It isn’t difficult to see why bettors all have their favourite kind of bet when wagering on horse races. Some prefer the simplicity of a straight and simple bet such as betting on the winning horse, while others enjoy the excitement and even complexity of more exotic bets.
Whatever your preference, there’s something to be said for every type of bet. These are some of the more popular horse racing bets available online as well as track-side.
Betting On The Winner
While betting to win may be as simple and uncomplicated as it gets in the world of horse racing bets, it is important to remember that you will only walk away a winner if your horse of choice actually wins.
Something well worth remembering is that following the crossing of finish line, race officials can still launch inquiries into results. This may be because of something unusual they may have noticed during the race, or even claims of foul-play made by drivers, jockeys, trainers, etc. For this reason, you should wait before you rip your ticket to shreds in a fit of annoyance.
Betting On Place And Show
While online betting NZ and backing a winner may be straightforward, betting on place and show adds a dash of colour and variety to the experience. Even so, the payoffs for place and show won’t be quite as spectacular as when betting on place and show. This is so for the simple reason that more people share in the spoils of these bets than when betting on an outright winner.
Show bets do however come in handy when there are exceptionally good horses competing in a race – especially when those horses are undervalued by the bookies.
Daily Double Bets
Daily doubles are probably the oldest horse racing bets known to man. When placing a daily double bet, the bettor will pick their predicted winner in two consecutive races. These will typically apply to the first two races of any given day.
Daily doubles are popular for a number of reasons, including:
- They often pay well, especially when both races are won by underdogs.
- They can be thrilling – admittedly only to bettors who got the winner right in the first of the two races.
- Not unlike picking an outright winner, they’re also simple bets.
Exactas Or Perfectas
An exacta bet is a winning bet when a bettor has picked the winning horse as well as the runner-up finisher in any single race.
Worth keeping in mind is that should a solid favourite win the race, the exacta will probably not pay all that well. The same applies to when both the first and second-place finishers are heavy favourites to begin with.
Trifectas
Many bettors are drawn to trifectas because of how well they pay. A winning trifecta bet has accurately predicted the first three finishers of a race in sequence or order. This obviously makes the trifecta a supremely difficult type of bet to win.
Exotic Bets
Exotic bets, when struck lucky, pay extremely well. The emphasis is however on “luck”. Exotic bets are generally more for fun than suited to strategy. Some people regard trifectas and daily doubles to be “obscure” enough to classify as exotic bets.
