[lsosa54]

Mike: I don't have stats for you but I like to stay within the last 5. To be honest, one of the last 2 is my focus, unless I truly feel it's not representative. Check out the Santa Anita race I put up in the Handicapping section and that's a typical process for me. The furthest I went back is 5 on one horse, to see what he might do today.

That does not mean I won't go back 10 on occasion if I feel it's representative of what he might do today and I want to see how he stacks up fraction wise. Most times I go back further than 5 and open up the window a bit, it's usually a turf race.

I think Doc himself used one of the last 4 - he tried to stick with last 3 but sometimes he had a reason to go back 4 - but then again, he had no rules. I think I read somewhere that Spencer Toner tracked Doc's paceline selection and said it averaged something like the last 3.8.

I think the last Doc wrote on pace lines is in FU #88, the last one. There is also some early thoughts in FU #29 which are right out of the Yellow Manual, I believe. Check out the Pace Line manual, also.

The biggest thing for me is getting the contenders right. Can this horse do what I'm asking it to do TODAY - class level, dist., surface, and does he look like he's in shape to do it today. Usually, the pace line comes fairly easily once you've decided. Then it's just a matter of input and readout interpretation, but the bulk of my time is spent up front, before the computer.

Another thing I recommend is check out a couple of pace lines if you have doubts like I did on that 10 horse in the race I mentioned.

I do manual input so it's a bit more typing but I'm pretty quick on the keyboard by now, although I am thinking of starting a search for Aodds Super Gold 98, which uses the BRIS numbers and can be exported. The typing does get a bit old sometimes.