RACE CLASSES IN AUSTRALIA

Used to be reasonably easy - after you won a maiden, the lowest class race you were eligible for was a Class1 - when you won a Class 1 race you could then only compete in a Class 2 or better - when you won that you moved to Class 3 as the minimum quality race you were allowed to contest - and so it went all the way up to Open Class.
Before that system, it was maiden, progressive, graduation, transition. open and good old Admiral Rouse's weight for age. Then the administrators, realising they were running out of horses with seven day a week races put in our current system so that older, once well performed horses could drop back in class and keep racing and keep the whole seven day a week monster keeping on!
It's why you now have once good horses getting thrashed at Taree et al when they're 9 and 10 years old and should have been retired three years ago :-)

This is our assessment list from best to worst. This is not an "official" list - just how we see things seemingly work out on an average day in, day out basis across all States and our "feel" for how things play out.
As in all things racing, we are also likely to be wrong!

Feature open Handicaps / WFA
Open handicaps
Welter / mares handicap
Class 6
0 - 90 and better
Restricted Handicaps e.g. 1MW, 2MW etc
0 - 80 up to 0- 89
Class 5
0 - 75 up to 0 - 79
Class 4
0 - 72 up to 0-74
Class 3
0 - 63 up to 0-71
Class 2
3YO Open
0-55 up to 0 - 62
Class 1
3YO Restricted
2YO Quality
Maiden
2YO Open