I'm not in the teaching business and I'm not trying to lead anyone. If I would change anything in the opening post, I would rank the factors in terms of importance, not chronologically like I had them listed.
1. Unusual performance or figure out of the norm. We're not talking about lightly raced horses here who could easily keep on improving. Its the 5 or 6YO who runs the fig of its life.
2. Very live on the board, especially early on but maintains surprising betting action from opening to closing odds.
3. Sharp improvement in early speed.
4. Sharp paddock and post parade. This in and of itself is NOT a sign a horse is drugged by any means. If anything it may be a function of point number two; live horses on the board almost always look sharp, and that includes a lot of legit, on the improve horses. But if the 6YO bum has just run like the second coming of Ghostzapper, its just a bit more evidence something may have been up.
5. Jock switch to better rider. Or a switch to a rider who's won with the horse before. This isn't corrupt but just a sign of positive trainer/owner intent to get the job done.
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