How to bet on horses 101: Which wagers to make and avoid, plus how to construct exacta and trifecta tickets
In the first part of a series on betting on horses, SportsLine racing writer Gene Menez has five tips to help bettors
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Betting on horses is unlike betting on other sports.
Unlike in football or basketball, where a bettor typically has to go through a one-step handicapping process (Will Team A cover the point spread against Team B?), betting on horses is a two-step process: Step 1: What is my strongest opinion in the race? Step 2: How do I construct my bets in order to best leverage that opinion?
Step 1 is hard enough. (Golden Tempo won the 2026 Kentucky Derby at 23-1 odds. For comparison, the biggest underdog to win a NFL game recently was the New York Jets, who upset the Los Angeles Rams in 2020 at +985 odds on the money line, a little shorter than 10-1.)
But Step 2 is even harder because bettors have multiple ways to leverage an opinion with win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, Super Hi-5, grand slam, daily double, Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, Pick 6 and jackpot Pick 6 bets all available. The good news is that, a bettor good at Step 2 is a good bettor.
To help bettors improve, SportsLine will run a series of stories on betting on horse racing. This is the first of those. It will dive into which bets to make, which to avoid and how to bet exactas and trifectas, among other things.
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.
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