

You can choose from a few other exotic bets if you’re feeling solid about your horses and want to win a lot rather than play it safe.
#Horse wager calculator code#
Bettors who picked longshot Country House (65-1) and Code of Honor (14-1) - the 1-2 finishers - won $3,009.60 on a $2 exacta. You might bet an exacta with Fast Sam and I’m Pretty Good, one with Fast Sam and Slow Poke, one with I’m Pretty Good and Slow Poke, and maybe throw in a couple more horses for good measure.įor some bettors in 2019, the exacta paid off handsomely. Let’s say you’ve added I’m Pretty Good to the horses you like. You can bet five different combinations of horses on that $5 bet to increase your chances of winning $100 or more. The win would be significant, well over $100 on a $5 exacta bet if Slow Poke managed to finish first.Īnd here’s some encouraging news: Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, offers $1 exacta boxes. They involve betting on more than one horse, so Fast Sam and Slow Poke would both have to finish in the money for you to win.īetting an exacta means selecting the first and second place horses in order, and it will typically pay much more than winning straight bet tickets on either or both horses. “Exotic” bets pay the most for a reason - they’re hard to hit.

Slow Poke would pay much better on a show bet because of his long odds, but not $100. And remember, he went off at 2/1 odds, so he’s not paying much to begin with. The bottom line is that you’re unlikely to win $100 or more if you bet on Fast Sam to show, because even if he wins or comes in second, you’ll receive only his third-place winnings. A third-place finish pays even less than a second-place finish. Suffice it to say that winnings to place are always less than they would be if the horse had won. The payouts for second and third place finishes depend on how many other people also wager on him to place, as well as which horse finishes ahead of him, so they’re much more difficult to calculate. The betting odds on a horse are “win odds.” This is what he pays if he actually wins. But if you bet on him to place, you’ll win money if he either wins or comes in second, and if you bet on him to show, you’ll win money if he comes in first, second or third. If he comes in second or third, you lose. If you wager on him to win and he does indeed win, so do you. These involve wagering that your horse will win, place or show, meaning that he’ll come in first, second or third, respectively. “Straight” bets are your least complicated option and they’re the safest. They either know something that you don’t, or they’ve had one too many mint juleps. Here’s a tip: If Slow Poke drops from 50/1 betting odds to 20/1 odds or less in a matter of seconds, this means bettors somewhere put down significant wagers on the horse. With the horses, your payout is based on the odds when the race starts, not when you placed your bet. If you place a bet on your favorite team to win the Super Bowl at the start of the season at 20/1 and the odds drop to 7/1 as the season progresses, your odds are locked in. In this way, betting on the horses differs from betting on other sports.

If bettors see something they like in Slow Poke and bet his odds down to 30/1, your $5 winning ticket will pay $155, not $255, no matter what the morning line said. You’re paid based on post-time odds if you win, not what the experts thought when they arrived at the morning line. If bettors decline to wager on him, his odds will grow longer. As more bets are placed on him, his odds will become shorter. Post time betting odds reflect actual gambling activity on each horse. If you’re wagering online, you can check current odds right next to the horse’s name on the race card. It’s that big sign in the infield if you’re actually at Churchill Downs, typically lit up with flashing lights.

Keep your eye on the tote board and the up-to-the-minute odds as the race approaches. As race time approaches, each horse’s odds will shift upward or downward a little as people all over the country - and in the case of the Derby, all over the world - bet on him. The morning line is rarely, if ever, an exact reflection of what the horse will eventually pay if he wins.
