Horse Racing Roulette to Debut at Santa Anita

Santa Anita Park is set to roll out a brand-new type of wager for the Winter Meet on Wednesday, December 26^th. “Horse racing roulette” will be introduced for all ten of the day’s races and provide customers with a simple, but interesting twist on horse racing that should be especially appealing to casual fans.

In a press release, Santa Anita Park explains that horse racing roulette will be available for any horse with six runners or more. All horses will be placed into one of three groups: red, green or black. Customers can then bet on any one of those groups and earn a parimutuel payout if a horse from their chosen group wins the race.

Groupings will generally be assorted such that:

• The Red group will usually include the morning line favorite
• The Green group will consist mostly of longshots
• The Black group will presumably consist of the horses not picked for Red or Green

Groupings will be announced ahead of each race and then customers can pick one of the three groups to back. Payout odds will then be determined parimutuel style based on how much money comes in on each group.

So, one person might want to back the Red group if it contains the day’s favorite while someone else might choose to back the green group for a shot at a bigger payout with all the longshots. The group that ends up producing the winning horse will be considered the winning group and all who bet on that group will be paid accordingly.

Two other key points from the Santa Anita press release explain what happens when horses scratch and when the race produces a dead heat:

1. If every horse in a group scratches, all horse racing roulette wagers on that race will be refunded. However, if any group still has at least one active horse when the race begins, the game will proceed as normally.
2. If a race produces a dead heat between two horses from different groups, bettors on both groups will be paid out as a profit split (and treated as a place pool). If all three groups produce a three-way dead heat, the betting pool will be split three ways and treated as a show pool.

The idea here seems to be to provide a casual horse racing betting experience. Rather than having to pick a single horse, track attendees can back a small batch of horses for a better shot at winning without as much work.

First responses to the new idea online have been mixed, which is to be expected any time a new wager is introduced. It is certainly an interesting idea, but only time will tell if racegoers find this wager tempting.

Will Horse Racing Roulette Be Offered Online?

None of the major horse racing betting sites have made any official announcements related to horse racing roulette. If any site does offer this wager, our money would go on Xpressbet.com being the first to take it online.

Xpressbet is owned by the Stronach Group, which is also the parent company of Santa Anita Park and other major race tracks including Gulfstream, Pimlico, and Laurel Park. Other betting sites that cover Laurel Park may also follow suit in time depending on their arrangements with the Stronach Group.