Most of us know what a "false" favourite (FF) is supposed to be. There are a whole heap of systems and eliminators to first detect them and THEN get rid of them. Simply, these FFs are horses which are overbet into favouritism (and therefore "unders"), while the genuine "top chance" or even second chance (or EVERYTHING ELSE) blows out to be overs. The theory goes that if there were 34 races last Saturday (with 34 favs, in S,M,B,A)) and you expected 10 favs to win (30%) on average, you would greatly increase your POT by getting rid of as many of the losing 24 favs as possible. Find the one's who "shouldn't" be favs and DITCH THEM. Bet the "right" 10 and you'd be home and hosed!!! Simple, eh? NO, not really. The main "problem" is in deciding, among the "real" chances, which one is the "realest" ON THAT DAY!!!
On the other hand, every week a host of despised roughies thunder home, or lead all the way at 33s or 50s or even at $209 in Melbourne (two saturdays back).
After seeing 5 such "upset" horses in the already mentioned 34 races LAST saturday, some at Group Level, you'd have to rub your eyes and scratch your head. Why WERE they roughies? Brindabella in MR8 was 3rd rated on Unitab but STILL over $30 the win. Romantic Lover was $5 in my Courier-Mail and won like it, BUT at $26!! Now there are a couple of FALSE outsiders!!!!
There were just over 140 horses paying $20 or more last Saturday (my definition of an OS), from which 5 saluted: that's about 1 in 28. But what if we eliminate 100 of the losers and bet the rest?? What if we cut it diown to 29 and still get 4 at an average price of around $30 EACH???!!!.Well, if you're satisfied with that, read no further (see Selecting Longshots Mechanically Thread) but if you'd like to do even better, maybe we can pull a few ideas TOGETHER right here. Please, everyone, this is a LONGSHOT thread. Let's not get swamped by "shortie fans" who have nothing positive to say. Thanks.

Hi Punter 57,

I've been wrestling with a selection method of mine that i feel is coming up with way too many bets,i have come to the conclusion that the 1st and 2nd pre post favorites amongst this lot are not pulling their weight POT wise.

I've done my research and am going to give them the punt.

At this stage of the system developement i only have a couple of rules/filters but have a few up my sleeve ready to test now that i have dumped the favs.

Trying to implement rules that eliminate false favorites is very tricky,i like you feel it is much easier to eliminate the roughies,so many of them are absolute no hopers.

I look forward to the responses in this thread and in time will post a few ideas.

I find i get too little selections with my roughies.

From a race i would select the lowest 20% odds. Meaning in a field of 15 the bottom 3 odds, in a field of 10 the bottom 2 odds. Its probably not enough to select from though. Perhaps the bottom 30% or 40% would be a better option.

But anywho i base it on weight/places and their last three starts. If they come below a certain rating then they get chosen. But in a number of months ive only had about 10 or so selections. Two have won.

Ive got nothing concrete to show you in evidence to suggest the above results are real. But ill have a look at my archived results and see what i can pull out.

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GO VOUVRAY

Oaksnaf ever thought about ruling out those over 33-1 pre post and then applying your idea.

...Practical Punting Monthly ....I remember an article about selecting longshots,basicly the writer said most longer priced winners are on the limit weight so rule out every horse not on the limit weight and go from there.

To expand on an idea from Partypooper why not then rule out any limit weight horse that hasnt won at the distance or track...................

Consider only targeting Class 1,2 & 3 races only.
This will reduce the number of bets to a given day, this class seems to strike a number of $20+ mules along the way.

Maybe apply a filter such as , must have been $8.50 or less last start.
This tells us that it was not considered to be a totall dud in the market place last time out.

This rule does seem to work as well as anything else.

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Cheers.