Racing has a range of different weight scales, and understanding them can be every bit as important for trainers and racing managers as finding the right track, distance or barrier.
Weight-for-age, handicaps, set weights and set weights and penalties are among the most common, and Saturday’s Group 3 How Now Stakes at Caulfield is a perfect example of how the latter can create an opportunity.
Under a handicap, the handicapper attempts to level the playing field by allocating weight according to exposed ability. At weight-for-age, horses are weighted according to age and sex. Set weights and penalties races operate differently again: horses start from a prescribed weight scale, with additional weight applied for particular performances.
That distinction looks particularly important for Bridal Waltz on Saturday.
The penalties for the How Now only apply to wins recorded on or after August 1, 2025. A Group 1 winner receives 4kg, Group 2 3kg, Group 3 2kg, while a Listed winner or winner of an eligible unrestricted race worth at least $90,000 to the winner receives 1kg.
Bridal Waltz won the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield on July 26, 2025.
Six days before the cutoff.
Since then, her performances have established her as one of the better sprinting mares in the country without triggering another penalty.
She ran second in the Group 2 Gilgai, third in the Group 2 McEwen, was beaten just 0.72L in the Group 1 Galaxy and then missed by only 0.03L in the Group 1 Sangster. She resumed this spring with another excellent second in the Group 3 Heath, splitting Oliveanotherday and War Machine. Her rating has climbed from 84 when she won the Bletchingly to 109 now.
WATCH: Bridal Waltz run second in the Goodwood Stakes
Her only win during the penalty period came in Flemington’s Gold Comet. Despite being worth $131,250 to the winner, it was a restricted race and therefore doesn’t trigger the penalty under the conditions of the How Now.
Now compare her situation with Tuileries, who carries 57kg on Saturday.
Tuileries won the Group 3 Newcastle Stakes in March and then added another Group 3, the Dark Jewel at Scone, in May. Those wins fall squarely inside the relevant period and therefore attract a 2kg penalty.
Custom is another example. She was rated just 79 when winning the Group 3 Courtza Stakes at Caulfield last month, but that victory attracts a 2kg penalty under Saturday’s conditions.
Point Barrow has won two Group 3 races during the relevant period, the Red Roses and Don Casboult Stakes. Penalties aren’t cumulative, so she doesn’t receive 4kg, but her Group 3 success still costs her 2kg.
And that is where race programming becomes interesting.
Bridal Waltz is rated 109, has been beaten a nose in a Group 1 and has continued to perform strongly against high-class opposition. Yet because her most recent Group win came six days before an arbitrary cutoff date, she escapes the penalty that several lower-rated rivals have to carry.
She is sitting on the same weight as the likes of Queen Christine (73 rater), Recuperato (77), Terilee (80) and gets a kilo off the 86-rated Miss Freelove.
Put these same horses into a handicap and the weight spread could look very different. Put them into a weight-for-age race and it changes again.
But this is set weights and penalties.
And sometimes finding the right set of conditions can be worth just as much as finding the right race.
Punters have been quick to latch on as well, backing her in a commanding $3.50 favourite as soon as TAB put up a market on Monday afternoon.
Of course,, none of this guarantees victory. But assuming she accepts, Bridal Waltz would be hard pressed to find a more suitable race.
The nominations and weights for Saturday’s Group 3 How Now Stakes
