Bet on Horses

Having been christened the sport of Kings for many years now horse racing has a fan base covering many different age groups, and the number of races run each day is certainly large which means planet of diverse wagering opportunities are available to punters.

Whilst there are some major horse races run throughout the year which tend to attract some of the biggest crowds and obviously some of the biggest betting pools, it is often the smaller race courses which are the bread and butter of the horse racing industry.

Being a predominantly betting orientated sport, horse racing will also be one on which plenty of odds and betting opportunities can be found. There is plenty of horse racing betting types and many of them offer free bonuses based on which particular wager you have made and placed.
 

Horse Betting Opportunities

There are a lot of major horse racing events held throughout the year, and these are held all over the world with many trainers and owners choosing to place their runners in races which they feel have the best chances of winning.

This will mean you will often find both horses and jockeys making extensive trips to race courses all over the globe in the hope they beat the rest of the field.

To give you a deep insight into some of the horse races held each year we have listed below for you the major events, do look out for these races as lots of value can be had by planning and placing your wagers in advance.

The Grand National – The best known Steeple Chase in the world is held annually at Aintree Racecourse in the UK. A huge field of runners take part in this race and spectators are guaranteed a race full of thrills and spills where anything can and usually will happen during the race.

Kentucky Derby – The Kentucky Derby is one of the most well known horse races for three year olds. It is held each year in Kentucky and run over a track of two and a quarter miles. This is the first part of what is known as the Triple Crown series of races.

The Derby – This is a Group One race which is held each June as Epsom Down’s racecourse in the UK. It is a flat race and the race is run over a distance of one mile and four furlongs. All manner of different wagering opportunities are available on this race, with many gamblers choosing to place what are known as Ante Post wagers on it.

Ante Post bets are placed well in advance of the running of the race and as such excellent value and high odds are offered by bookmakers and Sportsbetting sites to punters placing such wagers.

Preakness Stakes – There are plenty of free bets to be found given away by many online sports betting sites and bookmaker’s sites should you fancy placing a wager on the Preakness Stakes, this is the second leg of the Triple Stakes series of races and this particular race is held at Pimlico Racecourse. The race is a Grade One race and is run over a total distance of nine and a half furlongs. The race is a dirt race and as such is not run on turf.

Belmont Stakes – The final leg of the Triple Stakes is the Belmont Stakes this is another Grade One race which attracts the cream of the equine crop. The running of this race is between the fifth of June and the eleventh of June and is run over one and a half miles. Once again a plethora of betting opportunities become available before this race and with live in betting wagers now being accepted you can bet on a horse once the race has begun at certain online betting sites.
 

Horse Bet Types

Below you will find some of the more popular types of bets and wagers which you can place on a horse race, be aware that many of these types of wagering opportunities offer enhanced odds and payouts.

Win Bet – One of the most straightforward and certainly the easiest type of wager you can place on a horse race is to pick the winner of the race. This is called a Win bet and when placing it online you can opt to take either the odds displayed on the screen, or you can take what are known as the Staring Prices. The SP is declared after the race has been run and is the average odds offered by all on course bookmakers at the track where the race was held.

Each Way Bet – An each way bet is a two part wager, and this will require two separate wagers to be placed on this kind of bet. The first wager is a Win Bet as mentioned above, and the second part is a wager that the horse will finish in one of the top positions in the race.

The odds offered for the second part of the wager will be a percentage of the win odds, and the number of places in the race which will make this bet successful will vary from betting site to betting site.

Place Bet – A Place bet is much like and Each Way wager above, however you are not paid for the horse winning, instead your stake is added to a pool and all gamblers who have a successful Place bet, those being the ones who have picked a horse finishing in one of the Placed positions in the race (most often 1st, 2nd or 3rd) will get an share of this prize pool based on their staked amount.

Forecast Bet – There are two types of Forecast wager you can place, these are a Straight Forecast and a Reverse Forecast. When you place this type of bet you need to choose which horse you think will come first and second in any race.

A Straight Forecast bet requires you to pick the first and second in the correct order and this requires one stake, however a Reverse Forecast requires two stakes and for this you are covering those horse to finish first and second in any order.

This type of wager is fairly unique and at the end of the race a mathematical formula based on the odds of your horses will be used to determine the payout dividend.

Accumulator Bet – If you want to select more than one horse and have any winnings from the first horse selected then rolled over onto the second and third, fourth, fifth etc. then it will be an Accumulator type bet you need to place.

This will see you having to select as many horses as you like, which incidentally much be in different races, and just one stake being placed on this kind of wager. Then if each horse wins those winnings are rolled over onto the next horse accordingly.

Be aware however that when placing Accumulator types of wagers each horse must win for this type of wager to be successful, however depending on how many runners you pick and subject to them all winning the returns on this type of bed can be huge, even when placing small wagers.