A Group 1 race is a race at the top level of Australian thoroughbred racing, one of those Racing Australia publishes as its highest standard, above Group 2, Group 3 and Listed races. Together those levels make up black type. Racing Australia's 2025-26 list held 76 Group 1 races among 623 black type races. Under the Asian Pattern Committee's rules, an open-age Group 1 has to keep drawing horses good enough to hold its race rating near 115 on the international scale.
The grade belongs to the race, can change from season to season, and shapes how the race is weighted and bet.
Group 1 to Listed: the four levels compared
| Level | Races, 2025-26 | Median prize money | Range | Standard for an open-age race | Most common weight conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | 76 | $1,000,000 | $700,000 to $20,000,000 | 115 | Weight-for-age, 36 of 76 |
| Group 2 | 97 | $300,000 | $250,000 to $2,000,000 | 110 | Set weights, and set weights and penalties, 33 each |
| Group 3 | 174 | $250,000 | $150,000 to $2,000,000 | 105 | Set weights and penalties, 67 |
| Listed | 267 | $175,000 | $120,000 to $3,000,000 | 100 | Quality handicap, 86 |
Counts, prize money and conditions are from Racing Australia's 2025-26 list, and the standards are the Asian Pattern Committee's race rating parameters. Races for younger horses or for fillies and mares have lower ones: 113 for a Group 1 for three-year-olds only, 110 for two-year-olds and 111 for an open-age Group 1 for fillies and mares.
On Group 1 against Group 3, the gap is 10lb of race rating, and the median Group 1 is worth 1,000,000 / 250,000 = 4 times the median Group 3. The committee's rules also aim for more Group 3s than Group 1s and 2s combined, a test Australia's 2025-26 list passed by one race: 174 against 76 + 97 = 173.
In a form guide, a run at these levels shows as G1, G2, G3 or LR after the race's name. Below Listed the ladder carries on through benchmark, class and maiden races, set out in Australian race classes.
What a Listed race is
A Listed race is the black type level below Group 3, and the most common: 267 of the 623 races on the 2025-26 list, or 42.9%. Its open-age standard is a race rating of 100, five below Group 3. The level takes in provincial and country cups such as the Albury, Gosford and Scone Cups beside metropolitan races, and quality handicaps are its most common format.
Racing Australia also lists Restricted Listed races, nine in 2025-26, every one carrying the name of a bloodstock sales company, Inglis or Magic Millions, including the $3,000,000 Magic Millions 2YO Classic. Its Fact Book counts them in the black type totals, 621 races in 2024-25. Like Group and Listed races, they bar apprentice claims (AR 143(3)) and count as metropolitan wins for an apprentice (AR 143(2)).
Who decides a race's status
The Australian Rules of Racing define Group, Listed and Restricted Listed races in Australia as the races Racing Australia publishes as such (AR 2), identified as the highest standard of racing and approved and adopted by Racing Australia (AR 162). That list is what Australian form and the rules recognise.
The grades sit inside an international pattern. Australia is one of six members of the Asian Pattern Committee, a committee of the Asian Racing Federation, with Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Under its ground rules the committee decides Group 1 races, and each member's racing authority normally decides its other Group and Listed races under the same rules.
That changed on 17 December 2025. Citing exceptional circumstances, and the lack of a properly functioning black type quality control system in Australia since 2017-18, the Federation said the committee would for now make every upgrade and downgrade decision for Australian Group and Listed races. It calls the step temporary. For 2026-27 the committee met on 2 July and 3 September 2026 on Racing Australia's applications, Racing Australia accepted its provisional decisions, and the Federation's executive council approved them.
How a race moves up or down
A race's grade is measured by the horses that fill its first four places. Under the committee's ground rules:
- The Annual Race Rating is the average official rating of the first four home that year, on the international scale in pounds, with 4lb added for a filly or mare placed in open company.
- The Pattern Race Rating is the average of three years of Annual Race Ratings.
- To go up, a race needs both figures at or above the new grade's standard, after at least two years run with similar conditions, prize money and date. A new race normally enters as a Group 3.
- An Annual Race Rating more than 3lb below the standard (2lb in three-year-old races) two years running brings a warning letter. Three years running puts a Group 1 or Group 2 to a committee vote, and drops a Group 3 or Listed race automatically unless its conditions change.
An illustrative open-age Group 1, with a standard of 115 and a warning line below 115 - 3 = 112:
| Year | First four home | Annual Race Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 118, 116, 114, 112 | 460 / 4 = 115.0 |
| 2 | 115, 112, 110, 109 | 446 / 4 = 111.5 |
| 3 | 114, 111, a mare rated 106 counted as 106 + 4 = 110, 109 | 444 / 4 = 111.0 |
The Pattern Race Rating is (115.0 + 111.5 + 111.0) / 3 = 112.5, and two years below 112 bring a warning letter.
The committee's 2026-27 decisions show the rules at work. The Metropolitan at Randwick drops from Group 1 to Group 2, after missing its standard for three seasons. The Golden Eagle, worth $10,000,000 in 2024-25 with no black type, becomes a Group 1. In its 24 September 2026 update the Federation also listed the Apollo Stakes as rising to Group 1 and the Adelaide Cup as falling to Group 3. The Sydney Cup and the Queensland Derby were considered for downgrade and stay Group 1.
A downgrade does not rewrite a past win. The International Cataloguing Standards say a horse's status as a Group or Listed winner is read from the edition for the year it won, so the race's grade that year is the one that counts.
Prize money does not set the grade
Purse and status often move together, but the list has clear exceptions:
| Race on the 2025-26 list | Status | Prize money |
|---|---|---|
| The Everest | Group 1 | $20,000,000 |
| Big Dance | Listed | $3,000,000 |
| Magic Millions 2YO Classic | Restricted Listed | $3,000,000 |
| Hill Stakes | Group 2 | $2,000,000 |
| Sydney Stakes | Group 3 | $2,000,000 |
| Queensland Oaks and Tattersall's Tiara | Group 1 | $700,000 each |
The Big Dance was worth 3,000,000 / 700,000 = 4.3 times as much as the least valuable Group 1s. When a rich race carries a low grade, the prize money tells you what owners can win; the grade tells you how good its placegetters have been.
Black type and why connections chase it
A top-three finish in a Group or Listed race is what prints a horse's name in bold on a sales catalogue page, which is where the term comes from. The black type entry sets out how each placing is printed and why a fourth no longer counts.
It matters most to owners and breeders, because the bold print appears on the catalogue page of the horse and of its relatives whenever they are offered for sale, where it can lift their value. That is one reason a filly with a stud career ahead can be aimed at a Listed race she has little chance of winning.
A punter should ask whether the race was picked for its black type rather than because it suits her. She must still be ridden on her merits (AR 129), but a target chosen for a placing can leave her outclassed for the win.
How top races bet differently
Group races change the inputs before the market even forms:
- Weights: 36 of the 76 Group 1s were run at weight-for-age and 24 at set weights, so ability is not weighted away and a standout can start very short. The 13 Group 1 handicaps, the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups among them, are where the weights squeeze the field together. Weight for age explains the scale.
- Riders: no apprentice can claim (AR 143(3)), so every horse carries its full weight.
- Early markets: Group 1s draw futures markets weeks or months out. Racing NSW's betting policy makes futures bets with NSW bookmakers before final acceptances all in, so a horse that does not start loses, while online bookmakers write their own futures rules.
- Scratchings: once connections decide within 30 days of a Group or Listed race that a nominated horse will not start, they must scratch it straight away (AR 69).
Feature races usually draw more money and attention than the races around them on the card. How tight a market is takes one sum to check: add 1 / price across every runner at one bookmaker.
With illustrative prices for two 8-runner races, not real ones:
| Group 1 | Country maiden | |
|---|---|---|
| Prices | $2.70, $4.20, $6.50, $8.00, $11.00, $15.00, $21.00, $31.00 | $2.50, $4.00, $5.50, $7.50, $9.50, $13.00, $18.00, $26.00 |
| Book, the sum of 1 / price | 112.5% | 124.1% |
| Kept by a book balanced at those prices, 1 - 1 / book | 1 - 1 / 1.1248 = 11.1% | 1 - 1 / 1.2414 = 19.4% |
Run the same sum on real races and compare. The tighter the market, the more a big gap between your price and the market's needs an explanation you can point to, a gear change or a track downgrade, before you act on it.
Risk: Betting involves risk. A tight market is harder to beat, not easier, and a well-read Group 1 runner can still be beaten by one the market rated higher. There is no guarantee of profit; see responsible gambling for limits and support.
Group 1 races by carnival
A sample from Racing Australia's 2025-26 list, with that season's courses and prize money. Both change: the 2026 Cox Plate is at Flemington while The Valley is redeveloped, and the spring racing carnival guide has 2026's dates.
| Carnival | Race | Course | Distance | Conditions | Prize money |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne spring | Caulfield Cup | Caulfield | 2400m | Handicap | $5,000,000 |
| Melbourne spring | Cox Plate | The Valley | 2040m | Weight-for-age | $6,000,000 |
| Melbourne spring | Melbourne Cup | Flemington | 3200m | Handicap | $10,000,000 |
| Sydney spring | The Everest | Royal Randwick | 1200m | Weight-for-age | $20,000,000 |
| Sydney spring | Epsom Handicap | Royal Randwick | 1600m | Handicap | $1,500,000 |
| Perth, November | Railway Stakes | Ascot | 1600m | Handicap | $1,500,000 |
| Melbourne autumn | Newmarket Handicap | Flemington | 1200m | Handicap | $2,000,000 |
| Sydney autumn | Golden Slipper | Rosehill | 1200m | Set weights, two-year-olds | $5,040,000 |
| Sydney autumn | Doncaster Handicap | Royal Randwick | 1600m | Handicap | $4,000,000 |
| Sydney autumn | Queen Elizabeth Stakes | Royal Randwick | 2000m | Weight-for-age | $5,000,000 |
| Adelaide autumn | Goodwood | Morphettville | 1200m | Set weights and penalties | $1,000,000 |
| Brisbane winter | Stradbroke Handicap | Eagle Farm | 1400m | Handicap | $3,000,000 |
Where B337 fits
With no ratings engine, model or selections, B337 makes no call on which Group 1 runner is well placed; that read is yours. The Terminal shows the market you read it against: prices from 40+ bookmakers across racing and sports side by side, with the best available price on each runner picked out. Betfair's back and lay prices sit in the same view, and flucs show how each price has moved. You can run the book percentage sum above on a race the Terminal shows, one bookmaker's column at a time.
Not every bookmaker prices every race, and prices are read on a repeating cycle, so a price on screen can trail the bookmaker's own: confirm it in your bookmaker account before you bet. A free account opens a limited view of the Terminal with live odds, and Betfair prices and closing lines 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.
Risk: Betting involves risk. Comparing prices can improve the price you take, not the runner's chance, and past results are no guarantee of future results. See responsible gambling for limits and support.