How To Turn a $5 Horse Bet Into $100
The Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes are in the record books, which leaves only the Belmont Stakes in June to complete horse racing's Triple Crown. If you are already getting ready to wager on the race, this is for you.
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Even a small bet can turn into a big payoff if you pick the right horse -- and place the right bet -- and it's not impossible to turn that $5 bill in your pocket into $100 or more. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you trot up to the window at Churchill Downs, stop at the off-track betting location or log on to your favorite wagering website.
Size Up the Odds
When you've narrowed the field to a few horses you like, it's time to find out what the experts think of your choices. Check the morning line -- the odds assigned to each horse by professional racetrack handicappers before anyone starts betting on the race.
This reflects who the handicappers think will win. If Fast Sam has short odds, maybe 2/1, the handicappers think he has a good chance of winning the race. If Slow Poke's morning line odds are 50/1, the handicappers suspect that every other horse in the field will finish ahead of him. Morning line odds are typically stated right next to the horse's name in the program or online race card with the notation "ML."
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How Odds Affect Your Wager
The Tote Board
Playing It Safe
The 'Across the Board' Bet
The Exacta
"Exotic" bets pay the most for a reason -- they're hard to hit. They involve betting on more than one horse, so Fast Sam and Slow Poke would both have to finish in the money for you to win.
Betting an exacta means selecting the first and second place horses in order, and it will typically pay much more than winning straight bet tickets on either or both horses. The win would be significant, well over $100 on a $5 exacta bet if Slow Poke managed to finish first.
And here's some encouraging news: Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, offers $1 exacta boxes. You can bet five different combinations of horses on that $5 bet to increase your chances of winning $100 or more.
Let's say you've added I'm Pretty Good to the horses you like. You might bet an exacta with Fast Sam and I'm Pretty Good, one with Fast Sam and Slow Poke, one with I'm Pretty Good and Slow Poke, and maybe throw in a couple more horses for good measure.
For some bettors in 2019, the exacta paid off handsomely. Bettors who picked longshot Country House (65-1) and Code of Honor (14-1) -- the 1-2 finishers -- won $3,009.60 on a $2 exacta.
Other Exotic Bets
You can choose from a few other exotic bets if you're feeling solid about your horses and want to win a lot rather than play it safe. Betting a trifecta means selecting the top three finishers in order. It's hard, but it pays a lot more than an exacta. In 2019, with third-place finisher Tacitus figured in, a $2 bet paid $11,475.30.
The superfecta is the granddaddy of them all, one of the most difficult wagers to win in horseracing. It involves picking the top four horses in order. But if you're correct -- and depending on the odds of the horses involved -- you may be able to buy that new car you've always wanted. The 2019 superfecta payout? $51,400.10.
Then there's the daily double. This involves picking the winners of two consecutive races, usually the first and second of the day, then the third and fourth races and so on. If you can pick the winner of the Derby plus the winner of the race either immediately before or after the Derby -- depending on what doubles Churchill Downs makes available that day -- you could potentially hit $100 on a $5 wager.
Boxing Your Single-Race Exotic Bet
A successful exacta, trifecta or superfecta depends on picking your horses in the exact order of finish. That's pretty tough to do. But you can "box" your horses to give yourself a better chance at winning.
This means placing your bet to cover any order of finish. You might bet an exacta using Fast Sam and I'm Pretty Good with Fast Sam to win and I'm Pretty Good to place, then box the wager so you're covered if the opposite happens and I'm Pretty Good edges Fast Sam out by a nose.
If you didn't box your bet, you'd lose thanks to I'm Pretty Good's last-second winning lunge, and that would be painful indeed. But boxing wagers is like betting across the board -- it's actually a series of separate bets: $5 on Fast Sam and I'm Pretty Good, then another $5 on I'm Pretty Good and Fast Sam, in that order.
This could get pretty expensive with trifectas and superfectas, because you'd have to cover a lot of combinations. For example, boxing four horses on just a $2 trifecta wager means putting down $48.
But if the odds of all the horses are in your favor, it can result in a nice payday. And the possibility of winning a big payout by a hair might make it worth the risk.
Once you win that $100 - or more - collecting it and heading back to your seat is probably the safest bet. As American humorist Will Rogers is reported to have said, "The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it in your back pocket." It took all the right things to happen for you to return at least 20 times your $5 investment. Don't count on lightning striking twice. Instead, if you've been considering opening an investment account, use your winnings as the seed money and watch it grow.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How To Turn a $5 Horse Bet Into $100
