How to Bet on Horse Racing
Horse Racing is one of the time honored traditions of American sports betting. To effectively bet on horse racing, you first have to understand the types of wagers offered. Also, the different types of betting.
Know Your Bets
Every sport has its own rules, so every sport has its own types of bets you can place. Here are the types you’ll need to know for horse racing…
Straight Bet: Also known as a single or a “Win bet”. The simplest, and most common. Place your bet on your favorite horse, and collect if your horse comes in first.
Place: With a place bet, you collect whether your horse comes in first or second.
Show: You collect if your horse comes in first, second, or third. Of course, you stand to win less and less money between a straight bet, a place, and a show.
Combination Bet: Pick anywhere from two to four horses to win in chosen order. Your return depends on the accuracy of your prediction.
Pick 3: Pick the winners of three races in a row. Depending on who you’re betting with, you can either pick three at once, or pick one at the beginning of each race.
Pick 6: This wager requires the player to select the winner of six consecutive races prior to the first race of the pick six. Some tracks place the pick six as the first six races, the middle six races, or the last six races. Many tracks have carry over pools for the pick six that can grow to as high as a million dollars.
Quinella (AKA, Reverse Forecast): Pick two horses to finish in the first two places, in either order.
Perfecta/Exacta/Straight Forecast: Pick the two winning horses, but they must cross in the order you predicted for you to collect.
Trifecta: Same as Perfecta, but with three horses.
Superfecta: Predict the first four horses across the finish line in the right order.
Daily Double: Pick the winners of the first two races of the day. You must place your bet before the first race begins.
Jackpot: Pick the first place winners of six races to share in the jackpot. The jackpot prize may be a sum of money or other prizes, depending on the particular track.
Beyond understanding the bets you can place, all you really need is the betting savvy that comes with experience. Place a few bets, and you’ll start developing an instinct for how to more accurately predict races,
You can bet on horse races online at any number of betting websites, but if you get a chance, nothing really beats seeing the race live, chatting with fellow enthusiasts, and being right there as it happens.
Parlay or Accumulator: A multiple bet. A kind of ‘let-it-ride’ bet. Making simultaneous selections on two or more races with the intent of pressing the winnings of the first win on the bet of the following race selected, and so on. All the selections made must win for you to win the parlay. If a race is a tie, postponed or cancelled, your parlay is automatically reduced by one selection; a double parlay becomes a straight bet, a triple parlay becomes a double. A parlay bet can yield huge dividends if won.
Future: A bet on a future event. At the start of each season, the sportsbooks give out odds for horses to win a certain event. The odds change as the race date approaches and in most cases get shorter, but if you win you get paid at the original odds that you took. This is possibly one of the most profitable bets if you have considerable knowledge of the race that you are betting on including the jockeys, and a good sense of judgement.
Exotic Bets: Betting on unusual events. Some sports books post odds and take bets on a wide variety of other sports related events and activities. A few others will take bets on just about anything you can think of.
Proposition Bet or Prop Bet: An offer of bets at odds and conditions chosen by the sportsbook, usually on ‘Exotic’ bets.
Click here to read more about horse racing.
