hi barny
i find that ranking the horses win s/rate order is more reliable than say the actual s/rate this is more prevalent in the long distance races where horses require several conditioning runs to bring them to peak fitness thus lowering their s/rate as against sprinters who can win 1st up 2nd up or whenever the average s/rate of horses is around the 17%-18% according to malcolm knowles book consistency or 1 win about every 6 starts actually according to malcolm ranking horses by their place% is more profitable than the win% this is for the top rated only the top =5 win% s/rate =67% whilst the top=5 place%=67.1% just with betting on maidens you can rank these type of races as well i never bet any of my rated horses unless they are the top=5 place% has saved me $1,000s over the years and improved my s/rate no ends but that's just me
cheers
garyf