I have a folder full of 'systems' I devised myself. Every one makes a profit on paper. Races aren't run on paper.
I always win when I am trying out something with fun money,
I started of laying one horse in each race High stakes for low profits and it worked great.....put some real cash in played and was skint within a week chasing losses.
Place betting....... The idea was to back big on good thing to win but just back them for a place. Worked great especially during the bad weather when there were lots of withdrawals. Stuck some money in but no patience waiting for the right horses , took chances lost the lot.
Tried backing laying or place betting depending on the race lost again.
The only one that does work for me is multi dutching........bottled out of the Hunt cup btw.
I start teach day with a bank of *** and have a liability of 15% of my balance per race.
I just click on every horse I think could win and that might be 9 of the 12 runners and might only win 15 quid for an 80 quid liabilty.
The secret is to avoid low class races that look exceptionally open and nothing is really fancied.....................only problem is at least 3 days a week there an abundance of races like that and you get things winning at 160 on the machine and it hits you hard when it happens as you need at least 5 or 6 winners on the trot to claw it back.
The other problem is the massive difference in one's thinking when you are doing i for fun and doing it for real.
It's very much like what you are saying,,,,,,on paper they all win but in reality they seldom do.