Pretty much a joke if Sir Dex doesn't get in after the prep races he has run. He's beaten some very good ones and only has the one bad race as I recall(last out).

SS it is a joke if either of those horses don't make the field they are both top quality stayers and are both very realistic chances in this race but if they both get in they are only just going to scrape in.

I really think that they should do everything in their power to get the best in form horses into the big races. For example, perhaps the first 4 or 5 horses home in the Turnbull Stks and Yalumba Stks plus the winners of a couple of other races on Oct 1 & 8 should all be exempt from the ballot. It would be ridiculous if Confectioner and/or Sir Dex don't get in and some of the other non performing qualified horses do.

No Sir Dex has not run a bad race. His last start was good. It is a joke if Sir Dex does not get into the field. He should be in the top 4 in the betting not struggling for a spot in the field. Our WFA ranks are poor, and he has stood up as a shining light as has Confectioner. Aside from these two, give some of the youngsters a chance, railings etc, rather than including horses like plodder bullet. I wouldn;t have a clue about how the process and am just putting forward this opinion from a fair/unfair rationale, but what has plod bullet done to get into the field? Count Ricardo, Grey Song, Swift Tango, Moscow ballet the list goes on of hacks who shouldn;t be there.

Well, basically it works like this: The winners of a handful of races are exempt from the ballot and can run as long as their owners/trainers want them to. They're the first three on the order of entry list - El Segundo, Leica Falcon, Perlin. Then, the rest of the order is based purely on the weight assigned to them by the handicapper. This whole system seems a bit silly really because it's all based on the handicapper's original opinion of the horses a couple of months before the race is actually run.

The higher up the horse's handicap weight is compared to weight for age, the more likely it is to gain a start. That's why owners/trainers will often actually want their horses to be given a penalty by the handicapper after winning one of the lead up feature races. It's because it will raise their horse up the order of entry.

WFA for Hollow Bullet is 54 whereas WFA for Confectioner and Sir Dex is 58. That means that on the weights, Hollow Bullet is just 2.5 kgs below WFA, and Sir Dex and Confectioner are 5 and 5.5 kgs below. That's why they're so far down the list.

Hope that explains it a bit for you.