Bellbird Steeple

The card

In 3 days, 28 October 2026 · as at 25 October 2026

Venue: Bellbird Rise
Code: Jumps
Class: Feature
Distance: 4200m
Surface: Turf
Cycle: Day
Each way: 1/5 odds, places 1-2-3

The Bellbird Steeple is 4200 metres at Bellbird Rise at 1.50pm in three days, draw id BEL-R4-A7126A. The lap is 2000 metres with nine fences on the inside line and 380 metres of straight, so the trip is two laps and 200 metres. It is the longest distance the circuit programmes. The book is 116.5 across eight.

Three blocks sit within 20 numbers of each other at the top. Sour Face holds 228 of the 1,000 numbers from barrier five, Half Mast 208 from barrier one and Rail Spike 208 from barrier seven. The last two are printed at the same $4.13 for the same implied 24.2 per cent, which is the plainest demonstration on the programme that a price carries nothing the weighting table has not already given.

Four of the eight have no record on this circuit. Sour Face, Rail Spike, Prize Galleon on 131 and Frontier Town on 56 hold 623 between them and print a dash in the form column and a dash in the record; the four with records hold 377. The fences are rendered and counted, not simulated: nothing falls, refuses or unseats at Bellbird Rise, and there is no jumping rating in the data, because a figure that cannot reach an outcome is decoration.

Field

8 runners · no scratchings on this circuit

No	Barrier	Runner	Jockey	Trainer	Form	Record	Price	Numbers	Implied	Note
1	1	Half Mast	Priya Sandhu	Dorrie Slack-Smith	35510	25-5-3-2	4.13	208	24.2%	Two hundred and eight numbers from barrier one, second block, tied on the block and on the price with barrier seven.
2	2	Marble Bar	Eli Vandermeer	Vera Lindqvist	98367	29-6-3-3	12.81	67	7.8%	Sixty-seven numbers off barrier two, sixth on the table, with six career wins from 29 starts.
3	3	Old Telegraph	Cleo Baird	Coen McTiernan	26837	34-5-6-4	11.00	78	9.1%	Seventy-eight numbers from barrier three, fifth block, eleven numbers clear of barrier two.
4	4	Stockyard Gate	Jonty Mapp	Faisal Karim	41101	43-9-5-3	35.77	24	2.8%	Twenty-four numbers off barrier four, the thinnest block on the card and its thinnest of the thirteen cards still to run, against 317 at Coorong Park two days earlier.
5	5	Sour Face	Kaz Tupou	—		—	3.76	228	26.6%	The top block at 228 numbers from barrier five, 22.8 per cent, with no form string and no record on this circuit.
6	6	Frontier Town	Ruby Nankervis	—		—	15.33	56	6.5%	Fifty-six numbers off barrier six, unprofiled, seventh on the table at $15.33.
7	7	Rail Spike	Noor Haddad	—		—	4.13	208	24.2%	Two hundred and eight numbers from barrier seven, unprofiled, the same block and the same $4.13 as barrier one.
8	8	Prize Galleon	Ora Benjafield	—		—	6.55	131	15.3%	One hundred and thirty-one numbers off barrier eight, unprofiled, fourth block, 15.3 per cent implied.

Prices on this page are the draw weighting in another notation. They are reference figures published with the card, not odds available anywhere, and not a betting recommendation.

A field is fixed when the card is published: there are no scratchings, no non-runners and no starting price. Why that follows from the draw.

The draw

The result is a weighted draw of 1,000 numbers without replacement: each runner holds a block of numbers in proportion to its price, a number is drawn once, and the animation is rendered from the order that comes out. Everything used to produce this race is printed below, so the race can be reconstructed.

Draw id: BEL-R4-A7126A
Engine: GP-Draw 4.2
Seed: a7126a7fbc747b6f
Numbers in the draw: 1,000
Book: 116.5%
Margin: 16.5%

A draw without replacement cannot produce a dead heat, and a field that is fixed at publication cannot produce a late scratching. How a virtual race is decided works through the arithmetic in full.

The form desk

Where the book is thinnest

Half Mast

4.13 208 numbers · 20.8% true
The outsider

Stockyard Gate

35.77 24 numbers · 2.4% true

The house line, which this column does not skip: the result is drawn from a weighted table, form has no predictive power over it, and what follows is an argument about the table. Filed as thin. The full column is in the form desk.

Thin, because 20 numbers separate the first block from the equal second, and because the desk's top block has no profile: Sour Face has never run on this circuit before, so its name carries nothing but a number. That is not a weakness of the card. It is what a card looks like when the form column is genuinely empty, and it is the state the other 20 cards only approximate.

The jumps vocabulary on this card describes the picture. Nine fences on the lap, two laps and 200 metres to run, and no water jump. GP-Draw 4.2 settles the finishing order and the jumping sequence a viewer watches is fitted to that order afterwards. The commercial comparison is Steepledowns, the jumps venue in the 49's feed: Inspired Entertainment supplies those simulations, and its 2023 renewal with SIS-owned 49's covers Portman Park, Sprint Valley, Steepledowns, Brushwood and Millersfield (gambling trade press, December 2023, read 18 October 2026). None of the five publishes a weighting table.

Read the last jumps card beside this table. Nine days before this one, over 3200 metres here, Southern Split held 342 numbers and finished third at 3.8 lengths; Idle Dream won it from 141 and returned $6.03. Stockyard Gate was fourth that day from 153 numbers and holds 24 in this one.

Gus Abernethy, Industry reporter

Form desk columns are editorial opinion only. They are not financial advice, not investment recommendations and not an inducement to wager. A weighted draw has no form to read in the predictive sense; what these columns argue about is the published weighting.

Gambling involves risk. If gambling is causing you harm, call Gambling Help on 1800 858 858 (free, 24/7) or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.