Been punting on the races for a fair while now and I still reckon half the battle is knowing what stuff to ignore. Early on I used to drown in form guides and talk myself into roughies off one nice sectional or a lucky run three starts back... these days I keep circling back to a few basics first - map, tempo, track pattern, and whether the horse is actually placed to win today or just having a hit-out.
What I get stuck on sometimes is how everyone weights things differently. Some blokes are huge on jockey changes, some swear by stable placement, some just follow late market moves and call it a day. For me, if a horse maps ugly and needs everything to go right, I really struggle to back it no matter how good the raw form looks. Same with wet tracks - plenty of punters get sucked into old heavy-track stats that came in bogs from two prep ago and mean bugger all now.
Keen to hear what you lot actually lean on when narrowing a race down. Not the textbook stuff, I mean the things that have genuinely saved you money over time. Do you trust speed maps more than ratings? Do you leave maidens alone? Got any little rules for country meetings, short-price favs, or when the market starts doing weird things 10 mins before jump? Chuck in whatever you've learned the hard way, always good to compare notes with people who've had a proper crack at it.