Lots of hard study and practice before even putting a bet on and strong discipline.
I was off work for a few months so looked into the horses. I made most of my money on long shots that had been favourably handicapped after running previous 1,2,3 races whatever over an unfavourable trip. After looking further back into the form i could see they'd maybe run well at the upcoming distance with the same sort of same ground etc, so the previous races at a different distance were a bit of a red herring. There are a lot of variables which also need to be taken into consideration but I would've done quite well with this strategy if I'd have had the discipline.