The 2 primary concerns I’d ask myself when placing a Placepot bet would be:
What horses will other gamblers select? Mostly the top 3 in the betting forecast prices, I’d think. Or they will select horses with consistent form figures of a lot of 1st 2nd and 3rd places.
I would then try to discover one or two races where I think 2 or more of the top 3 in the betting forecast prices might be unplaced. These would be races where I could choose bigger priced value outsiders to place. Maybe the more competitive races would be better for these selections such as handicap races.
It is not worth trying to find longshots to be placed in say maidens or claimers, because these races do tend to be won by the market leaders. Even if you do manage to successfully pick a bigger priced horse to place, the benefit of selecting it is likely to be diluted if the other 2 places are filled by market leaders. This makes trying to be clever in that type of race potentially unprofitable.
So my initial thoughts are that it’s OK to select some favourites or 2nd favourites, as long as you can find at least one race where other placepot bettors are likely to get knocked out.
The correct thought process is not to think what horses will be placed in the 6 races, but rather, in what races will the market leaders not be placed, thus knocking out a large number of other placepot punters slips
Remember other punters are your opponents, not the Tote. The way to go is to think about what are your competitors’ weaknesses and exploit them.
This approach is different to using your own strengths and correctly selecting horses you think will place. You could correctly select six 50/1 shots to place, but get a small pay-out because the favourites were also placed in every race
It’s an act between choosing selections you think will be placed but not choosing too many horses that other gamblers think will place. The actual value can be found not in a successful bet, but in the successful bet when very few other gamblers also win the bet! It’s a bit like the football pools – you must not pick the selections that the general public choose, but simultaneously you need to choose the successful horses.