Don Scott's Legacy

Don Scott's first book turned the racing world upside down, and it did it with ratings: for the first time an Australian horse racing punter could put a figure on the race, then a figure on every runner in it. Writing in Practical Punting in March 1999, Roman Koz went back through that book, Winning, chapter by chapter to answer the question the piece asks out loud — is the Don Scott ratings approach still as relevant in 1999 as it was in 1978, when he first published it? He agrees loudly with most of it, and says plainly where he thinks Scott had it wrong.

What you'll learn:

• The problem the whole method was built to solve, in Scott's own words — horses from other classes keep appearing, so he "had to find a way of rating the classes of all races in all areas", which became the Basic Class Figure, where a Sydney Welter was 61 while a Quality Handicap was 69
• Chapter four, Pricing For Profit, and where Scott says the money is actually made: in the price you get about a horse's real chance, the ones that "provide your bread and butter" — plus why framing your own market is what tells you exactly how much to wager on value horses
• The twelve key areas he set out for race analysis — track, going, distance, class, form, consistency, condition, weight, post position, rider, stable and price — and the two Roman Koz reckons a punter would add today: times and track bias
• Where Koz stops agreeing: Scott called times, both sectional and final, "downright misleading and false 90 per cent of the time" and told punters to stay at home when it rains, while Koz argues times do play a major part — a slow early pace, which the sectionals show, leaves the back-runners little chance