Betting Units

[poweshow]

I'm a relatively new member to this site and still not completely caught up on the methodology, accordingly this thread is more about learning from other about how they wager than preaching the way that I wager.

I've read a good amount of strategy in the Follow Ups having to do with eliminating the favorite and after experimenting with that and reading some threads I've realized that that is not necessarily the ideal path to profit. In fact, I was early on completely misinterpreting the teachings and eliminating the favorite almost every race regardless of odds (I was hiding even 5/2 favorites... like I said, I'm new around here). This coupled with early patience issues of betting nearly every single race and it was a rough few weeks.

What was once a problem has evolved into more accepting understanding of favorites. I will gladly accept 2/1 favorites and even occasionally accept 9/5 to 1/1 favorites. The way by which I have trained myself to be accepting of these contenders is to wager more units on these horses accepting no less than a 100% ROI in any given race. That is, if I find a 2/1 horse in my top-3, I will bet $4 (2 units) on the horse while only accepting a horse of 5/1 as my second selection: $6 wagered for the chance to win $12 on either horse.

Certainly I deviate from the strict 100% rule if I feel I have a very, very strong chance to profit on a race (ie small field), but 95% of the time it's 100% ROI. It is rare that I ever have to settle for only 100% ROI, more often than not it is 133% (5/2) and 150%+. This strategy also allows me at times play 3 horses if I can expect to double my total investment should my low-priced favorite win the race OR if the expected return of my other two horses could potentially pay much greater than a 100% profit at which point I am willing to use my low-priced favorite as a "hedge" bet. In fact, I used this concept today in Laurel Race 6 to cash in on a $101.60 winner betting:

$6 on 2-1 #9 horse -$18
$4 on 8-1 #12 horse - $36
$2 on 49-1 #4 horse - $100

Winning on the low priced favorite would have netted me 50% profit while the other two bets would have resulted in profits of 260% and a whopping 733% (which did happen).

My question is, is there a minimum ROI investment that I should be aiming for at this stage (beginning stages) of learning the methodology? What are the betting unit guidelines that you personally use in selecting your contenders?