I personally trial my horses on Good or worse. Good to Firm or better I don't even bother. This is because the odds of the tracks at the beginning of the season favour softer grounds. So I made a conscious decision to go that path. The US however has heaps of Good or better tracks during the season even though there are a lot of dirt tracks. I think you will find the odds of the tracks in the SOPL info somewhere? In fact here is the link.
http://sopl.info/node/39
Actually I'll past it here as well.
Part 9 - Weather Conditions
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 08:10 — editor
In Seasons gone by we had weather conditions decided at the start of the season, or had a small range used. To improve the realism and uncertainty of weather, we've broadened the options, and you won't know what weather will actually appear, until one week before race day.
Below is a list of the percentages used in calculating weather conditions. These denote the percentage chance of that ground appearing for weeks listed with those conditons.
Winter - Track variations (Heavy 40%, Soft 40%, Good-Soft 15%, Good 5%):
Winter will cover late Dec to early Feb. There is a heavy bias toward soft and heavy here with just a 5% chance of the track being good. No possibility whatsoever for a track rated good to firm or better.
Winter/Spring - Track variations (Heavy 10%, Soft 25%, Good-Soft 40%, Good 20%, Good-Firm 5%):
Winter/Spring will cover late Feb to Early Apr. There is a bias towards good to soft with just a 5% chance of the track being good to firm. No possibility whatsoever for a track rated firm or better.
Spring - Track variations (Heavy 5%, Soft 10%, Good-Soft 20%, Good 45%, Good-Firm 15%, Firm 5%):
Spring will cover Late Apr/May. There is a bias towards good with up to 6 different conditions possible. No possibility whatsoever for a track rated hard.
Spring/Summer - Track variations (Heavy 2%, Soft 6%, Good-Soft 12%, Good 45%, Good-Firm 23%, Firm 10%, Hard 2%):
Spring/Summer will cover June. There is a bias towards good/good to firm with all conditions possible from heavy to hard.
Summer - Track variations (Heavy 1%, Soft 4%, Good-Soft 10%, Good 28%, Good-Firm 36%, Firm 14%, Hard 7%):
Summer will cover July and Early August. There is a bias towards good to firm with all conditions possible from heavy to hard.
Spring/Summer - Track variations (Heavy 2%, Soft 6%, Good-Soft 12%, Good 45%, Good-Firm 23%, Firm 10%, Hard 2%):
Spring/Summer will cover late Aug/Sep. There is a bias towards good/good to firm with all conditions possible from heavy to hard.
Autumn - Track variations (Heavy 5%, Soft 10%, Good-Soft 20%, Good 45%, Good-Firm 15%, Firm 5%):
Autumn will cover Oct/Early Nov. There is a bias towards good with up to 6 different conditions possible. No possibility whatsoever for a track rated hard.
Autumn/Winter - Track variations (Heavy 10%, Soft 25%, Good-Soft 40%, Good 20%, Good-Firm 5%):
Autumn/Winter will cover mid Nov to mid Dec. There is a bias towards good to soft with just a 5% chance of the track being good to firm. No possibility whatsoever for a track rated firm or better.
Correct me if I'm wrong Rich but you still use this system don't you?
Hurricane, if you look at the schedule that Rich provided you will see the column showing the seasons. You use this to determine the odds. As an example I have listed Ascot week 7.
7 1 75000 Coventry Stakes Spring/Summer Ascot 2yo All Sexs Group 2 Open 6f
You will note that it is in the
spring/Summer catagory. So the odds do very much favour good or better but as in real life anything can happen.
Cheers