Growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, there are two things that every child has to learn; the first is tying your shoes, and the second is betting on a horse race. Make no mistake, I’m not talking about handicapping—we leave that to old men with tweed suits and cigars. But if you made it to the age of six without even knowing how to place a bet, something was wrong.
The truth is, making basic bets on a race really is child’s play. You pick a horse, decide how much you’re willing to wager, and decide how you want that horse to finish—first, second, or third (win, place, or show, respectively). These were the sort of bets that my siblings and I would make when the Kentucky Derby rolled around that first Saturday in May of every year like clockwork. What the adults knew (and would have happily imparted, had we been willing to listen amidst our excitement over the trampling of the hooves) was that this method of betting, while simple and fun, was pretty inefficient, and there was certainly a better way to go about gambling our allowance.
On every racing program, there are several important parts. The name and number of the horse were all we ever looked at as children. But more important than this are the odds that that particular horse has of winning. They usually appear under the number of the horse. These odds change continuously up until the moment that betting is cut off. This is because the largest factor impacting the odds of the race is the amount of money that is bet on any particular horse. Therefore, while you might be happy making two and five dollar bets all day, when someone else decides to lay down a grand on a race, the odds shift in favor of that horse. The actual math isn’t important here; just know that good odds are when the numbers are closer together, such as 2-1 or 3-2, while longshot odds often look more like 30-1 or 70-1. If you’re playing for the pride of winning, rather than the money, it’s perfectly acceptable to bet on a horse at 2-1. If you’re looking to take a bigger risk, and thus garner a bigger reward, go for the longshot. But most people are probably looking for a gamble somewhere in between.
Another important thing to know is that $2 bets to win are not the only bets you can make. Other bets are a bit more complicated, but definitely have the potential to reap a bigger reward in the end; these are the exacta, trifecta and superfecta bets. An exacta bet is the choice of two horses that will come in first and second. This can be done with or without ‘boxing’ the bet. By boxing the bet, it won’t matter which horse wins and which places; as long as they’re both the frontrunners, you win. Not boxing the bet means that you have to choose exactly which horse will win, and which will place. Trifecta works similarly, except in this case you’re asked to choose the first three horses, and superfecta asks you to choose the first four. Any of these bets are offered boxed or unboxed depending upon the race and the track.
But whether you play the odds, or the names, or the colors of the horse, you have to remember that these are horses—unpredictable animals, and the truth is, anything could happen. So don’t bet more than you can afford, and most importantly, keep having fun.