I am new to this forum and think its a fantastic opportunity to build my knowledge on the horse racing caper.

I am a regular Saturday afternoon punter and rely heavily on comment and opinion from the so-called experts to decide on my wagers.

I reckon its time to become a little more advanced on my approach to investing on the horses.

I am looking for some ideas that others may have on creating your own ratings, some thoughts and factors to take into account when establishing these ratings would be appreciated.

I would recomend somthing very simple to start until you understand and have studied some other ideas...

1) add together the beaten lengths of the last 3 runs
2) add to this the price in the morning paper

thats it for now...here is example
Last start 2nd 2.1 lengths
2nd last start won =0
3rd last start 4th 1.5 lengths
price 4/1

2.1+0+1.5=3.6
4/1 in dollar amount is $5 so that makes it 5
3.6+5=8.6

do this for all runners then back the top ranked runner

Northerly.
Bet small or not at all.
Someone suggested to me to just pretend for about 6 months until you see it in black and white.
Because most of the beginnings will be in the red.