Would you be able to run a search for me?. All races, winner is in first 3 in the market, similar to your stats on fav's winning. Would be interested to know if, as the day goes on, winner in 1st 3 drops off as winning favs does. Much appreciated.

Mark

Mark,

I think this is what you are after. I dont have as much data in the database as Felicity so this is from the last three years - just under 4000 meetings (all days).

Race No/SR/Avg Runners
1 - 71% - 9.65
2 - 68% - 10.26
3 - 69% - 10.45
4 - 68% - 10.41
5 - 66% - 10.52
6 - 62% - 10.72
7 - 61% - 11.19
8 - 60% - 11.62
9 - 59% - 11.91
10 - 57% - 12.18

So Race 1 is won by a runner in top 3 71% of the time and has an average of 9.65 runners, etc. There are not many races 9 and 10 so you may want to ignore these figures. Also the top 3 in my database is based on Tabcorp final price (not the bookies SP) and horses equal on price are ranked by saddlecloth number (so the above figures do not account for equal 3rd favs).

__________________
"Computers can do that????" - Homer Simpson

Interesting numbers becareful. There was a theory somewhere that suggested punters do the form in reverse race order. So R8 first then R7 etc. as many doing the form from 1->8 speed up their analysis towards the latter races and thus not as thorough, hence more false favorites.
Flipside is that most of the earlier races contain 2yos,hurdles,fewer starters which limit chances, whilst at the other end larger fields in restricted company, fillies & mares etc., so would probably support the descending %.