This is a great topic - and one I won't be much help with.

Not being a Horiz player, my best guess is that you must do some studying to figure out an optimum ticket structure for your particular style

For example... using 4 dL-horses would probably be a waste of money.

This is why I look for a single to wager - it keeps costs down and I can still make a little bit of money if all D horses come in.

I play horizontals sometimes finding that single is very difficult and I also find D horses beating me when I try to skinny down the wagers try to find sequences where you can find some value that's what I do when I play them Unfortunately singles are usually D horses

D horses are almost always singles when I play. To pick a D horse to play as s single, I use the AB pace button and look to see if my single has 1's across the board. If so,that is usually my single.

I would guess that one way to get higher horizontal payoffs is to find d's that you do *not* like, and use the other contenders in that race. Or at least use them only minimally when you structure the ticket, suing more combinations with the others.

This is why I look for a single to wager - it keeps costs down and I can still make a little bit of money if all D horses come in. — Bill Rudnicki

I don't see how that strategy can possibly produce long-term profit.

How much is your ticket at $1.00?? Would the following
help?

It seems that a much larger percentage of non-d's and L's
(profit horses) are coming in. And we are hitting a very high
number of profit horses.

If you 1x2x2x2 = $8 and do only the best d or L for the single
and do 1 single per race you, have 4 races x $8 = $32.00
if you eliminate all the d's and L's you have 2x2x2x2 = $16
on 1 ticket if it is all profit horses that win.

$32 + $16 = $48.00 would be the investment. You won't have
a huge hit rate but it should be solid and you should make money.

Another question is, what percentage of pick 4's do I need
to hit to make my psyche comfortable? The higher the percentage
of wins that you need, the greater the coverage you must have.
But, that greater coverage also means less ROI. This is where
you start = I must have a win percentage of ??? And I must
have a return of ??? What is your sweet spot to satisfy both
requirements? Only then do you know how large your wager
will be.

Thoughts??