Sports
For what it is worth, why go to all the trouble of doing your own ratings when a site such as Ozeform has a rating figure for every run a horse has had in it's entire career.
I have been using this facility exclusively for about 2 years and my method is to keep it very simple.
Regards which rating to use, you have to use your discretion and select a rating figure most pertinent to today's event.
To give an example, I tipped Valashka on the forum today but in actual fact the rating figure indicated it might finish exactly where it did.
I arrived at the figure for Valashka in the following way:
The horse had 2 runs since res. from a spell so I considered it was ready to produce it's best.
I went back in it's history and discovered that on march 4th. 2004, Valashka was beaten 1.1L in event equal to the one being contested today.
The base rating for that run was 57.
To arrive at a rating figure I simply deduct the weight allotted today from 100 and add the base rating figure of 57. Any apprentice claim is added to that figure.(the claim has got to be added because the Ozeform rating figure reflects the actualweight carried)
Valashka's rating was 99.
If you look at the last rating figure for Power and Faith which was a rating most relevent to todays race and apply the same procedure, Power and Faith's rating was 103.
Fuchsia lady's base rating was it's latest one and her rating figure was 102.
Now we come to Rocketeer who seemed to surprise getting into 2nd place.
I did not initially rate Rocketeer but on looking back at it's record, it had had 3 runs since resuming from a letup.
Before the letup, Rocketeer had returned base ratings around 55 on 4 occasions.
Using this figure for today's race plus the claim for M Payne, Rocketeer's rating was 104.
So, we had Rocketeer, 104, Power and Faith 103, Fuchsia lady 102, Valashka 99.
A base rating for Iona Avenue for this distance would have been around 55 for a final rating of 101.
This method might seem too simplistic for a lot of the Gurus but it will be around the mark enough times to compete with any selection method.
Another big advantage I find with Ozeform is to suss out those horses that always perform well at their 1st run back.
One example of many is Command and Conquer which won 1st up over 1600m. at lucrative odds of around 20/1.
Command and Conquer had won 1st up in it's last preparation over 1500m.
For mine, this is not an advertisement for Ozeform but without it, I would probably not bother.
PS. It has taken me so long to type this, the page has probably timed out.

( Yeah. It has.)