My inner 12 year old just chuckled as I wrote that headline…

Alan’s recent excellent post on gut feelings/over thinking and handicapping inspired the current poll question. I really wanted to do a poll on handicapping style and what y’all use as the most important factors (speed, pace, class, work out patterns, etc) but couldn’t come up with a pithy way to frame it.

My preferred PP is straight up DRF. I haven’t ventured into the pace figs yet and my all Mac home network precludes me from Formulator. My friend Joan likes the Brisnet Premiums with the Prime Power Numbers (or whatever they’re called) but I like to come to those conclusions myself.

I’m still trying to get a real system going with note taking. My current “system” includes keeping all of my scribbled on PPs in several growing piles around my desk. About 80% of the time I remember when I have notes on a race and am able to find said notes. I’ve also gotten better at actually remembering races and trips without the aid of my notes.

My sequence of events are: Handicap, look at ML odds, watch race replays, read/watch race analysis. I don’t always watch race replays or read/watch analysis, but as Alan points out, it usually serves to reinforce what I’ve already decided on… usually.

As a wrap-up for the last poll, Bernardini was your preferred sire for Octave somewhat closely followed by Hard Spun (my choice). Interesting, there were not votes for Any Given Saturday or Street Sense.