I guess it comes down to punting style. Some people use massive stat data-banks and some don't because it's just not their style or doesn't suit their head space. Regardless of method, there is no guarantee of success. For any selection method, there is a massive amount of info. that is unattainable. 30% of favorites win, so theoretically 70% of info. is unavailable pre-post. Finding good prices seem to be to only road ahead regardless of method.