Don't know too much about classes of races and things, but alot of classy horses at least, are setting for a future race. This must mean that they are not at their peak no matter how good.

At what point do horses cross the class line where they are able to race to gain fitness as opposed to race to win?
Obviously some horses are going out there to try and win every race, but surely others are just there to gain fitness in a race situation.

Am I right?
Do trainers aim for a race win, or to complete a goal for their campaign?

Are people here that rate horses on their previous runs taking into account that they might be building up to something, or just presuming that the horse was set up to try and win each race.?

I have heard fitness levels mentioned before, but not very often....
These are genuine questions to try and learn more about the wonderful world of racing....