Sometimes its a little like a form guide.
You have to filter the good and bad and make your own judgements.

Interesting a got an email from a friend the other day which raises a good point about the available data to the public. As you know 30% of favourites win long term. What factors are not available to the public would help increase this %.

A couple point raised include

a. The weight of the horse
b. Cardiovascular fitness of the horse
c. Blood count
d. Trainers intentions.

The debate around following the crowd was also discussed. I know many a firm believers of this, but I think with many traditional filters out there the profiting from the crowd is long gone.

New methodologies need to be created while looking for the different questions against the available data.