Horse racing betting explained

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Most people like to have a bet on the horses every now and again, with few other sports offering such glitz, excitement and drama.
Racing has become one of the nation’s favourite sports – especially when it comes to betting.

This includes Royal Ascot or the Cheltenham Festival to the not-quite-so glamorous meets at Redcar or Plumpton.
But with so many different types of bet on offer, it really does pay to know your forecast from your trixie.
Here, we take a look at some of the most popular bets when it comes to The Sport of Kings.

BETTING TO WIN

This is the most simple bet, and involves making a single selection on one horse.
For example, if you fancied a horse at 9/1 and placed a £1 bet, your return would be £10 – £9 profit plus your £1 stake.
Pretty straightforward really.

EACH-WAY BETTING

Put simply, an each-way bet is two bets on the same horse – one bet on the horse to win, and another on the horse to be placed.
It costs double the amount of a win-only bet, but gives you a better chance of a payout.
If the horse wins, you win both parts of the bet; if it is placed you only win on the place part – usually a quarter or a fifth of the winning odds.

RUNNERS

The number of places in a race depends on how many runners there are. In a race involving 2-4 horses, only first place counts.-
If there are 5-7 runners, the top two place.- If there are 8-15 runners, the top three place and If there are 16 or more runners, the top four place.
Unless your horse is priced at 4/1 or better, a place will actually pay out less than your original stake

FORECASTS AND TRICASTS

A forecast is a bet on the horses that you think will come first and second in a race, while a tricast is a prediction of the top three.
Whatever is won on the first horse then rolls over onto the second (and third), meaning that returns are better than just predicting the winner.
Sounds tough, but can come in handy when betting on a race involving a short-priced favourite.
Forecasts and tricasts can also be reversed, meaning that you can predict the top two or three to finish in any order.
The stake will be higher, as you are betting on a number of different outcomes.

ACCUMULATORS

Accumulators are a very popular choice when it comes to having a flutter as the payouts can be huge.
These include multiple bets such as doubles and trebles – selecting two or three horses to win (or place) their races.
The stake is rolled over from one horse to the next, and all selections must win (or place) in order to win.
For example, a £1 win treble on three horses priced at 10/1 would return a whopping £1,331.
There are also a wide variety of combination accumulator bets available, some of the most popular being

TRIXIES, YANKEES, CANADIANS and A HEINZ

In a Trixie you would make three selections across three races.
The bet covers all combinations of doubles and trebles – in this case three doubles and a treble – meaning that you would need at least two horses to win.
Yankee is the similar to a Trixie, but involving four selections. These cover six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold accumulator.
Canadian involves five selections. These consist of 10 doubles, 10 trebles, five four-fold accumulators and a five-fold accumulator.

SELECTIONS

Heinz involves six selections, consisting of consisting of 57 bets; 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, six five-folds and a six-fold accumulator.
Super Heinz consists of seven selections, covering 120 bets: 21 doubles, 35 trebles, 35 four-folds, 21 five-folds, 7 six-folds and a seven-fold accumulator.
Bets such as these can also include singles – they are known as Patents, Yaps, Lucky 15s, Lucky 31s, Lucky 63s.
You can also try your luck on a Super Heinz with Singles – presumably they ran out of ideas for names for this one…

SCOOP 6

The Scoop 6 is a popular six-race accumulator that is run on Saturdays, across six selected races.
For a £2 stake, you choose one horse in each of the six races.

All six selections must win if you are to claim the prize pot. If the Scoop 6 isn’t won one week, the kitty rolls over to the next week.
If you are lucky enough to win the Scoop 6 you will also get the chance to play for the Scoop 6 bonus fund.

To do this, you have to pick the winner of a selected race the following Saturday.
Even if you fail to select all six winners you can win a share of the Scoop 6 place fund if your selections place in each of the 6 races.

Win Single / Gold Premium Tip / NAP – A tip that is considered to be a racing certainty, that is, almost completely certain to be true, is also called a nap.

Pipsters will tend to indicate the “nap”.

Tipping is mostly associated with horse racing but can apply to any sport that has odds offered on it.

A Win Double – A multiple bet consisting of two selections, both of which must win to gain a return.

The double is a bet where two selections are made.

If the first wins, everything that would have been returned is then used as stake for second.

A Win Treble – A multiple bet consisting of three selections, all of which must win to gain a return.

The treble is a bet where three selections are made.

RETURNS

The returns from the first are rolled over to the second, then the returns from the second rolled over to the third.

Each Way Bet – Each part is an equal stake, e.g. a £1 Each Way bet will have £1 on the ‘Win’ and £1 on the ‘Place’ (a total stake of £2).

The ‘Win’ part of your bet is on your selection to win the event.

The ‘Place’ part is on your selection to finish either first or in one of the number of places, e.g. 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc.

Trixie Bet – The trixie is a 3 selection wager consisting of 4 bets: 3 doubles and treble.

This can be considered a treble to which three doubles have been added.

The advantage being that should one selection fail to win a return is still generated.

A Lucky15 – The lucky 15 is a 4 selection wager consisting of 15 bets: 4 singles, 6 doubles, 4 trebles and a four-fold accumulator.

A Yankee Bet – The yankee is a 4 selection wager consisting of 11 bets: 6 doubles, 4 trebles and a four-fold accumulator.

NAMED

The yankee is rumored to be named after an American soldier that placed a small bet in the UK.

Due to the multiple roll-over mechanics at work won back hundreds of thousands.

Accumulator – An accumulator is a bet that combines four or more selections into a single wager that gains a return only when all parts win.

The advantage of an accumulator is that winnings are much higher at the expense of increased risk.

Only a single selection need lose for the entire bet to lose.

A Goliath Bet – is a bet on 8 selections taking part in different events.

These consists of 28 Doubles, 56 Trebles, 70 Four-Folds, 56 Five-Folds, 28 Six-Folds, 8 Seven-Folds and an 8-fold.

This accumulator totala 247 bets. 2 selections must win to ensure any returns.

TIPS

We would always suggest following our horse racing tips.

Watch live coverage of horse racing on itv and itv4 – see exclusive interviews and features plus more here – http://www.itv.com/racing

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