yes they must place at listed level or won .
Or better e.g. group level. Dont qualify a horse because you had a bit of luck with him. Class will catch them out.

In some cases i qualify a higher staked race as in cases like brisbane there are not that many listed and group races and brisbane is a good racing venue.
in adelaide i give the $41,000 race a listed b level which still counts as 2 for win and 1 for place.
I only qualify Perth races on listed or group level as the prizemoney is greater than Adelaide or Brisbane.
I have found over time that putting higher staked country races in is risky and tend to ease up here. Benefits of what I do is that my betting is relatively restricted and a lot of days there are no bets.
You see some odd results i recall in 2007 Our Bahare whose only claim to fame was placing in the vrc derby in 2003 and rarely won a race he won at 36/1 from barrier 1 as the only listed horse in a race at mornington in 2/2007
then followed up next start and won the stoney creek cup at 12/1 I was lucky enough to be at Hobart races that day. But what this says is that "we often know too much" and make decisions according to our memories of a horse or prejudices or hype. The scoring takes the prejudices out and backing selective races lessens the accummulated losses to enable us to take more risks with longshots. Maybe the trainer knows his horse is the best in the race and when they get a barrier it delivers. A simple test can also tell us the same information.

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laurie