Horse Betting Tips

Horse racing is an exciting sport just to watch; but the real fun comes from participating by betting on the race. The first thing you should know about betting on horse racing is that the odds are based what’s called a parimutuel system. Unlike casino gambling, where you’re betting against house odds stacked against you, those who bet on horse races are playing against each other. Before the advent of parimutuel betting, horse race betting was the turf of bookmakers, or "Bookies". In order to beat the odds, you will need to have top quality horse betting tips.

Under the Parimutuel system, you, and all the rest of the players, are betting against each other instead of the house. Once betting starts, the odds are determined by dividing the sum of all money bet by the amount of money bet on each horse in each category. The categories for betting on horses are win, place, show, exactas and so on; more on that later. The racetrack takes a percentage of the bets and taxes are deducted before the odds are calculated. The sum of deductions from the pool depends on the track and the type of bet. Most tracks take less from the win, place and show pools than from the exotic wagering pools for bets such as exactas, daily doubles and triples.

If you want to make money betting the horses, you need to be a better handicapper than the next guy. Handicapping is the art of looking at the odds and figuring out if a particular horse provides a good betting value. There are many handicappers who offer excellent horse betting tips.

There are several types of horse racing bets. The most obvious and famous categories are win, place and show. When you bet on a horse to win, you are betting the horse will finish in first place. If you bet on a horse to Place, you are betting the horse will finish in second place. Finally, if you are betting on a horse to show, the horse must come in first, second or third. A trickier bet is the aptly-named exacta—you must pick the first and second place finishers. The Trifecta consists of picking the first, second and third place horses accurately. The trickiest bet to win, however, is the Superfecta, which consists of picking first, second, third and fourth place horses accurately!

There are also other types of bets you can place. For instance, the Daily Double is where you pick the winners of two races in a row, typically the first and second races. Along those lines, to win the Pick 3 you must pick the winners of three consecutive races. To win the Pick 4, you have to pick the winners of four consecutive races. The Pick 6 requires you to pick the winners of 6 consecutive races.

Then there’s a box. A “box” is a term that usually applies to Exactas, Trifectas, and Superfectas. For example if you want horses #1 and #7 in a race and wanted to play a $2 exacta, you would have to ask for a $2 Exacta Box on #1 and #7. The bet would cost you $4 and you’d havea ticket with exacta combinations for 1-7, and 7-1.