All Bets Are On: Horse Racing Basics

It's post time! The horses are in the starting gate and they're off! Horse racing can be great fun! From the beauty of the sleek horses as they thunder around the track to the cry of the vendors as they weave through the crowd, going to the horse races can be exciting! Or it can frustrate you silly if you aren't sure how it all works. Half the fun is the thrill of winning! You can't get to that point though if you don't understand how the races work or what the bets mean.

Starting at the beginning
There are three kinds of horse races. They are:

Flat racing: These are what most think of when they think of a horse race.
These are between horses that are saddled and ridden by disc jockeys. The course is over specially built distance tracks.

Steeplechase: This is basically the same as flat racing except that there are hurdles placed around the track that the horses must jump over during the race.

Harness Racing: These are the races where the horse is harnessed to a small one person open cart called a sulky. The disc jockey rides in the sulky instead of on the horse.

Place your bets!

No matter the kind of race, the popularity of a day at the races rotates around the chance to win big! Even winning small can be fun. Betting terms may be confusing at first. Do you want to bet to win or place? Are you going to pick a daily double
or a horse to place? How do they choose the odds? It might not seem like it at first but there is a method to choosing and buying those betting tickets

There are 4 main types of betting. The one that most popular and widespread is the pari-mutuel system. It originated in France in the 1860s and means "betting among ourselves" By comparing the total amount of wagers on a given horse with the total amount wagered on all the horses in the race the betting odds for the given horse are found. These are posted on a "tote" board where all the spectators can see it. They are constantly refigured and reposted right until start time. Then all bets must be placed and locked. After the winners have been officially declared winning tickets must be cashed in for the amount of their payoff. You can bet on a horse to

Win: Horse must finish first
Place: Horse must finish first or second. If you have made a "to place" bet on a horse
and it comes in first the payoff is lower then if you had bet on that horse "to win"
Show: Horse must finish first, second, or third

You can also place combination bets. These involve more then one horse and race.
These include

Daily double: Predict the winners of the first two races. Tickets are bought in advance

Pick 3, Pick 6: Choose the winners of three or six consecutive races

Quiniela: Choose who will win first and second place in the same race. It doesn't matter which order as long as the two horses picked come in first or second

Perfecta: This is also known as an "Exacta" The better must choose the exact order that the first two horses will finish.

These kind of combination bets have higher payoffs then the win, place or show single bets, but any can be exciting when you've won and just plain fun even when you don't! So come out and enjoy a day at the races. Your heart will race right along with the horses as the announcer shouts "They're off!"