hi Chad
Sorry for the delay, I've been working on a personal project, One that I hope we will all enjoy.
I suggest you continue to do what you're doing, You might be mixing too many ingredients for your stew.
Pick your pacelines and eliminate to your contenders the way the program is designed for. Folks like Mitch and Tim LT1 and Ted and Rmath do excellent work You should read their work.
The way I work races is based on the book Pace Makes The Race
It is a very simple basic method.
I get the winner in my top 5 contenders just about every race.
That would be great if I bet 5 horses to win
Since I do not do that I need other methods to select the winner of these 5
contenders
That is where I use the match up basics, Can one of the early horses
go wire to wire or will a presser overtake the early horse(s)
or will a late horse overtake everybody?
This is where I analyze the early late difference sticks and the most important readout VDC.
so I kind of do what you do but I get to the final place using a different path
Good Skill
Bill