Multirace wagers are horse racing's equivalent to a parlay in football. They require a bettor to connect the winners of two, three, four, five or six consecutive races and are popular because of the alluring possibility of four-, five- or even six-figures payouts.
But building a winning Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5 or Pick 6 ticket can get quite costly because even the smartest handicappers need to use multiple horses in multiple races to cover the most likely scenarios. That adds up quickly.
The good news is that there is a method that bettors can use to best leverage their opinions while managing the entire cost of the wager. It's called the ABC method, and bettors who don't use it are betting inefficiently.
To help bettors improve, SportsLine will run a series of stories on betting on horse racing. This is the second of those. It will dive into the ABC method of constructing multirace tickets and its advantage over the caveman method.
A former reporter and editor at Sports Illustrated, Menez covered an array of sports, including horse racing, for the magazine and its website for almost 14 years. Between 2010 and 2012, he served as SI's handicapper for the Triple Crown races and correctly predicted Super Saver to win the Kentucky Derby in 2010.
In 2015, while writing for Sports on Earth, Menez accurately gave out the Kentucky Derby superfecta (American Pharoah, Firing Line, Dortmund and Frosted), which paid $1,268.20 for $2. Then in 2017, he tweeted out his Kentucky Derby picks, including Always Dreaming to win, and hit the Pick 4, which paid almost $6,900 on a $1 bet. In 2024, Menez gave out 18-1 Mystik Dan as a live longshot in the Kentucky Derby.
Menez excels on horse racing's biggest days. In 2024 he crushed the late Pick 4 on Breeders' Cup Saturday for a $5,303 windfall. Last year he nailed the winner, trifecta and superfecta in the Florida Derby for a $529.60 score and the winner and trifecta in the Blue Grass Stakes for a $761.96 jackpot. He hit the late Pick 4 on Kentucky Oaks day for $915.48. In the Kentucky Derby, he hammered the exacta and trifecta for a $1,045 payout. And earlier this year he struck big on Fountain of Youth day, hitting the late Pick 5 for $4,648.
GET VEGAS EXPERT PICKS FOR NFL, MLB, NBA, CBB, GOLF, NHL, HORSE RACING AND MORE - PLUS ADVANCED COMPUTER SIMULATIONS, WINNING TOOLS, AND MORE!
