What are the odds of someone picking the top four horses in the Kentucky Derby?

Question

What are the odds of someone picking the top four horses in the Kentucky Derby?

Answer 1

Good answer ablair67. That's it.

Additional comment: Hey bob, in the 2005 Kentucky Derby, which was also a 20 horse field, the $1 superfecta paid $864,253. With a 20 horse field there are 116,280 possible superfecta combinations, regardless of what the payout is.

Answer 2

If I remember my high school probablity lesson.

20x19x18x17= 116,280

116280 to 1

I think.

Answer 3

No that is not it!!!!!!  Beleive it or not that formula would work ONLY if it were a randon sampling, which in this case it was not 100% random.  Some horses were expected to do much better than others.  For example:  The odds for the payout for the top four were 29,000 to 1.  So I would figure they were somewhere in this neighborhood.