Horse Racing Track Ratings: What Soft 5 Means for the Melbourne Cup

What horse racing track ratings mean, and where Flemington stands

Horse racing track ratings tell you how firm or wet a turf course is. In Australia that means a number from 1 (Firm, dry and hard) to 10 (Heavy, close to saturation), and Soft 5 is a track with a reasonable amount of give in it.

Flemington was rated Good 4 on the morning of Sunday 1 November 2026, two days before the Melbourne Cup. Track manager Liam O'Keeffe said 5 to 10mm of rain on Monday would "probably have us in the Soft 5, Soft 6 range" for Tuesday, according to Betsy.com.au.

That figure is an expert's forecast, not a rating. Here's where things stood when we published:

• Official listing: Racing Australia's Victorian track page showed Good 4 for Cup Day after a 9am inspection on Monday 2 November, Melbourne time. Melbourne is many hours ahead of the Americas, so Monday had already begun there.
• Rail: out 3m for the entire circuit.
• Rain: none in the previous 24 hours on that listing, and 11.8mm in the previous 7 days.
• Monday forecast: the ABC reported 3 to 15mm from the Bureau of Meteorology. Earlier reports had quoted a wider range, so the number has been moving.
• Tuesday forecast: the Bureau's Monday morning update gave a 50% chance of rain, 0 to 1mm and a top of 18°C.

The Cup is due off at 3pm in Melbourne on Tuesday 3 November, which is 11pm Monday in New York and 10pm Monday in Mexico City. Our Melbourne Cup guide has the race itself. For the Flemington track rating, trust the official number on the day, not this article.

The Australian scale from Firm 1 to Heavy 10

These are the descriptions in Racing Victoria's guidelines, which say this rating information has applied around Australia since 1 August 2019.

Older form guides can trip you up. The same table shows the previous labels: Fast, Good, Dead, Slow and Heavy. A Dead 5 in an old result is today's Soft 5.

What does Soft 5 mean?

Don't let the word mislead you. Soft 5 isn't a bog: it's the first step past Good, and the description is about give, not damage.

The bigger jump comes at Soft 7, the first grade described as one that will chop up. So "Soft" covers a wide range, and the number matters more than the word.

What is a heavy track in horse racing?

A heavy track is rated 8, 9 or 10. Horses get down into the surface instead of skimming across it, and at 10 the ground is close to saturated.

Soft, deep ground means slower times, and the Racing Post's guide describes heavy as a stamina test that few horses handle well. If the ground goes beyond that, officials may have to inspect it, and racing can be called off. Our guide to why horse races are abandoned explains how.

Who sets the rating, and when it can change

In Victoria, clubs rate their own tracks for race day, and club track managers file the reports. Racing Australia's page sets fixed deadlines, including before 2:50pm the day before racing and before 6:50am on race day.

Those are minimums. If the rating changes at any point, the track manager files an extra report.

A number is not just a feel underfoot. The Brisbane Racing Club describes its process this way:

• A penetrometer drops a 1kg weight 1m onto a rod, driving it into the soil.
• Readings come from 60 positions around the track, with three drops at each, and are averaged.
• Higher readings mean softer ground.
• The stewards and racecourse manager usually walk the full track on race day and judge grass cover, firmness and moisture.

Brisbane adds that a rating isn't strictly tied to the machine, and that it isn't an exact science. Practice varies by club: Flemington's Cup Day entry lists a GoingStick reading and no penetrometer figure. The mix of instrument and eye is the idea.

The rating can move during the day

The 2025 Cup is the example to remember. Flemington was a Soft 7 on the Monday, per the Racing Post, after 28mm of rain in 24 hours.

AAP reported that Racing Victoria upgraded it to Soft 6 on Cup morning because the track was draining well. AAP's race report then had it at Soft 5, while the ABC's 2026 preview gives Soft 6, so even the final figure gets reported differently.

Note the vocabulary: an upgrade means a lower number and drier ground. A downgrade means a higher number and wetter ground.

Why the rail moves

The running rail marks the inside edge of the course. Its innermost setting is called the true position, and "out 3m" means the rail has been moved 3 metres away from that line.

The reason is wear. Horses hug the inside, so that strip takes a beating, and moving the rail puts them on grass that hasn't been raced on.

Flemington raced with the rail in the true position on Derby Day, then moved it out 3m for Cup Day, Betsy reported. In 2024, O'Keeffe outlined a similar stepped plan across the carnival, with the rail going out to 2m, 5m and then 8m. He said it "enables us to get the horses on the fresh ground".

That's why a report lists the rail right beside the rating. The two together tell you what surface the field is actually racing on.

How Britain, Ireland and the US describe the ground

Britain, Ireland and the US describe the ground in words. The Racing Post is blunt that the British and Irish grades don't correspond with other countries' systems, so treat this as our rough guide, not an official conversion.

Britain and Ireland

British Horseracing Authority instructions allow seven turf descriptions, from Hard to Heavy. The clerk of the course reports the going, and the official description must describe the ground at inspection, not forecast it.

Reports can also add detail, such as Good to Firm (Firm in Places), or flag recent watering. British turf courses also publish a GoingStick reading alongside the going. On that device, lower numbers mean softer ground, the opposite of a penetrometer reading.

Ireland's signature word is yielding, which the Racing Post treats as essentially British good to soft. Irish reports can also use steps such as soft to heavy.

The United States

American turf uses words close to the British ones, but the Racing Post warns there can be a world of difference between American and Irish soft ground.

Dirt has its own list, with no direct match in Australia, Britain or Ireland:

• Fast: the ideal dirt surface.
• Good: at some tracks, a surface drying out but not yet fast.
• Sloppy: a saturated surface that horses splash through.
• Muddy: less free water, a sticky and slower surface.
• Sealed: packed down so it can't absorb water. You'll see this attached to a label, as in sloppy (sealed).

So a sloppy track at a US meeting is a different thing from a Soft 7 at Flemington. One is a wet dirt surface and the other is wet turf.

How to read a track report on any race day

Use this order and you'll understand most reports in under a minute:

1. Look for the time stamp. A rating from yesterday afternoon is history if it has rained since.
2. Read the number, not just the word. Soft 5 and Soft 7 are different tracks.
3. Check the rain. Look at the last 24 hours and the last 7 days.
4. Find the rail. Note how far out it is and whether it's out for the whole circuit.
5. Check the sky and the forecast. The rating describes now, and weather can overtake it.
6. Watch for changes. Ratings can move during a meeting, so check again before the race you care about.

New to racing terms? The glossary covers the basics.

What to watch before the Melbourne Cup

Melbourne's rain on Monday decides most of this. Watch how much falls, then how fast Flemington drains overnight, as it did last year.

• Monday afternoon: the day-before report, which should show whether the track has shifted from Good 4.
• Tuesday, before 6:50am Melbourne time: the race-day report.
• Through the meeting: any change after the early races, with the Cup seventh on a 10-race card.

Check the VRC's track and weather page or Racing Australia for the declared rating. Soft 5 to Soft 6 is what the track manager expected on Sunday. Only the official report settles it.