The first problem a player must lick is to train himself to find horses really solid, horses that really do figure to win quite apart from the prices they will pay, whether short or long. The second problem for a player is to de velop such confidence in his own judgment that he will not be afraid to back his independently selected horses on occasions when they are going at good prices. All his profits over a period will be found on later analysis to have come from such horses. On the short-priced favorites that he had to take because he could find nothing else worth a bet he will have made nothing material, will have broken about even, or will have sustained a loss.