Can someone explain the betting system at Horse Racetracks? I want to bet but i dont understand the system?

Question

Just a explination about the whole money values and Payouts.. For example i saw Big Brown win the Preakness today (future Triple Crown Winner)...

And it said the numbers were like $2.40 for the horse... i dont get it..

Answer 1

The prices will look something like this:

$2 Prices

Results___WIN___PLC___SHW

___7_____$2.40__$2.60__$2.40

___1___________$17.20_$10.40

___3__________________$5.60

$2 Exacta                      7-1  $36.60

$2 Trifecta                  7-1-3  $336.80

$1 Superfecta         7-1-3-6  $1,192.30

The only odds you ever really see at the race track are the WIN odds. Those are the odds you will get paid if that horse wins the race.

Numbers like 2-1, 3-1, 9/2, 10-1 etc. probably makle sense to you - 2-1 odds means you win $2 per $1 wagered. 10-1 odds you win $10 per $1 wagered. 9/2 is 4.5 (half way between 4-1 and 5-1)

Big Brown was the 7 horse. He was the big favorite and went off at 1-5 odds ($0.20 won per $1 wagered). If you bet $2 Win #7 you would get $2.40 when you cashed your ticket.

A little surprising, Big Brown paid more to place than he did to win. A place bet is a wager on the horse to come in 1st or 2nd.

Big Brown paid $2.60 to place.

Macho Again (the 1 horse) went off at odds of almost 40-1 (a long shot). He paid $17.20 for his 2nd place finish. Nice!

You can also place a wager on a horse to SHOW - you cash your ticket if the horse comes in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

Place and show bets usually pay less than a win wager if the horse you pick actually does win the race. The plus side is that your horse does not have to win the race to cash your ticket.

Big Brown paid $2.40 to show - the same as he paid to win - and his supporters would have cashed their tickets whether Big Brown came in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

Macho Again paid $10.40 to show.

Icabad Crane (3 horse, 22-1) finshed 3rd, and paid $5.60 to show.

It is a little tedious to calculate Place and Show payouts at the track. The probable payouts change as the public bets and is dependant upon which other horses also place and show.

Those are the 3 main wagers novices focus on - but I would say ignore place and show betting almost entirely. Maybe take a longshot type horse and bet him 'across the board' (the same as placing a win wager, a place wager, and a show wager). $2 across the board on a horse would cost you $6.

There are other exotic wagers offered - more difficult to hit but larger payouts. I generally focus on win wagers and exotic wagers when playing.

Exacta wagers are picking the first and 2nd place finishers in exact order.

Trifecta wagering is picking first, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers in exact order.

Superfecta is the first 4 in order.

There are a number of ways to place exotic wagers - but basically every permutation of numbers is a single bet.

Answer 2

1-5...means for every $5.00 you bet you get $1.00

5-1 means for every $1.00 you bet you get $5.00, since

you must bet $2.00....5-1 pays.....$10.00 plus your $2.00

back...5-1....is $12.00.......

10-1......is $22.00.....

Answer 3

The odds maker at the track sets the morning line odds.  He takes everything into account like the talent of the horse, the distance, the surface, and mostly: what he expects the betting public to do.  Big Brown opened at 1-2 because the oddsmaker expected the public to put all their money on Big Brown.  Whenever there's a huge favorite in the field, there's going to be a lot of longshots.  That's why the others were all 20-1 or so.

The odds mean how much money you'll get back on your bet.  If a horse is 20-1, you get $20 for every $1 that you bet.  If a horse is 1-2, you get $1 for every $2 that you bet.  You also get back the $ that you bet... so if you bet $2 on a 1-2 horse, you'll get $3 back.  Big Brown went off at 1-5.  That means you get $1 for every $5 that you bet.  So if you bet $5 on Big Brown, you'd get back $6.  

The payouts that they tell you at the end of the race are based on a $2 bet.  So for every $2 that you bet, you get back $2.40 on Big Brown.  If you multiply 2.40 by 2.5, you'll see that the payout if you bet $5 is $6!

Here's an easy way to think about it.  Each betting pool is separate.  Everyone at the track is putting money into one of the pools.  If you bet on a heavy favorite to win the race and he does win, then you and everyone else who bet on the horse to win must split the money from the win pool.  When the odds are lower, there's more people to split the money with and so you get a lower percentage of the money.  When the horse is a big longshot, there's only a few people betting on it to win... if you win, then all the money that was bet into the win pool gets paid out to the few of you who bet.  Since there was only a few of you to split all the money, you get a higher percentage of the money than if you won on a heavy favorite.

NTRA has an excellent guide to teach beginners how to bet on the races.  You should read the entire ntraU section of the website, but here's a couple of links that give you some basics:

http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=ot...

http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=ot...

http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=ot...

Answer 4

A horse Win, Place, or Show.  The amounts shown i.e. $2.40 show if a person bet the minimum of $2.00 on Big Brown to Win they would have gotten their $2.00+$.40 in return so $2.40.  This race was a terrible example since the odds were so in his favor I think he was like 1-5 or something like that.  

If odds of a horse are 10-1 and you bet $2.00 that they will win you will get $10 for every dollar you bet so that would be $20 you win.