The Kentucky Derby is on May 5th 2018 and is followed by the Preakness and Belmont often called the Triple Crown. However in America there are a lot of horse tracks still in operation and even though horse wagering has become less popular lately it is still big business for Sports Books and Tracks.
First of all you need to ask a question at any place that has horse wagering are they offering PARIMUTUEL or NON-PARIMUTUEL wagering. There is a big difference on how the payouts work with these two ways of horse wagering. Most casinos in Nevada that have horse wagering offer Parimutuel wagering. Most race tracks that offer satellite wagering have Parimutuel.
However if it is NON-PARIMUTUEL the pay outs are limited meaning that if your wager hit you may only get paid up to a certain amount on the wager.
That is another thing often sports books in Nevada offer multiple tracks to wager on and tracks and places outside of Nevada that offer horse wagering also offer satellite wagering on multiple tracks.
So with the Kentucky Derby coming up here are some common wagers you could place on the race:
WIN: This wager means the horse you pick must come in 1st place.
PLACE: This wager means the horse you pick can come in 1st or 2nd place.
SHOW: This wager means the horse you pick can come in 1st or 2nd or 3rd place.
EXACTA: This wager means you pick 2 horses and they must come in 1st and 2nd place in the exact order you place them.
TRIFECTA: This wager means you pick 3 horses and they must come in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the exact order you place them.
SUPERFECTA: This wager means you pick 4 horses and they must come in 1st,2nd,3rd, and 4th place in the exact order you place them.
These wagers usually have a minim wager amount of $2.00
OTHER WAYS YOU CAN WAGER:
On EXACTAS, TRIFECTAS, and SUPERFECTAS you can what is called BOXING the horses you pick.
What this does is allows the horses you pick to come in an any order as long as they are the horses that you have wagered. These types of wagers cost more money.
HIGH 5: Some tracks and races offer a wager called High 5 where as you have to pick 5 horses and they must come in the order you pick them from 1st to 5th place.
You can box a High five wager also.
PICK 4 or 6 or PICK 8: This wager has you pick a horse or horses from each race 1 through 4 or 1 through 6 or 1 through 8. The horse must win the race in each race but you can add multiple horses to the wager for each race. These wagers typically pay more but the wager can cost a lot as well.
.10 CENT WAGERS: Some tracks offer .10 cent wagers on Trifectas, and Superfectas, and on the Pick 4,6,or 8 race pick wagers. These wagers pay less but you can mix more horses or do a cheaper wager this way but of course the pay out will be less.
When you go to the window you need to know WHAT TRACK, WHAT RACE and the NUMBER of the HORSE or HORSES you want to wager on!
POST TIME: A small clock is usually shown on every race it tells you the time the race will start this is usually shown somewhere on the top of the screen. You must place you wagers before the horses are in the gate.
HORSES ODDS: All tracks show the odds of the horses the lower the odds means that horse is favored or is being wagered on therefore lowering the odds, the higher the odds means the horse is a underdog. All tracks show the odds up to the POST TIME. They can change and even if you wager a horse you get the odds that it is at when the gate opens and the horses start to run.
THANKS THE OUTLAW MICHEAL TOMSIK and HAVE FUN WAGERING HORSES!