As you have noticed the DAS fixed prepost prices can work both ways for you.

My suggestion is to compare the price on offer with the early TAB prices for the three TAB's. I particulary take note of the price on the state TAB for the race you are looking at. I also take note what the prepost price was in the Sat morning paper as well.

If you are in any doubt as to whether to take the fixed price I would suggest holding off until closer to the race or take the Divi Plus option if you need to get your bets on early.

From my time with DAS (a few yrs) - if betting longshots (say >$10) I think that Divi Plus will provide the better return over time as there is often one TAB that will have a longer price than the others.

There are exceptions to this - but they are often obvious.

Example 1 - Sat week ago I had a win on Friendly Seas which the Divi Plus price was around $18. I got $26 by taking the prepost fixed odds. The TAB's at the time I made the bet were showing around the $15-$20 mark - but the Sat paper showed $13 prepost. Based on this I took the punt that the price was more likely to shorten than blow out (especially since C Brown was the jockey and we know how desperate he was to ride winners). Good value at $26 I thought.

Example 2 - a few weeks back Little Dozer got nosed out of a win in Melb. It's Divi Plus price was around $11 as they jumped. I took the $21 fixed prepost price when I saw all the TAB's early prices were around $12 and the Sat paper prepost price was $13. Just missed on a huge collect. In fact I could have sworn that I had it !

In terms of shorter price horses sometimes you can get an early fixed price of say $6 for one that starts at say $4. Much more difficult here and I would tend not to take the fixed price unless it is favourite and TAB's are showing say around $3 mark. Tough judgement call though. Sometimes I take half my stake at the fixed price decide later on near race time what to do with the rest.

PS Having subscribed to some of PPD's systems, one thing I have noted is that often the early TAB prices for their selections are way short and do blow toward jump time. The fixed prepost prices for these are often not good value at all.