Horse Racing Bets Range From the Simple To The Exotic

Published on November 15th, 2019 12:02 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


A wide variety of horse racing wagers are offered at the track and online. Betting on horse racing is as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

Most people, when they go to the track, like to bet on a certain horse to win. You have a tip on "Prince Albert" to win in the 8th race of the day? Well, you'd want to put down a "win bet" on "Prince Albert".

Let's say that you want to potentially score a VERY big payday - in this case, you'd want something exotic like a superfecta, which is when you correctly pick the first, second, third and fourth place finishers in a given race, AND you pick them in the correct order.

When you hear about somebody winning $500,000 at the track from a tiny $5 bet, they hit something like a "superfecta".

As you can see from the payoff, correctly picking a superfecta is like correctly picking the numbers in the lottery.

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Let's take a look at the different types of horse racing bets that can be placed:

Win Bet

This is as simple as it gets - who do you think will win the race?

If you like "Prince Albert" in the 8th at 4/1, you would place a "win bet". If he wins, you win.

Place Bet

If you think that your horse will do well but aren't necessarily confident about him winning, you would elect to put down a "place bet".

In this case, if Prince Albert finishes in first or second place, you would win your wager.

Show Bet

If you think that "Prince Albert" will finish in the top three, you would place a "show bet". As long as "Prince Albert" finishes in the top 3, you would win your bet.

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Let's look at the more exotic wagers that are available:

Exacta

With the exacta bet, you are trying to correctly predict which two horses will first 1st and 2nd, and in the proper order.

So, if you place an exacta bet with "Prince Albert" and "Black Midnight" finishing first and second respectively, and "Black Midnight" ends up winning and "Prince Albert" finishes second, you would lose the wager as you didn't predict the correct order of finishes.

Trifecta

Similar to the exacta bet, though you are trying to correctly predict the first, second and third place finishers, and in the correct order.

Superfecta

With the superfecta bet, you are attempting to predict the first, second, third and fourth place finishers in a race, and ALL in the correct order.

So, if you correctly pick the top four finishers and in the correct order, you would be eligible for a potentially massive payout.

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Most people stick with the traditional win bets when they go to the track, though if you are in search of a potentially massive payout, take a look at the trifecta and superfecta wagers.

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