[Ted Craven]

Welcome navyvet! In almost ALL situations - for myself - I start with the built-in RDSS automated Paceline Selection Strategy tool (PSS), the Default setting, to get a line to represent a horse. Others may use different, though hopefully consistent strategies.

Sometimes I DO double-check the line thus selected when the software algorithm may get confused by stuff like All Weather versus Turf versus Dirt lines, or whether a legitimate excuse in a recent running line means it would be unfair to not go back further into a horse history to represent it. (Situations where I tend to dive deeper into line selection are in 2 YO races, lightly raced horses, horses stretching out or switching surfaces, or when races switch surfaces).

Anyway, that's how I myself pick pacelines - 99% automatically. Plus, some of the readouts I tend to use lately, on the Rx screen (and soon on the Rx+ screen) are NOT dependent on a single paceline, rather a formulaic calculation involving multiple lines (internal CR+ Class rating, CSR Composite Speed Rating) or external non-correlated ratings like Morning Line, TwinSpires sourced ProfitLine or Prime Power, plus the live public odds in the Win Pool and co-related to other pools (a proxy for 'wisdom of the crowd' or all 'inside/non-public' knowledege). This tends to reduce the impact of choosing a single line to rate a horse, BUT - when that single line is chosen by strict formula (e.g. PSS = Default = 'Best of Last 3 Comparable Surface/Distance structure'), then you might as well look at it as not-a-single-paceline IF using that formula is predictive (according to your model-keeping) over a significant number of like events. In other words - no 'judgement' required: just take the line given (though always, 'caveat emptor').

As to documentation - start with the RDSS 2.1 Documentation set put together by Mick, in the RDSS 2.1 Forum Documentation section!

Cheers,

Ted