G'day mate,

Maybe my views are a bit backwards, but I usually ignore a race's class classification and look instead at the prizemoney on offer compared to a horse's last race to determine if it will be racing against a better or worse field than last time. Taking that into account, I would say in your 1st scenario that Horse A is taking a big drop in class, and will most likely be up in weight considerably given that it will theoretically be racing against a much poorer field compared to its' last race. I would interpret Horse B to be either up in class or the same, given that its' race is offering $2,000 more compared it's last race (which is fairly slight really) and as a result of racing against a similar to slightly better quality of horses this time round, I'd expect it to either have be carrying the same weight as last time, or have a slight drop in weight.

In the 2nd scenario, I interpret Horses A and C to either be down in class or the same, and consequently they should be carrying either the same weight as last start or slightly up in weight as they're racing against a similar to slightly poorer quality field than last time. Horse B is definately down in class and should be considerably up in weight given that it's racing a much poorer field this time.

So as a rule of thumb:

Drop in prizemoney on offer compared to last race = drop in class = rise in weight to compensate for the advantage of racing a theoretically poorer field
and
Rise in prizemoney on offer compared to last race = up in class = drop in weight to compensate for the disadvantage of racing a theoretically stronger field.

I can't help you with rating, or trying to work out how to value drops or rises in class. It's just not what I do. Others on the forum can likely give you some pointers there. I would suggest avoiding horses that are considerably up in weight; nothing more than say 2kg up from last start. I hope all that makes sense. Good luck, and happy racing.

Silver