, play multiple races to see who finishes with the most tokens, use the Main Pot only, add Side Pots for extra competition or introduce the coloured shot glasses for an adult games night.

The rules allow plenty of freedom when creating Side Pots, so each group can make the game as simple or competitive as they want.

I’d keep this amount of bolding — enough to make the important bits jump out without the page starting to look too busy.