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[Mark]

I haven't even looked at the results. However, my question is a weighty one. I managed sales people for 30 years and while there were numerous personality types, they basically fell into two categories: Security motivated and incentive motivated. The first group were solid people and they were often the best students, on time for meetings and just solid citizens but they were rather risk averse. The latter group were the home run hitters. They were the contest winners and the high producers generally. Wave a Hawaii trip or some serious cash in front of them and they went nuts closing deals, digging up new prospects. Back then we cold called and they would beat the streets for new business. This was during the 80's and 90's with Canon and Panasonic mostly. Facsimile equipment, color laser copies, 50 copy a minute copiers, some pretty pricy stuff. We recruited from SC, UCLA, Loyola, hell I had a kid that played middle linebacker for Harvard who became one of my Regional Managers.
I don't think there is much difference between betting the horses and selling. We all have our risk limits that we are comfortable with. We tend toward the secure or aggressive and our tolerance for risk and handicapping methods will reflect that.
Personally, if you are picking pacelines from the last 3 comparable you probably fall in the risk averse category and are more security motivated. You may hit a nice paying horse from time to time but generally you have to hope that your win percentage is high enough to overcome the low mutuels you frequently receive. I don't have the temperament for this. I would rather wait for a horse that I can justify going back 5 or more lines on or whose crappy recent form is excusable based on my experience than bet low priced horses. Maybe my win percentage isn't as high as some but my average mutuel is double digit.
Handicapping and betting the horses can be a grind and not fun. Getting beat a neck on a 2/1 horse by some outsider who you can look back on and see the line(s) that would put him right there is torture to me.
You have to ask yourself honestly, what is my risk threshold? Why do I handicap the way I do? What are my motivations? And more importantly, am I willing to change. Because betting these low price horses is like driving in rush hour traffic, most days you get home all pissed off and your family life can't help but suffer.
I'm a senior citizen now and am enjoying my Social Security and Medicare. I don't have to go out there into the rat race to make a living. I receive a healthy income from a company I co-founded in the late 90's so whether I make money betting the horses or lose a little, it is no big deal. But frankly, I hate to lose, have always been very competitive and never have wasted a lot of time on profitless ventures. So my perspective may be a little skewed. However a little introspection is always a worthy endeavor and if playing the horses doesn't bring some fun and entertainment into your life, maybe something else will!