I used to find winners in maidens where I had my best strike rates. However with maiden handicaps it makes it far more difficult. Also novice handicaps is ridiculous. Racing is constantly changing and has become nearly impossible to make money.
If I was 16 years old again,I definitely would not have gotten hooked to racing the way it is now.As a teenager I would easily find atleast 4 winners a meeting aswell as straight line p.a many times,smaller payouts but the favorites were always in the shake up. Odds on favorites used to win by 5 , nowadays the 5/10 favorites are the first horses beat with 400 to go. I also feel that in the 80s and 90s the odds were better.
Just to difficult these days and depressing tracks and fields.
This type of post makes me laugh. "Easily find 4 winners a meeting - straight line pa many times, favourites were ALWAYS in the payouts". May I respectfully put it to you Batman that you are either being economic with the truth, or your memory isn't what it used to be. I have no doubt that ON OCCASION you may have had days like you describe, but I am 1000000% sure that this was not the norm.
I have been punting for over 40 years and obviously have experienced both the Race Figure and Merit Racing systems. I can assure you that bookmakers were not poor during the Race Figure days. Pick 6 carryovers were as common as what they are now in the Race Figure Days. To really show my age, I recall Jackpot carryovers in the RF days.
I agree with you 100% that Maiden Handicaps are a travesty, but let's not fantasize about what we had before MR.
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