Good points you have there, although I dont do any comparisons with course records etc. Thought about similar, but dismissed the idea, I just treat each race on its day by its merits. Maybe it was a leader bias track, then I'd view the run of the leader/winner a bit more harsher when I check the times.

With backmarkers which you mentioned, that was my change in thoughts last december, when I used to see a backmarker gain x amount of lengths on the winner from the 600 to run 4th. Back it and it does the same thing again next start. So I made it my new years resolution not to back any more backmarkers. I've now become just a small bit lenient on that rule when I see times like Shocking's.

I dont necessarily have to blackbook a horse from every race, some meetings I might just find 3 or 4. It comes down to viewing a race, using the tools that you have in front of you, and asking yourself the question, was this run good enough for this horse to win next start. There is no system to this, just your own skills and hope you can get it right enough times.

Paul