How to bet on horse racing
Horse racing in the United States is pari-mutuel. You bet against the other bettors, not against a bookmaker. The track holds the money, takes its share and pays the rest to the winners, and that changes how the odds work.
The pool
Every bet of one type on a race goes into a pool. The track takes a percentage off the top, called the takeout, which pays for the track, the purses and the taxes, and what is left is shared among the winning tickets.
Here is an example, using a takeout of 16 percent for the arithmetic (the real figure is set for each track and each type of bet, and the track publishes it). The win pool is $100,000. The takeout removes $16,000 and leaves $84,000. If $21,000 was bet on the winner, each $1 on it gets back $4, so that horse paid 3-1 and a $2 ticket returns $8.00.
Two things follow from that. The odds are not fixed: they move with every bet until the gate opens, and you are paid at the final odds, not the ones on the board when you bet. And the cut comes out first, at takeouts that run much higher than the 4.5 percent a sportsbook holds on a straight bet. Coming from the sportsbook side, I always thought the track had the easier job. It never has to worry about which horse wins.
Payouts are also rounded down, usually to the nearest dime or nickel. The track keeps the pennies.
Reading the odds
Odds are shown as 5-2, 3-1 and so on, and payouts are quoted for a $2 bet with the stake included, so 5-2 pays $7.00, 3-1 pays $8.00 and 5-1 pays $12.00.
The morning line in the program is the track oddsmaker's forecast of how the public will bet. It is not a price you can take, and I wouldn't lean on it as anything more than a guess about the crowd.
The bets on the card
- Win. Your horse finishes first.
- Place. First or second.
- Show. First, second or third.
- Exacta, trifecta, superfecta. The first two, three or four finishers in exact order.
- Daily double and the pick 3, 4, 5 and 6. The winners of consecutive races.
The first three are the straight bets. Place and show have their own pools and pay less, and "across the board" is all three on one horse, so $2 across the board costs $6. The rest are exotics.
A box covers every order. An exacta box of three horses is 6 combinations, $6 at $1 each; a trifecta box of four horses is 24 combinations, $24 at $1 each. Minimum stakes differ by track and by bet.
The takeout is usually higher on exotics than on win, place and show. The bets with the biggest payouts are the ones the house takes the most from, which is the same trade a sportsbook offers with a parlay. That's why I'd start with win bets: you learn the game faster, and usually at the lowest takeout. Look up the takeout at the track you are betting while you're at it.
At the window
Give it in this order: the race, the amount, the type of bet, the horse's program number. "Fifth race, $2 to win on number 4." Use the number, not the name. Check the ticket before you walk away, because a mistake is hard to fix once you have left the window.
Away from the track there is off-track betting.
Betting online
Online horse betting is done through account-wagering services. You deposit, and your bets go into the track's own pools at the track's prices. Whether one can take your bets depends on your state. The rules for racing are separate from the rules for sports betting, so don't assume one covers the other.
An offshore sportsbook with a racebook is a different thing. It usually keeps the bet itself and pays track odds up to a cap written in its rules. I'd read that cap before betting a longshot or an exotic there, because those are the tickets big enough to run into it.
Set the day's budget before the first race. A card has many races, and the next one is always half an hour away, and the last race is no place to try to get it all back.
For one race in particular, see how to bet on the Kentucky Derby. For how to pick your spots, see horse racing betting strategies.
At the track the house has already taken its share. The contest left is between you and the crowd.