When using strikerates to award bouses or penalties or whatever do we put too much credence in them? for example, A stat I saw stated that tab no 1 had a strike rate of 15.88 % and no 10 a strike rate of 3.97 Does that mean we give tab no 1 a4 times more chance of winning? What we should remember is that tab no 1 will be competing on average against9 or 10 others in each race it is involved in whereas tab no 10 will probably compete against 13 or 14 others on average ( only guessing here for the sake of trying to make a point) so that raw strike rates on their own can give too much of an advantage to some horses. This theory of course can relate to barriers, win and place percentages, jockey and trainer stats or any other factor to do with racing. Maybe some people with data with the number of starters in in each race can give some stats feedback on my theory. My overall point being that Tab no 1 will find it easier to win against 9 or 10 than no 10 will against 13 or 14 yet their raw strike rate will will not show this. Hope this made sense.