Duritz
I'm hearing what you are saying,but becareful when you make statements like "Track records vary greatly".
If the statement is untrue,then everything based on it will also be untrue.
Track record is actually quite stable and is a very good starting point.
But your mention of the average grade five time is also very stable and would also be a good starting point.
I don't wish to throw away my progress in favour of your suggestion just yet.But I did have a play with your idea and found it suggests an order of class for each track/distance combination.
The 2 city tracks about equal with Geelong.

QUOTE "Now all you need to do is work out how STRONG or WEAK each of those times is." ENDQUOTE

Pretty much what the whole procedure is about!

I find that rating dogs shows up the differences between tracks.And am finding the "strength and weakness" of fields is being reflected in the ratings.Sometimes they appear just plain wrong.
Like the Healesville ratings using the track record continually throws up ratings way over their ability.
I just play around until they get close to looking right.
And the more animals I rate the more accurate my benchmark will be.
I can see some sort of a shortcut in your proposal,DURITZ,but I'm having a ball doing it my way.