Benchmark races and how to read a BM number

A benchmark race is a handicap that weights every horse by its rating: one rated at the race's number carries the base weight, and each point above or below it adds or takes off 0.5kg. A Benchmark 64, printed BM64 in form, puts a horse rated 70 on 3kg more than the base weight and one rated 58 on 3kg less, down to the race's minimum.

The number tells you how the weights are set, not who is in the race, so read it with two others: each horse's rating and the base weight the race uses.

What BM64 and BM78 mean

The benchmark is the rating that carries the base weight. Kembla Grange's Benchmark 64 on 10 October 2026 used a 61kg base and a 55kg minimum, so a gelding's weight there follows its rating like this:

A BM78 is the same system set 14 points higher. Rosehill's Benchmark 78 on 10 October 2026, worth $160,000, used a 60kg base: a horse rated 85 was allotted 60 + 7 x 0.5 = 63.5kg and one rated 72 was allotted 60 - 6 x 0.5 = 57kg. The number appears in the race's conditions line, which for that Rosehill race read "BenchMark 78, Handicap, Minimum Weight 53kg, Three-Years-Old and Upwards, Apprentices can claim", and as BM78 in the past-start lines of a form guide afterwards.

Who can enter a benchmark race

Racing NSW replaced its ratings races with benchmark races on 1 October 2009, and its benchmark policy says they are not restrictive at the top: a horse rated above the benchmark is still eligible, with more weight. Racing Victoria describes benchmark races as open to all raced horses, with no upper or lower limit on eligibility, and Racing Queensland as open to every horse with no restrictions.

The weights do not stop at a set top weight either. Port Macquarie's fillies and mares Benchmark 58 on 10 October 2026 weighted a mare rated 65 on 61 + 7 x 0.5 = 64.5kg, while Victoria caps its Benchmark 100 races at 62kg.

The edges of the field are where the rules bite:

• Racing Victoria bars unraced horses from Benchmark 58 races and puts raced maidens at the bottom of the ballot.
• When a race is oversubscribed, the lowest-rated horses miss out first under the ballot rules of NSW, Victoria and Queensland. Kembla Grange's Benchmark 64 drew 25 nominations for a field limit of 16 plus 4 emergencies, so if all had accepted, the lowest-rated would have been balloted out.

How the weights come from ratings

The sum, step by step:

1. True weight = base weight + (rating - benchmark) x 0.5, less any allowance.
2. Allowances: 2kg for fillies and mares in races open to both sexes, none in races confined to fillies and mares. Three-year-olds racing older horses get an age allowance by month and, in NSW, by distance: from August to October 2.5kg in NSW races under 1800m (3.5kg at 1800m and over) and 2.5kg in Racing Victoria's country scale.
3. Weight carried = the true weight or the race's minimum, whichever is higher, before any apprentice claim comes off. At Saturday metropolitan meetings the rider can instead be declared at the true weight, down to 52kg in NSW and 53kg in Victoria.

The base weight is the number people assume and should not. In the weights and fields Racing Australia published for meetings from 8 to 12 October 2026, the weight allotted to a mature male rated exactly at the benchmark was:

The 0.5kg a point held in all 33 races, all in NSW and Victoria; only the anchor moved. Racing Queensland's Provincial 2 and country benchmark races differ, because of a sliding scale.

Older explanations quote 58kg, the base in Racing NSW's 2009 policy, but AR 167 of the Australian Rules of Racing now requires a top weight of at least 59kg when handicap weights are released. Read the base off the weights page, working it back from any mature male above the minimum.

Worked: a BM70 field and its weights

What the weights column says once you read it:

• The mare rated 74 carries the same 61kg as the gelding rated 70, because her 2kg allowance is worth 4 points, and the colt rated 66 matches the gelding rated 61 on 56.5kg, his 2.5kg being worth 5 points.
• Runners 9 and 10 race above their ratings: Runner 9 carries 55 - 53.5 = 1.5kg, or 3 points, too much and races off 62, and Runner 10 carries 2kg too much and races off 58.
• On a Victorian 60kg base and 54kg minimum, every weight above the minimum drops 1kg and Runners 9 and 10 still carry 1.5kg and 2kg extra, so nothing between the horses changes.

Runners 1 to 8 are level on the official ratings, so the ratings cannot separate them. That takes a view of your own, and horse racing ratings shows how to turn one into prices.

How a benchmark rating rises and falls

NSW, Victoria and Queensland each publish their handicappers' approach, and they differ in the detail:

In NSW a horse can hold separate metropolitan-provincial and country benchmarks, so read the rating printed in its field.

Applied to an illustrative NSW gelding rated 66, which starts by carrying 61 - 4 x 0.5 = 59kg in a Benchmark 70:

After four runs it carries 60.5 - 59 = 1.5kg more than when it started, 3 points for a win and a placing less one bad run.

Racing Victoria handles a horse on the minimum through the rating it actually raced off. In a Victorian country Benchmark 72 with a 60kg base and a 54kg minimum, a horse rated 56 has a true weight of 60 - 16 x 0.5 = 52kg, carries 54kg and so races off 60. If it runs second, the guide lifts its rating half way to that 60, to 58. If it wins, the rating must go above 60: a 2kg penalty takes it to 64, and in the next Benchmark 72 it carries 60 - 8 x 0.5 = 56kg.

Benchmark races compared with class and ratings races

In form, a horse that keeps winning climbs the class ladder whatever the quality of its wins, while every benchmark rise or fall shows up as weight. Australian race classes sets both on the full ladder, and handicap races covers the limit weight and topweight rules of all handicaps.

Mistakes with benchmark numbers and what they cost

1. Assuming the base weight. Compare a horse's 61kg in a NSW country race with its 60kg at Rosehill and it looks 1kg worse off, when both are its benchmark weight.
2. Backing the top-rated horse because it is top-rated. In the BM70 above, Runners 1 to 8 are level on the official ratings. If you take an illustrative $5.00 about Runner 1 for its 76 while your honest view of it is a 1 in 9 chance, the bet is worth 5.00 / 9.00 - 1 = -44.4% per dollar staked on average.
3. Forgetting the win is in the weight. The gelding that won a Benchmark 64 on 62kg is rated 70 after a 4-point rise, so the next Benchmark 64 puts it on 61 + 6 x 0.5 = 64kg, 2kg more for the same company.
4. Reading the number as the standard. The benchmark sets the weights, not the strength of the field: Racing Australia's October 2026 fields had country benchmark races in the 70s and 80s paying less than a provincial Benchmark 64. In NSW they also sit on a separate country scale.

Where B337 fits

B337 adds no view of its own to a benchmark field: it has no ratings, no model and no selections, so judging who is well weighted stays your work. The Terminal sets out the market's view instead: prices from 40+ bookmakers across racing and sports, each in its own column with the best available price on each runner picked out. Betfair back and lay sit alongside, with closing lines showing the last prices before the jump. On racing, the EV overlays turn each price into an expected value judged against a fair price from Betfair's market, an estimate and not a forecast.

Prices are read on a repeating cycle, not tick by tick, so check a price in your bookmaker account before you bet, and some bookmakers skip some races. A free account opens a limited view of the Terminal with live odds; Betfair prices, closing lines and EV overlays start at Terminal View. Bookmaker names are trade marks of their owners. B337 is not affiliated with them. For free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.