Humans are pattern-finders. Evolution has put us in a position where we try to see patterns in everything, even where they do not exist. Look at a series of long-term past performance lines for nearly ANY horse. You'll see a 7th-place finish followed by a 2nd-place finish, followed by a 5th-place finish followed by a 1st-place finish. THAT is the most common kind of pattern. The usual thing you observe is that a horse's next line DOESN'T look like the previous line. So when two lines "match" it sticks out and people jump on it and say "form" (good or bad) because two in a row are identical. Of course when that "form" doesn't pan out in the next race (and it most often DOESN'T, of course) the failure of the form play is quickly forgotten, and the excuse of the day comes in. If people actually stopped and THOUGHT about it for a minute, if form actually existed, then favorites would probably win a lot more often than 25% of the time, right????