I can only say that if I entered a horse that was "pretty good" and I did not place but see horses that appear to not be "pretty good" placing, then I'd rather simply write for the sake of writing than have a contest in the first place.

For the record, I've all ready been in these kinds of horse races for the majority of my life, and I've gotten pretty good at spotting where something is not representative but instead has some agenda lurking. One sign is that it violates the statistics one might expect in a reasonable situation.

Incidentally, I hope my speaking of horse racing has not made the fact of your win in a recent contest diminished in any way. You definitely earned it, and should I have placed in the top ten and had your piece won, I'd attribute that to the fact that you are a good writer and in this specific contest the tastes were such that you hit the spot for the grand prize that the judges liked. Different contest, different day, different judges, perhaps our roles would be reversed.

In my horse racing scenario, though, our roles are never going to be reversed, because something absurd has happened in the race itself. It is no longer a contest of beauty, as such. It is a contest of who you know--at least in some major way.