Competition rules

The idea

For each of the 15 nominated races, pick the first 5 runners home in order (Melbourne Cup: top 6). Points build across the season into a championship leaderboard. It's free and friendly: there are no entry fees, payments or prizes on this site.

Scoring

• A picked runner that finishes in the official top 5 earns points for where it actually finished: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for 1st to 5th.
• If it finished exactly where you put it, those points are doubled.
• Pick every one of the official top 5, in any order, for a 5-point Perfect 5 bonus.
• Races with more places work the same way: base points run from the number of places down to 1.
• A runner outside the top places scores nothing.
• Miss a race? If you don't tip it (or you joined after it was run), you get the lowest score anyone got in that race. It counts in your total but not towards exact picks, Perfect bonuses or tie-breaks.

Maximum per standard race: 35 · a top-6 race: 47 · the whole season: 537.

Lockout

Each race locks at its own scheduled start. You can save and change your tips for a race as often as you like until it starts. Once it starts nobody can change their tips for it, and everyone's selections for that race become public. Later races on the same day stay open until they start.

The website's clock decides. A save that reaches us at or after the race's start time isn't accepted, even if the page was open earlier. Once a race has started its start time can't be moved, so a late jump never reopens tips.

Scratchings

If one of your runners is scratched, your later picks each move up one place and the last place becomes empty. For example, if you picked A, B, C, D, E and B is scratched, you now have A 1st, C 2nd, D 3rd, E 4th and nothing 5th. The moved-up places are the ones that count for exact-position doubling.

• Before the race starts you'll see a “Selection needs attention” notice and can pick a replacement for the empty place.
• If you don't, your moved-up tips stand and the empty place scores nothing (so no Perfect bonus).
• Once the race has started, picks still move up but no replacements are allowed.

Results and ties

Scores count once the organisers publish the official result. If an official result is corrected (for example after a protest), scores are recalculated. A race that is abandoned or declared void doesn't count for anyone.

Championship ties are split by, in order:

1. Total points
2. Most exact-position picks across published races
3. Most Perfect 5/6 bonuses
4. Most points in the feature race (Melbourne Cup)

Anyone still level shares the place. The site doesn't pick a winner between them.

Joining and fair play

• One entry per person per season. You can join late. Races already run give you the lowest score anyone got in them (see Scoring).
• Organisers can correct a tip in exceptional cases (for example, a tip sent to them before the race started). Every such change is recorded with a reason.
• Your username, name and optional picture are public. Your email and phone number are never shown.