Hi Crash,

Don Scott said he collected too much information (which i agree with). He was trying to be a perfectionist.

Unfortunately in Don Scotts time he had to collect everything manually. Today with computers, its a click of the mouse. In those times Don Scott didnt have to be extremely accurate with his ratings because he had a unique logical way of rating horses with many of his top selections going off at huge odds. His big overlays would recoup large losing runs.

Imagine if Don Scott had never written or told anyone about his methods, we may not have had ratings as we know them today. Then imagine having not told anyone or written any books and that he was now in the information age. He then proceeds to program his methods and refine them. He could sit back and let his computer do the work (historical and future ratings) and just take the massive overlays and make all the money he wants.

I would predict (guess) that had Don Scott not told people about his methods or written any books we would still have ratings today. However, I believe they would be based on time ratings along the lines of the Beyer method (I am assuming that Beyer would of published). Just remember that Rem Plante had a method of comparing horse against horse along weight lines. He published his works prior to Don Scott's books. It wasnt until Don Scott published his books that weight ratings took off in a big way. Don took them to a new level where you no longer had to look for direct or indirect links between horses. He worked out the differences for each class of race and hence his ratings were born.

If only a forumite could come up with a new revolutionary way in the computer age to select horses in a unique way and keep it all to him or herself. As Pittsburg Phil said, "he or she can make all the money they want".