Simple Guidelines In Horse Racing Betting: Decoding The Betting Jargon

Horse racing is one of mankind’s oldest and most regal sports. Dubbed as “The Sport of Kings”, horse racing has come a long way from its dusty origins and is now a multi-billion dollar industry. What made this sport the powerhouse earner that it is now is due to its inextricable association with gambling. Horse racing was almost wiped out in the 1900s due to the ban on gambling, but introduction of the pari-mutuel betting system helped salvage the ailing enterprise.

Specific track rules may vary from state to state or country to country but horse racing betting all operate under the universal system of pari-mutuel betting. Pari-mutuel, coming from the French term meaning “among ourselves”, involves collecting the money from wagers and placing it in a pool, deducting a certain percentage from it to cover for track expenses, state taxes and race purses, and then distributing the remaining amount appropriately to those with winning tickets.

To illustrate this further is the following example. Let’s say that 20 men bet on a race with each one betting $5. So that makes $5 x 20 men = $100. If the track deducts 20% from the total, the amount left for the winners is $80. If four men won in the race, then they would divide the $80 among themselves. So that would make $80 ÷ 4 = $20 each, thus giving them a $15 profit from their original bet of $5.

Horse racing betting can be overwhelming to beginners because of the industry’s unique jargon. An understanding of those different betting terms would make betting easier for those eager novices. There are many different ways in which to place a bet in a horse race but the straight bets are the easiest to understand. A bet to “WIN” means that you collect if the horse you bet on crosses the finish line first. A bet to “PLACE” means you collect if your horse finishes either first or second place. A bet to “SHOW” means you collect if your horse finishes either first, second, or third place.

While the straight bets are the easiest to place, combination bets and exotic bets may pay out bigger. “PICK 3” requires you to correctly choose the winners of three consecutive races, four races in “PICK 4”, and six races in “PICK 6”. The horses are chosen in advance and the wagers should be placed before the start of the first race. In many race tracks, losing Pick 6 bets would go to a carryover pool which can reach up to a million dollars. A “PERFECTA” bet needs you to choose two horses in the same race and they must finish first and second place in the exact order you specified, while in a “QUINIELA” bet the order may be reversed. “TRIFECTA” requires you to choose 3 horses to finish in the exact order you specified, while a “SUPERFECTA” involves 4 horses. You can also “BOX” combination bets, and you can specify a “KEY” horse in a combination.

Online horse racing betting follows much of the same rules as those in the actual race tracks, so knowledge of the basics will still be very much useful in making strategic bets using internet bookmakers. A precise understanding of these basic terminologies will surely go a long way, and before you know it, you will be betting like a pro.

By: Angela Bryant

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