LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Gambling on horse racing can seem complicated for the inexperienced bettor, but it only takes a few minutes to learn the basics.

What You Need To Know

  • The three main bets in horse racing are WIN, PLACE and SHOW

  • If you like a horse, bet it "across the board"

  • "Exotic" wagers include picking the top two, three or four finishers in order

  •  You can "box" bets to include more horses in your wager

The three main bets are WIN, PLACE and SHOW. Cashing the WIN is obvious. You’ll get paid on a PLACE bet if your horse finishes first or second, and you’ll get money back with a SHOW bet if your horse finishes first, second or third.

If you like a horse in a race, you can bet it “across the board,” which means a WIN, PLACE and SHOW bet on the same horse. If it crosses the finish line first, you win all three bets. 

The safest bet you can make is a SHOW bet on the favorite. While it’s the most likely to hit, it delivers a small return.

If you want to make more money, you need to bet on the more exotic wagers. They include the EXACTA (top two horses in order), the TRIFECTA (top three in order) or the SUPERFECTA (top four in order). That’s harder to do, but the payoffs can be enormous.

If you want to give yourself more chances to win those bets, you can BOX horses, which is a combination of bets in a single wager. For example, a “$1 three horse exacta box” costs $6, but it allows you to pick three horses. If any two of them finish first and second, you win. The more horses you include in your box, the more chances you have, but the cost of the bet rises rapidly.

You can also win big money by winning the PICK-3, PICK-4, PICK-5 and PICK-6. That’s when you pick the winners in consecutive races. You can wager on multiple entries in each race, but it will cost you more.

One final tip if you’re betting in person: make sure you know the program numbers of the horses you want, because the tellers don’t know names.

Good luck at the windows. 

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