When assessing the form of a horse you'll want to understand how classes and grades work within that jurisdiction so to best understand the class of horses your runners have been performing against.
As a general rule, punters look for horses going into races where that horse is dropping in class. For example, if a horse has performed well at Benchmark 90 level and is dropping to a BM78 you'd expect this horse to have a class advantage over the field.
One thing to remember though, as a horse drops in class they'll likely rise in weight.
Weights are determined by the horses rating that helps the handicapper allocate weight to horses within that race.
To make it even more confusing for punters the classes differ from Victorian, South Australian, New South Wales and Queensland racing.
Because the majority of the spring carnival will be played out in Melbourne we'll start today by getting our head around the Victorian class ratings system.
Refer to the chart below to compare the class level associated with each stage below. Maidens start at number three and a Group 1 Cox Plate is number 20.
Each of the stages below have different levels. For example a Saturday metro BM78 is a slightly higher class than a Thursday BM78.
Maidens (3 - 4.5 rating)
The lowest form of racing for the lowest prizemoney. Horses in these races have never won a race before.
Benchmark 58 (3 - 4)
Normally reserved for country and provincial racing these are the lowest quality race for horses who have broken their maiden.
Benchmark 64 (4.5 - 7.5)
Once again a fairly low rating race for horses that have not won many races and are running slow times. Rarely will you see a BM64 on a
Benchmark 70 (6 - 9)
Off-season metropolitan meetings will sometimes have a BM70 on the card. These races are otherwise found at country and provincial meetings.
Benchmark 78 (8 - 11)
Starting to get into the decent horses now!
Benchmark 84 (11.5 - 12.5)
We're finally above a BM80, these horses can compete in some high quality races.
Benchmark 90 (13 - 14)
Rock solid metropolitan or provincial racing.
Benchmark 96 (14.5 - 15.5)
These races are actually quiet rare these days. Occasionally you'll find a BM96 on a Saturday in Victoria.
Open class (13.5 - 20)
A good quality race that you'll usually see on a Saturday at metropolitan tracks such as Caulfield, Flemington and Moonee Valley.
Group races
They come in three different tiers Group 3's, Group 2's and of course the holy grail Group 1's.
Be sure to also remember that there is fillies and mares restricted races applying to all of the levels above.
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