How to bet on Horse Racing | How to bet on Dog Racing

**Moderator**

How to bet on Horse Racing | How to bet on dog racing
by NoLuckNeeded.com member anniemac

Your first visit to the horse track and you are so excited. You get your program and pick out your horse. Now, how do you bet your pick? What are odds and how do they pay? What does everything mean?

First, the betting format. There are the standard Win, Place and Show bets.
Win is win and pays 1st, 2nd and 3rd money
Place is 2nd and pays 2nd and 3rd money
Show is 3rd and pays only 3rd money

Next are the exotic bets. Exacta, Quinella, Daily Double, Trifecta, and Superfecta. Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 6.

Exacta - You pick the 1st place horse and 2nd place horse and they must finish in that order.
Quinella - You pick the 1st place horse and 2nd place horse but they can come in in any order.
Daily Double - Pick the winner of race 1 and the winner of race 2.
Trifecta - Pick the first 3 finishers of one race. Must come in in the order you picked. You can box them and they can come in in any order.
Superfecta - Pick the first 5 finishers of one race. Must come in in the order you picked. Same as with Trifecta, box them and they can come in in any order.
Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 6 - Pick the winners of 3, 4 or 6 races.

The odds on a horse/dog are set by the racing secretary and are called the ‘morning line’. A lot of things factor in on his decision as to what odds he sets on each horse. To make it simple, you start off with, let’s say 10-1 on a horse morning line and by the time the race starts, the odds of 2-1. Odds go up or down depending on the amount of money that is wagered on the horse. Here are the payoffs on a $2.00 win wager.

Odds - Payoff
1-9 $2.20
1-5 $2.40
2-5 $2.80
1-2 $3.00
3-5 $3.20
4-5 $3.60
1-1 (aka: even money) $4.00
6-5 $4.40
7-5 $4.80
3-2 $5.00
8-5 $5.20
9-5 $5.60
2-1 $6.00
5-2 $7.00
3-1 $8.00
7-2 $9.00
4-1 $10.00
9-2 $11.00
5-1 $12.00
6-1 $14.00
7-1 $16.00
8-1 $18.00
9-1 $20.00
10-1 $22.00

On an bets that are xx-1, you can be pretty safe by multiplying the odds x 2 and adding the amount of your wager to it. Example, 12-1 will pay 12x2+2=$26. You will always get your bet back plus. On the exotic bets, how they pay depend on the odds of the horses involved. The bigger the odds on the horses, the more it pays.

This is a pretty simple explanation of the wagering format at any horse or dog track in the US. You can bet as low as $.10 superfecta or as high as your pocketbook will allow depending on the racetrack.

To me, it's just as exciting to see your $2 horse win as it is $200 horse. The biggest win I ever had was a $2 Pick 6 ticket (one horse each race) that paid me $1500+ for 5 out of 6.

**Moderator**

Thanks to anniemac for the great article!

Posted:22.07.2009, 09:57

The odds are set by the Morning Line Maker some tracks use the Announcer. The Racing Secretary is the person who writes the races for the condition book and assigns weights in Handicap races If you want to know more feel free to ask. I have been araound the track for over 30 yrs and know it well. Picking winners, well thats a whole different story ..lol

**Moderator**

janders944, GREAT! Thanks! Feel like writing an article about it?
If yes, send me a private message.

Posted:16.08.2009, 18:01

YEs, this was interesting to me...NICE AS can learn something too.

Posted:07.06.2010, 01:25

These are the 3 easy-peasy steps on placing your bet or horse racing and dog racing:

• The dollar amount.
• The Type of bets.
• The horse's/ dog's program number.

Posted:07.06.2010, 10:05

You can also bet like my girlfriend does.

"Oh thats a pretty horse", "I love the name of that horse", or "7 is my lucky number"

I sit there for hours studying the Racing Form and i can't tell you how many times she ends up winning more then me by just using her ways of betting.

Posted:07.08.2010, 20:31

hi gays

Its true Yes its a nice article, this was very interesting to me and to everyone read this article.

Posted:20.06.2011, 17:23

Hi everyone... I'm kinda new here and I saw this..
I didn't know that there's also Dog racing..
How does this works??

**Moderator**

flameofrecca, Dog racing is at tracks in some cities. Use a search engine to find if one is around your area.