I suggest that a class/weight ratings approach is simply another (of many) systems. The goal is to be able to select horses on which one can obtain a higher price than their real chances of winning the race, ie make a profit. Whether the system is based on weight/class, particular form lines, particular breeding, a preference for one track rather than another is not the issue, only whether over a long period of time they do or do not make a profit.

On the other side of the ledger, the bookies want to do the opposite, offer horses at prices which are under their true chance of winning and therefore ensure that the punter makes a loss and they make a profit. Prior to the running of a race, the difference is simply opinion and the bookie is no more sure that their opinion is right than the punter is.

Some of the greatest winners at the track did not follow class/weight ratings at all. Their methods could better be desribed as a set of rules or axioms which they had determined, probably by trial and error and making losses, that gave them enough winning bets to make a profit. They are or were for their time perfectly valid systems albiet probably peculiar ones so anyone who claims that class/weight ratings are right and everything else is wrong in my opinion miss the main point which is MAKE A PROFIT.

regards

The Phoenix