Typically, it takes awhile to get good at horse betting, so don’t get down on yourself if you lose some money upfront. Being a degenerate gambler is not really about how much you make, money-wise; it’s more about the thrill of the game, being a savvy operator, and beating the odds. Here’s a primer for taking the leap into multi-wager or “exotic” betting:
The horse-betting veteran will be looking at just about every piece of data in a horse’s past and present to try to get an edge on an upcoming race, including: the horse’s trainer, its bloodline, the day’s weather report, racetrack conditions, how fast the horse ran in his/her previous race, and even the equipment on the horse (those little black patches over some horse’s eyes are called “blinkers” and affect its racing ability).
You will have bought the Daily Racing Form, basically the Bible of past-performance data for horses. NOTE: For an even fresher perspective, you may have also brought the day’s paper, which has some local handicapping information in it. For example, the New York Daily News’ horse racing analyst is Jerry Bossert. He is constantly tweeting from Aqueduct, too.
Bets can be combined in a number of ways to maximize your winnings. They cost a little bit more to place, but the payouts can be much higher, depending on the horse’s odds. Here are the basics: Exacta – You pick the first two horses in order, the Win and the Place horses. Quinella – You pick the first two horses in either order. Trifecta – You pick the first three finishing horses in a row: Win, Place, and Show. Daily Double – You pick the winners of two consecutive races.
At Aqueduct, besides the normal multi-pick wagers, you have the chance of picking even more winners and getting even bigger payouts. File these under “almost impossible”, but as a savvy horseplayer, it’s entirely possible that you’ll hit one or more of these a year, if you do your homework: Superfecta – Pick the first four horses in order; i.e., Win, Place, Show, 4th Horse. Grand Slam – Pick a horse to finish in the top three in three straight races, capped by the winner of the fourth race in the sequence.
Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 6: These are as they sound — pick the winners in 3, 4, and 6 consecutive races. The races are predetermined by the track, so you can’t just pick any three races. Here’s an example of how to bet a Pick 4 at Aqueduct using an online tool called Ticket Maker.
As we mentioned above, the degenerate gambler is not fenced in by one single track — he’ll be betting at other racetracks across the country, too.
