Moving in mysterious ways - alas for punters
Sometimes this can look like a very easy game. On occasions, it's blindingly obvious that everything points to just one horse.
Like Mysterious Wonder, latest two-year-old off the powerful Kevin Ryan production line which had just struck gold at Royal Ascot.
Making his debut in a Hamilton race the yard had won for the past two years.
Ridden by stable-jockey Philip Makin, who headed north rather than spending another afternoon at the royal meeting.
Backed off the boards too, with the early 3-1 soon disappearing and starting price reporters returning him 4-6 favourite at the off.
And he beat just one home.
It's never as easy as it looks, and there's a reason you rarely see a bookmaker on a bicycle - as was the thought once again when all the big fancies for the feature handicap were floored by 25-1 shot Miami Gator.
Who had to take a new route to savour his applause.
The winner is held back to be last into the enclosure on a track which likes to add a bit of theatre and make a bit of a spectacle of the most minor winner.
There was only a relatively small gap to squeeze past the second to get to the number one spot and there was a danger of the runner-up lashing out and causing an injury so the places have been swapped - not a major thing but a sign that this go-ahead course is keen to get things right.
Interesting to see how the Racing Post appears to be regarded in these parts.
With Derek Thompson sadly otherwise engaged at Ascot and Gordon Brown on Racing UK duty, Lee McKenzie flew up from Southampton to be raceday presenter and struggled to find a Post at Glasgow Airport until he discovered a couple hidden underneath a copy of the Morning Star.
Either they reckon we are fellow-travellers with the paper that follows the line of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Or they are harking back to the days when the Star was as famous for its racing selections as its politics and legendary tipster Alf 'Cayton' Rubin won the Sporting Life naps table four times, notably tipping 66-1 Grand National winner Russian Hero in 1949.