G'day Grim,

All of those abbreviations are for the types of races. I'm not sure which website or paper you got those from but basically the "G" would represent "Group", the "C" = Class, "LR" = Listed Race, which is sometimes referred to a Group 4 race, "NMW" or "0MW" = No or Zero Metro Wins, and "2MWLY" = 2 Metro Wins Last Year.

With all these different ways of trying to classify each race, it can be hard sometimes to know the true quality of a race. Here's a rough list in descending order of significance:

Group 1 (eg. Melbourne Cup)
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4, also called Listed
Open
Class 6
Class 5
Class 4
Class 3
Class 2
Class 1
Maiden

I usually equate 0MW, 1MW, 2MW, 0MWLY, 1MWLY and 2MWLY races with being similar to a Class 5 or 6 race. There's also some races called "Quality" and "Flying" races. I believe they're considered to be somewhere between an Open race and Group 4 race, though I could be wrong.

To be eligible to enter a Maiden race, a horse must not have won a race before. To enter a Class 2 race, a horse must not have won more than 2 races before; it may have yet to win a race, may have won 1 race or even 2, but no more. And so on and so forth. When we get up to the Open and Group races, more parameters come into play. There may be minimum prizemoney earned restrictions before eligible to enter, and other rules.

Just a word of advice. I think the prizemoney on offer is a better guide to the quality of horses in the race. Sometimes you will notice a fairly lowly Class 3 race with $60,000 prizemoney, yet next week there will be an Open race with only $40,000 prizemoney. My point is, if an Open race is supposed to be better than a Class 3 race, why are there are times when prizemoney doesn't reflect that? You need to think like an owner. If you had a really good horse, you're going to enter it in the most appropriate race that offers the most money, so if your horse is eligible to either that Class 3 race or that Open race, you most likely going to enter it into the race with the most money, which was the Class 3 race. This is why I feel it's better to rank races by their Prizemoney, not Class.

Hope that helps.

__________________
...time held me green and dying, though I sang in my chains like the sea. - Dylan Thomas