Bet on Horse Racing

Here are a few tips on how to improve your betting skills the next time you head to the track!

1. Your Not Perfect- no one is perfect, you can’t pick the winner of every race. So don’t bet every race if you can’t find a horse you like in a certain race skip over it, their will be another race in 20 minutes so you don’t need to be putting money down on every race.
2. Track Conditions- pay attention to track conditions, off tracks (sloppy, soft) can be some of the most profitable days of the year if your paying attention, weather might be the most influence part of a race besides the horses themselves and if your paying attention you could capitalize on that.
3. Find a Bias- almost every track has some sort of bias, sometimes closers run well there, sometimes out wide coming down the stretch seems to help, sometimes along the rail is quicker. Pay attention to these things, write down a quick note after each race of what the winner did during the race and see if you can find a pattern developing. Finding a bias can turn the tables on the house.
4. Always Bet the Same- Betting $2 on long shots and $20 on favorites makes zero sense. If your confident enough in a long shot to bet it, bet it the same as you would if he was the favorite. winning with a 10-1 but only having $2 on it equals a $22 win. if you bet a 2-1 favorite at $20 and it loses your back at even already despite winning with a 10-1 horse.
5. Focus on One Track- Focus on one track to begin with. That will make things like finding a bias easier. If you are juggling 2-3 tracks at a time it is hard to pay enough attention to each track to really find out the information you need to know.
6. Do Your Homework- If your serious about betting do some homework before getting to the track. Sit down with your form the night before, look it over, watch some race replays online. That way on race day your not scrambling between races to take in as much info. It will make the experience at the track much more enjoyable.
7. Watch the Carryovers- Watch for big pick 6 and 7 carryovers. They can climb into the high $100,000s and even into the millions once and awhile. When they start reaching those levels its not a bad idea to spend an hour looking over the card and throwing a few bucks on it, one day you might get lucky.

Looking to take your betting on the road to Sin City? Here is a list of the top 5 sports books in Las Vegas and why.

1. Wynn

The Wynn sports book is just how you would imagine it when thinking of something related to the Wynn, it’s all about luxury. All the private booths have flat screen TVs and leather chairs. You can order food from the adjacent restaurant and have it brought right to you. They are defiantly doing things right over at the Wynn.

2. Ceasars

Ceasars has a great feel to it, it has a nice wide open feel. They give you the option of sitting in a nice comfortable leather chair (be careful you don’t fall asleep) to watch all the big screens. Or you can sit at a desk with your own private flat screen TV. They have great drink service and a food court just behind the book for a quick place to eat between races.

3. Mandalay Bay

The Mandalay Bay sports book is another classic. Their is nothing overly special about it but everything about it is the way you would want it. Comfortable, good service, great food, big room, lots of screens pretty much everything you need in a sports book is here.

4. MGM Grand

Another great Vegas sports book. They have a reverse amphitheater type layout with very comfortable leather seats (seems mandatory to have leather seats if you want to be a top sports book). The sports part and racing part are separated into different parts of the room and MGM also offers skyboxes for the high rollers. So this book my be closer to the top of the list if you are a high roller. They have good drink and food service.

5. Ballys

The Ballys sports book has a very large “stadium seating” they have room for almost 300 people and have 210 individual televisions, 20 35-inch screens in the sports lounge, and 11 big screens. The room has a great laid back feel to it. This would be the perfect place if your not that into the luxury “high roller” feel, the look of the place is awesome but compared to the likes of the Wynn its scaled back a little.

Hopefully you have read the “Betting Tips” and the “Different Types of Bets” pages. Now your ready to make a bet lets figure out how to do that.

1. First off you need to pick a winner obviously.
2. Once you’ve got your winner picked it is time to place the bet, you have two options at most tracks. Either a cashier or video teller. They both work in basically the same way except you do the actual work with the machines and obviously the other way the cashier does the work for you.
3. Once you’ve picked a place to bet (we are going to pick cashier for this) then you need to tell them your bet. To do that you need to start off by telling them the name of the track, number of the race (if its the current race you probably don’t need to but if its 3 races ahead then you defiantly will) then tell them the amount you are betting ($1, $2 whatever) the type of bet (win, pick3) and then the horse numbers involved in the bet (if its an exactor 1,2/1,2,5 you would say “1 2 with 1 2 5″)
4. So a complete quote of a bet would sound something like this “I would like to bet Churchill Downs, Race 3 $1 exactor 1 2 with 1 2 5″
5. Once you have completed your bets and paid you will receive your slip(s) with your bets on them, before you leave the betting window make sure and check your picks, cashiers are human too, they will make mistakes and you don’t want to find that out after picking a $500 triactor and finding out your bet was made wrong.

Big Brown is a big Bay Colt out of the sire Boundary and mare Mien. He was purchased at the April 2007 Keenland Two-Year-Olds in training sale for $190,000 by UPS Operator Paul Pompa Jr. He named the Horse Big Brown after UPS. As a two year old Big Brown ran 1 race. A maiden special weight at Saratoga on September 3rd, 2007. He was ridden by Jeremy Rose to a 11 and a quarter length victory. After the race IEAH Stables approched Pompa about purchasing stake in the horse which Pompa agreed to. After the purchase Big Brown was sent to the Palm Meadows Thoroughbred Training Center in Southern Florida where Richard E. Dutrow Jr would take over the training duties.

As a three year old Big Brown debuted in an allowance race at Gulfstream Park with a 12 and three quarter length victory. After that race Dutrow and the ownership group decided it was time to chase the Kentucky Derby. So his next start would be in the Grade 1 Florida Derby. In the Florida Derby, ridden by Kent Desormeaux Big Brown was able to win by 5 lengths from the 12 post.

In only his fourth career start Big Brown was running in the Kentucky Derby. Again, just like in the Florida Derby Big Brown was unlucky drawing the very outside post, post 20 where no one had won from since 1929. But as the 2-1 favorite Big Brown did not disappoint. winning by almost 5 lengths.

Next it was on to the Preakness Stakes. The Preakness field was considered a weak one because of the dominance of Big Brown. This time leaving from the 7 post and the 1-5 favorite Big Brown did not disappoint. Putting in possibly his most impressive victory yet. A 5 and a quarter length victory over Macho Again.

Big Brown was looked at as one of the best possibilities for a triple crown winner in years. So going into the Belmont Stakes all the talk was about Big Brown about to win the triple crown. But like the ones before him he was unable to get the job done at Belmont. Big Brown ended up being pulled up turning for the stretch, resulting in him finishing dead last.

Boxed: Boxing horses in Trifecta, Exacta and Superfectas means the horses you pick can finish in any order.

Example: The race finished 3-9-1. You bet a 6-1-3-9 exacta box, and your friend bet a 3-1-4 exacta box. You win because you had the 3 and 9 included in your box
your friend didn’t include the 9 so he lost.

Exotics: Exotic bets are anything not Win, Place and Show. Things like Trifectas, Pick 3s, Daily Doubles are all exotics.

Wheel- It is common for someone to bet more then 1 horse in each spot for a lot of their exotic bets. A trifecta wheel bet would look something like this 3,6/1,3,6,8/1,2,3,6,8,9. The first numbers before the slash are the horses you bet to win, the 2nd set of numbers are the horses you picked to finish second, and the
3rd set of numbers are who you pick for 3rd. When betting like this you are betting all possible combinations of those numbers so they can get expensive, even for just $1.

Example: The race finished 4-5-3, which paid $89.00. You had a $1 trifecta wheel of 1,4/1,2,4,5/1,2,3,4,5,9 which cost you $24. You won the bet because you had the 4 included for first, 5 included for 2nd and 3 included for 3rd. So your profit on the race was $65.

Win- With a win bet you must pick the winner of the race. Betting minimum is $2

Place- In a place bet the horse you are betting on must finish first or 2nd. The betting minimum is $2.

Show- For the show bet your horse must finish in the top 3 to win. The betting minimum is $2.

WPS/PS/WP/WS- You can also bet any combination of Win, Place and Show. If You Bet a $2 WP (Win Place) your total bet would be $4 and if your horse wins you win the win and place amounts. if It finished 2nd you only win the place winnings.

Exacta/Exactor- For the exacta you must pick the first and 2nd place horses in the correct order to win. The betting minium is $1.

Example: the race finished 1-5-2. You would have needed to select 1-5, in that order to win.

Quinella- For a quinella you must pick the top 2 finishers but they don’t need to be in the exact order you selected.

Example: The race finished 9-3-5. You just needed to pick the 3 and 9 to win, you did not need a specific order.

Trifecta/Triactor- In the trifecta you need to pick the top 3 finishers in the correct order. The betting minium is $1.

Example: The race finished 4-3-1. You picked 4-3-2. Your friend picked 4-1-3. You both would have lost, Your friend would have been close but needed the exact order.

Superfecta- For a Superfecta you must pick the top 4 finishers in the race, in the correct order. The betting minium can be as low as $0.10.

Example: The race finished 9-3-1-5. To win you would have needed to bet that exact order of finish.

Daily Double- For the daily double you must select the winner of 2 straight races. Betting minimum is $2.

Example: In the first race the 6 won, in the second race the 1 won. To win this bet you would have had to bet the 6-1 DD (daily double) to win.

Pick 3,4,6,7- For the Pick 3,4,6,7s you must select the winner of each race. Betting minimum is $1.

Example: Starting in race 2 a Pick 4 will start. To win you must pick the winner of race 2,3,4 and 5. BUT, if no one that bet won all 4 races they will pay out a reduced percentage of the pot to whoever got 3 out of 4 correct.