A Maiden race is intended for horses that has yet to win.
A Class 3 race is intended for horses that have won 3 or fewer races.
If we keep going up the order of class of race we'll end up at the Group 1 race on top.

Can someone tell me exactly where those pesky 0MW (mw = metro win), 1MW, 2MW, 3MW, and 0MWLY (mwly = metro wins last year), 1MWLY, 2MWLY and 3MWLY races fall in the order of Class races (eg. - between Class 5 and Class 6 races)? Does someone know where I can find a complete list of the race types in order from Maiden to Group 1?


Also, while on the subject of class, can someone tell me if the following hypothetical horse is either coming up or going down in class:

Current race: Class 3 with $60,000 prizemoney at a metro track
Previous race: Class 6 with $10,000 prizemoney at a country track

At first glance it would seem the hypothetical horse is coming down in class, but considering the prizemoney, it should be facing far stiffer competition in the current race compared to its' previous.


Any shared thoughts on these questions would be greatly appreciated, as I fear I may not sleep until my curiousity is satisfied. Thanks guys.http://www.propun.com.au/racing_for...ilies/smile.gif

All those classes would be rated above C6 level, in theory at least anyway, but sometimes that may not be the case as the race class description can be very misleading - C6's, say in Perth, may well only be C1's, C2's etc. 0MW races may include horses that have won on a city track but those races are not considered metro wins because of the prizemoney won.

In your hypothetical the best way of judging if the horse is going up & down in class is the horse's weight - if it is going up in weight then it is probably going down in class, while if down in weight then it is probably going up in class (based on minimum weights). However, allowances would need to be made for any penalities the horse would have recieved if it had won or been placed at its previous run.

Silver and Sand,

The whole thing is an utter dog's breakfast, and they know it.

We need a set class system, not this one here - that one there etc.

How trainers navigate this system is beyond belief.

0mw means the horse is a city maiden.

0mwly means the horse must not have won a city race last year, but could have won 5 on end the year before....or none.

Current race: Class 3 with $60,000 prizemoney at a metro track
Previous race: Class 6 with $10,000 prizemoney at a country track

To answer your question, a class 3 at a city track is usually far stronger than a class 6 or sometimes even an Open at a country track.

It's not just tricky trying to line up city to country, but once you get into lining up State by State, it becomes a living nightmare.

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Silver,

As Chrome Prince said, its a living hell trying to figure the system out. But as a general rule i take 0MW races as being on par with a C5 (Metro track) and a 1MW as being closer to a C6 (Metro track). As for the 2MW and 3MW races, they tend to approach to Welter/Open rating.

The 0MWLY and 1MWLY races, especially in Brisbane, can tend to be filled by horses that are past their peak, but were once good class town horses. For that reason, its difficult to class them according to the standard scale.

That being said, as La Mer said, it is all theoretical - you really have to try and use your judgement as to the true standard of the race. A 0MW race can have many 'promising' young horses going around while a 2MWLY race can have a bunch of 'has-been' horses who are clearly past their best.

In the end, you will have to use your instinct and judgement to gauge the standard of the race. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because that can be where you gain an advantage over the 'market'. The key, for mine, is to just get some practice at recognising the better class races from the rest.

Re your hypothetical horse, as i said above, i believe you would have to judge the standard of the other horses in the races before saying what the class change is. I have seen open and C6 races at places like Ipswich and Toowoomba full of horses who are easily town quality but are using the race as a springboard for other races. Equally, we have all seen these 50k and 100k maiden races around the place recently, which are won by, with all due respect, horses that aren't superstars. These types of races only serve to strengthen my view that using prizemoney as a selection method is seriously flawed (but thats a discussion for another day ).

In general, you should look at each race as a separate event and decide what class you perceive the horses are, while only paying only fleeting attention to the official class rating.

I know that wasn't exactly an 'up or down' answer, but that's a really grey issue in my view . If you are looking for a quick answer, Chrome is right in saying that Metro races are typically stronger than provincial/country races.

Hope this helps,

Sven

I agree about the dogs breakfast. A class 3 in Newcastle or Mornington is a lot different to a C3 further afield. The 2 horses going up and down in class mentioned above would depend on number of runs for each [average prize-money per starts].

I find the easiest way to determine class across all race tracks is to use the prize money as an indication of class. A $12k C3 is useually better than a $5k C6 elsewhere. It doesn't always pan out but in a dog's breakfast situation, it's often a better guide than anything else. The up/down in weight mentioned by Chrome is also a good general rule of thumb..

Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys. Much appreciated. It's a shame the true class of a race has to be so hard to figure out sometimes. Oh well. At least I'll be able to get a good night's sleep now.