"if one expects to front up & find that magic system well you'll get bitten"....

Hmm I dont recall saying anything like that.

I do know that in average fields almost any punter can reduce the chances down to five horses.The part which brings 99.9% of us unstuck is consistently reducing those five down to one,

I'm not suggesting that it's impossible.Clearly the long term contributers to this forum (disregarding the entrepreneurs marketing their various products) do it often enough to stay in the game without developing a gambling problem.

Prior to EI I attended on average three race meetings a week.Now that the EI problem appears to have been resolved I'm looking forward to resuming my hobby (which is horse racing as opposed to gambling).Over the years I have made many racing friends from bookies, trainers, various connections etc.The ones who depart the scene are (predictably) the ones who thought that they could make gambling pay.In the long term they dont.

I see too many desperates both in real life and forumites who appear and disappear overnight to enter that topic.

Good Luck.