Last year i began a system, Where i taped the races and made notes on the races. Then i split the race into four sections.
I rated them out of 10: for
1: Early speed
2: middle speed
3: finishing speed
and the fourth: trouble encountered
I do that for each dog in the race, and put little notes beside them, like dist. BON, what the race pattern was like etc.
Its all on excel.
Then after a while, i had races where most of my dogs were in my database, and i was theoretically able to map out the race, with trying to find the best winner.
One major influence was a column called potenital. And if there was a yes, I would have a bet on the race.

eg:all on excel in neat columns
lets say Shep 440:
Dog/dist/time/margain/BON/beg/mid/end/Trbl
Natuzzi:430/24.69/0/24.4/8/7/6/0
Zed Hot:440/25.25/4/24.91/6/7/8/4
Now if you add up Natuzzi=21
Zed Hot=21 but was checked so gets the tick.
If Natuzzi drew box 5 and Zed hot Box 4. As the early speed indicates, Natuzzi would cross then lead, with Zed Hot coming home.


Basically its a whole heap of little notes to help you understand the dogs better. Like runs wide last turn, rails runner, habit of trouble, hates having dogs inside her, hates them on the outside, finds a lot of trouble, slow beginner, etc.....