G'day again Luckyboy,

To further emphasise my point that finishing order is basically irrelevant in deciding the merits of a horse's performance, I refer you to the two big metric miles held in Sydney each year(The Doncaster and The Epsom). Invariably, there is a close finish with a major portion of the field crossing the line in what is known as a "blanket-finish"). This is where the skill of the form student comes to the fore. Some horse may have finished anywhere between 4th and 10th place and to the untrained eye it appears to be an indifferent run. However, the majority of these runners may have finished as close as 2 lengths or so from the winner. Next start they regularly contest a race of a lower class and have a very high win and place strike-rate, regularly at good odds. Don't forget, they were primed to run well in the feature race but were beaten by better horses on the day but they are still at their prime performance capabilities. Therefore, connections cover some of their expenses with a well deserved win in a race with a lower class factor.
I have used this method with a good deal of success for years, as the one great factor in form study which remains constant is the class differentiation between individual horses.

Cheers.