g'day oz,

mate, i love discussing ratings & analysis methods so if you wanna drop an email to bravechief06 at y a h o o . com so we can communicate by email, feel free.

you're asking good questions. there are 2 things i think a rating method needs, you have to "project" a horses rating forward & say "i think this horse is an xx rating horse" (at sometime in the future).

but you also need to judge when a horse is suited. when a horse is suited, it gets a bonus, naturally. this may involve some profiling. a certain distance, track, pace or stage of campaign ?? & be prepared to back your judgements.

perhaps Sparky goes well first up, likes the track, trialled well etc. at first glance he certainly has an early pace adv over Written Tyccon & Media over 1000m, this could potentially equate to a "suited bonus".

as for Mentatlity, in his last 2 starts he was trading blows with Desert War & Eremein at WFA, higher rating form than Muta?? 4th up over the mile, raced over a mile last start, G1 winner over a mile as a 2yo. Muta was stepping up from the sprints, never raced over mile before. Do you think Mentality was more seasoned than Muta for this race? Looks suited, worth a bonus?