This topic comes up so frequently and the 30% average for winning favourites is so embedded in my mind that I seldom question the validity of it.

I came across these track by track figures and some of the statistics surprised me.The percentages are based on an average of the past thirteen meetings at each track.

Eagle Farm.....Winning favourites 29%..Right on cue..But...in five out of the last thirteen meetings (or 38.5%)the average number of winning favourites was a mere 7%..Naturally it follows that the other eight meetings had a very high strike rate of winning favourites.

Doomben.....Winning favourites 30%..Right on cue again..But,,similar to Eagle Farm seven out of thirteen meetings (54%) the average number of winning favourites was a very modest 10.8%.

Rosehill had an incredibly high percentage over thirteen meetings..,.41%

Randwick/Ken was also high at 45%

Sandown/Hill 34%

Caulfield 31%

Belmont (for KV) was 38%

So whilst the average may well be steady at around 30% the wild fluctuations used to finally arrive at that figure make it less than reliable.Also I must acknowledge that thirteen meetings is not a very good population for statistics,but these were the only figures available.