I fully support posters here who have suggested that most punters dont have discipline. I'm gulty of that too. I'm sure there are systems that are profitable, but the first sign of a run of outs and most of us run for the hills and look for something else. The system needs to be logical and not backfitted within an inch of it's life.

Your system needs to be different to what everyone else is doing. Find a rule, or and edge, something / anything that cannot easily be retrieved from a database or ..... an element in your system which allows for the removal of a selection (eg: gear change, breeding).

It seems everyone spends an inordinate amount of time trying to find the class horse, the fittest horse, the weighted special, barrier, course, distance ..... and dont take luck into account. How can you account for luck?! Well you can't, so nothing can be taken for granted, but some of these filters like the barrier and weight are over-rated as to their influence on the outcome of a race. You need to have luck in this caper and need to understand it is a more important element than some filters. Just accept that it will go against you and may be a part of your system performing badly.

To get to the top 3% you need to do something that the other 97% aren't doing. You're NOT battling the bookies, you're battling against the 15% take-out from the TAB or other betting equivalent ..... and ..... the other 97% of the punters.