Types of Horse Racing Bet
There are hundreds of types of bets, some are very simple, while others are utterly bewildering.
The biggest returns for the small punter will come from using combination bets.
The simplest of bets is the Win where you bet on a horse to come first.
An Each Way bet will finish in the first two places in races of 5, 6 or 7 runners, or the first three places when there are 8 or more runners in the race. If a race has 16 or more runners the horse must finish in the first 4 places.
An each way bet would typically pay 1/4 or 1/5 of the advertised odds of the winners odds. The book maker will give out the fraction available for an each way win.
Combination Bets
When there are two or more horses that when combined make a single bet. Should one of the horses lose, the whole bet will be lost.
There are many different types of combination bets:
When you bet a Double you'll pick two horses in two different races. When the first horse wins, the winnings and the stake rollover onto the second race.
Similarly a Treble takes the stake and the winnings from the first race and then roll it to the second and then the third.
An Accumulator is the same as above, but you can rollover the winnings to any number of races.
A Patent bet combines 3 different horses in 7 different bets - 3 singles, 3 doubles and a treble.
The Trixie bet is the Patent without the Singles - 4 bets.
The 11 bet Yankee uses 4 different horses in different races, using 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and 1 four horse accumulator.
Having a Lucky 15 add 4 singles to the 11 of the Yankee.
A 26 bet Super Yankee uses 5 selections in 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 1 four horse accumulator, 1 five horse accumulator.
The Heinz uses 6 selections to form 57 bets using 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four horse accumulators, 6 five horse accumulators and 1 six horse accumulators.
There is also a Super Heinz - 120 bets and a Goliath which is 247 bets.
There are speciality bets, the most common of these is the Exacta bet where you place the first and second horses in the same race in their correct finishing order.
The Tricast is similar to the Exacta, but you would predict the first three horses in their correct order in the same race.
There are lots of other weird and wonderful combination bets, if you know of one place it in the forum and we'll add it to this page.
