With a good portion of the United States dealing with inclement weather during the winter months, thoroughbred horses are eating, training, and racing throughout the southern hemisphere. The thoroughbred horse racing season kicks off at Gulfstream park at the end of January and typically runs through the summer. Although horse betting can be daunting, there are many parallels between it and other forms of sports betting. To help you place a wager the next time you’re at the track or browsing an online sportsbook, we’ll break down the major components of how to bet on horse racing.
Horse racing offers a variety of betting options, similar to how certain sports bettors choose sides or totals while other wagerers like parlays, teasers, and futures. As with any sports betting, easier bets have lower odds while harder bets have the potential to pay off handsomely. To get started, make an account at a racebook if you are new to horse racing so you may place bets online. Straight bets and exotic bets are the two basic categories of wagers in horse racing. Straight wagers are straightforward and simple to comprehend, but exotic wagers require more work but have the potential to pay off greatly.
Straight Wagers
Straight bets on horse races come in three different varieties – Win, Place, and Show. They are really easy to use and a wonderful place to start when betting on horses.
Win Wagers: You guessed it, placing a winning wager entails picking the winning horse. No matter what kind of wager you place, the key to successful horse betting is selecting the victor.
Place Wagers: In place wagers, you place a wager on a horse to place second. However, you also receive a payment if the horse wins the race outright. The payments for betting on a horse to place are often half or less than what they would be on a win wager because it is simpler to predict a horse that might finish first or second rather than merely first.
Show Wagers: The third-place finisher is a horse that “shows”. If you wager your horse to show, you will win money if he or she places first, second, or third, similar to place betting. Payouts are typically relatively meager. A correct $2 show bet may occasionally return $3 or less, yielding a tiny profit.
“Exotic” Bets
Horizontal and vertical exotic bets are the two different varieties that are typically offered in exotic betting at racetracks. You must predict the winner of two, three, four, five, or six consecutive races when playing horizontals. Vertical bets ask gamblers to predict the precise finishing order of the winner and runner-up — the winner, the second and third-place finishers — or the first four horses in a particular race. Given that there is a very tiny
probability of getting verticals correct, the payouts are frequently, of course, very substantial.
Daily Double: A two-race parlay is essentially what the original exotic wager was. You must select the winner of two consecutive races in order to hit the daily double and redeem your ticket.
Pick 3: A step up from the double in that it chooses the victor of three consecutive races.
Pick 4: Pick the winner of four consecutive races before the first race in the exact sequence of wins.
Pick 5: Pick the victor of five consecutive races.
Pick 6: What many consider to be the most difficult wager in all of racing requires you to predict the winner of six consecutive races in order to win.
Exacta: Picking first and second-place finishers in a race in the exact order that they cross the finish line is known as an exacta bet.
Trifecta: You must choose the top three finishers in a single race, in that order, in order to hit a trifecta.
Superfecta: Choose the exact order of the first four finishers in one race.
That should get you started on your journey. If you’re new to the horse racing game and still have some questions, we’ve got the fundamentals, some useful advice, and an explanation of the many types of bets covered for you. Create an account at an online horse betting
service once you are familiar with the ins and outs so you can place bets from home.
Photo credit: Shutterstock