Horse racing, horse with negative odds?

Question

In horse racing how do you (the bettor) get paid if a horse has negative odds? Is there some requirement to pay you? Or do you actually loose money? How could that be?

Answer 1

You mean if the horse is a 1-5 favorite, for example? That means if you bet 5 dollars to win, you get back 6 if he wins.....I think.

Answer 2

The lowest the track will pay on a win bet, regardless of how heavy a horse is bet, is $2.10 (you make 10 cent profit on a $2 bet).  There can be the case of a negative pool, where a horse is more heavily bet than this but the track still has to pay $2.10.  In these cases, the track loses money if the horse wins.  However, this is not very common.   Check out http://www.winningponies.com/ for more information on horse racing, particularly handicapping.