Crash,
just having a quick flick around with this I dont think its the size of the field that really matters - it might be more the amount by which a horse is favourite by.

try the following...
thoroughbreds - select the favourite for a place if the win price is $3 or more greater than the next runner at the start. my gut feeling is that you might be best to exclude metro races from this (weekday and weekend) because they do some funny things to favourites and you would obviously need to keep an eye out for special weather or event conditions that might make it advisable to back off - and in this case because you are going for the place I would not take ntd races.

standardbreds - the words trots and favourites always suggest profit, but if you also took your idea into this area then I would try the same $3 better than the others method, leave out ntd's and any horse with no previous form.

my quick research suggests both would give you a POT rather than a LOT but Im sure one of the database gurus will prove me wrong and tell us these methods would give you a long term loss.

but I like the look of them just the same
:smile:

see ya
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