JB,
Along the 40+ year long road,I have met and interacted with math guys,pattern guys, stat guys,trip guys,sheet guys.I come away with the understanding that all of it counts some of the time, none of it counts all of the time.Don\'t laugh but for 600 races, the computer geeks randomly picked winners from a hat in one exercise, using the hat picks as a placebo vs another system based method of picking winners.
On the reasonable \"wash\" comment you make.I can only say that without running a very strict disciplined filter, you dont get what I consider to be validation, notwithstanding sample size.
I dont look at TP but I\'ll look at the method you arrive at it, it may be perfectly ok or possibly have holes.
Mike