Thanks for the feedback. First off I got a lot out of the link you shared regarding previous discussions on the forum. Only there was a link to another article in that which must be now dead.
http://www.mnpaddockreport.com/ Any chance you know another source I can find it?
I want to say I didn't really put a lot into the times and other reported detail about the work. I had always assumed trainers mostly want to darken form wherever they can get away with it and workouts is an area that is very possible as you detailed. And it doesn't mostly matter whether its deliberate form darkening or just what can get lost in the detail of what actually took place. But, you could say most of the same about looking at a race in the past performances. There is a bit more detail and context reported there but you could miss a lot unless you watched the race yourself.
So I certainly believe that you can get a lot more from actually watching a race and a workout and a paddock check. Those activities will always trump looking at data and past performances and etc. My aim for this project is to accomplish some of the analysis with the data that we can get to in a PP. And of course that can always be enhanced with actual observation.
My basic idea is that maybe you can get an idea of the amount of work done by the horse in an amount of time to at least allow you to discount horses which, at least per data alone, don't seem to be getting the exercise they need and maybe their performance should be downgraded. Or alternatively, you see a strong pattern indicating the horse should be in good shape and maybe has a chance to run just a bit outside his ability.
Again, thank you for your insights.