Good luck Wes. It's a tough game to better, this one. I think the human part of it is the toughest i.e. sticking with something when in the midst of a run of outs. Inevitably you jump off just before the method redeems itself and lives up to your research. I do most of my serious stuff on about 16 races a year:
Epsom, Villiers, Doncaster, Newmarket, Goodwood, Oakleigh Plate, Ten Thousand, Stradbroke, Doomben Cup, Caulfield Cup, Melbourne Cup, Railway Stakes, Auckland Cup, Wellington Cup, SA and WA Derbies.
I will bet seriously on these if the field size is 14 or more. This may seem contradictory, but if you look at the dividends served up in these races, they allow you to take a reasonable number of runners and still finish in front. In the last few months these races seem to have been going to horses that are well fancied and the dividends have been ordinary. Looking back over the last 10 years or so there have been many 'getable' winners at long odds - Tales of Triomphe in last years SA Deby was the last big one (rated 6th by me and paid $70+ NSW); for some reason the SA Derby seems to produce good longshot winners (Cheviot $50+ - rated 4th and Bulta $100+ rated 8th are two that spring to mind) - anyway, check some of this out for yourself and, as I began, good luck.