It is almost criminal how a couple of days planned rest can quickly turn into the two busiest days of the month.


Selection and Staking.

Selection

Horse Racing is a sport of flesh and blood, it is not a numbers game and should not be played as such. Most that get involved in punting have a distinct respect for horse racing and horses right from the start. The training of them, the placing of horses into races, sorting out of Class, getting a grip on what is involved in obtaining odds and the amount to be bet.
It is the Basic Level at which we all started.

Following on comes much higher levels of enlightened Staking Methods, Ratings that we think we must addhere to, Systems to be nutted out and played, Sectional Times, Weight Differentals, it goes on and on until years later we are really no more wiser than when we started at that Basic Level.
And that is the level that has to be returned to.

Judgement

Class in a horse is only held in it's Fitness, and by the way that fitness is trained on or trained out. The Class differences of a horse when matched with the Class of others in it's race, in relation to where each runners Class lies on that day, in that race, and with the improvement expected in fitness on some runners mixed in with the expected decline of fitness of others, is the only Class that has to be studied.
The only way to get a true opinion of a horses Class and Fitness level is that the horse must have been Sighted and Studied in a previous race, to gauge it's Fitness and Class. You must have have a good understanding of at least one runner in a race, that you judge as being at a fitness good enough to hold his class, in the race that is being studied so you can gauge how to run off the other horses against it.
And that 'before seen' horse must be one of the runners that with expected fitness, match both the Class of the Race, and the Class of Horse that you determine one needs to be to take part at the finish of the race in direct relation to Distance.

It is from this analysis that selections are made.

One or two horses should walk out of the that Field Listing, with a couple dawdling behind them. They move to right, leaving the rest of the field behind them.
If the horse that brought you into this race is one of the first two that walked, then all well and good, but if it did not then it might come to your attention in a later race, so watch that horse with eyes not money.
If none walked out of the Field Listing, or if they came out in a bunch, then it is not a race to be punted. The one or two that did walk out are the punted horses.
Never overstudy to find bets.

The sighting of horses racing and the matching of that to Form, is the only way that true opinion can be used to make a living on punting.

Weight, Barrier Draw, Jockey or Trainer, Sectional Times, Barrier Trials, Gear, Steward Reports, Ratings, Systems, Track Conditions, ctdw and all their variations.
None of these should have a bearing on the Selection Proccess.