Yes osulldj, I agree with you totally. Seriously punting requires extensive study of the races and racing. The knowledge gained can be analysed by the human mind much better than any set of betting rules or a computer can do.

The one period I was consistently successful at punting was during my student days. Each week on Thursday I would purchase the Sportsman and do a preliminary analysis of every race in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and I would settle on what I considered were good chances in each race. During Friday I would look carefully at each race and each of my chances in the race compared with the other horses. I would consider times, weight and more importantly which horses has beaten which, and come up with a possible selection in every race. After scratchings on Saturday morning I would then make a final decision and discarded most races. If I had between 6 and 10 bets left I would go to the track and even then I could change my mind on whether to bet depending on the market.

The point I want to make is that after doing this for several weeks I had built up a working knowledge in my mind of the ability of many of the horses currently running and out of the 24 odd races each week I could usually quickly zero in on some that were well placed to win a race.

This approach of course takes a lot of time and effort and I am not game enough to do this at the expense of my day job. Betting systems are really only for the hobby punter, which I now am, and I enjoy investigating them even though I know deep down what the correct approach should be. But for me it is just relaxation and I get the satisfaction of occasionally snaring a good priced winner. My mechanical method takes about 30 seconds a race to find the selection and has broken even most years for the last 10 years.