Once a new horse racing bettor becomes familiar with the simple straight bets, the next step is to move on to the slightly more involved exotic bets. While straight bets involve a single runner, exotic horse racing bets involve multiple runners and sometimes multiple races.
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What Is An Exotic Bet in Horse Racing?
Any horse racing wager that covers more than one horse is an exotic bet. Exotics can involve selecting several horses from the same race or picking the winners of multiple races – if it involves two or more horses, it’s an exotic horse racing bet. That’s in contrast to straight bets, which always involve exactly one horse.
For example, consider the place bet. As a straight bet, the place wager involves picking a single horse, and it wins if that selection finishes in first or second place. It involves one horse in a single race – hence its classification as a straight bet.
Looking at exotic horse racing bets, the closest approximation to the place bet is the quinella wager. The quinella involves picking two horses, and it wins if those horses finish in first and second place in any order. The quinella is not a huge step up in complexity than the place bet, but it involves two different horses and therefore qualifies as an exotic wager.
Exotic betting gets a bit more complicated when delving into boxing, wheeling, and keying horses. However, readers who take the time to read through this page will walk away with a comfortable understanding of the various types of exotic parimutuel racing bets.
How Exotic Horse Racing Bets Work
Exotic parimutuel horse racing bets are simple in their most basic forms. However, most are significantly more difficult to win relative to straight bets. All exotic horse bets except the quinella require the bettor to make multiple selections and get every prediction exactly right to win.
However, exotic bets also pay more. Exotic bets account for all of the largest payouts in horse racing, with the Superfecta and Pick 6 among the highest of them all. Even a winning trifecta can return a lot of money to the winning bettor, especially during major events such as the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup. For example, some past Kentucky Derby exotic bets have paid upwards of $250,000 off a $0.50 initial wager.
Here’s how the basic exotic bets work:
- Exacta: A bet on two horses to take 1st and 2nd place in that order
- Quinella: A bet on two horses to take 1st and 2nd place in any order
- Trifecta: A bet on three horses to take 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in that order
- Superfecta: A bet on four horses to take 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place in that order
- Daily Double: A bet on two horses to finish first place in two consecutive races
- Pick 3: A bet on three horses to finish 1st place in three consecutive races
- Pick 6: A bet on six horses to finish 1st place in six consecutive races
How to Place Exotic Bets Online
The exact process for placing exotic bets online varies from one racebook to the next, but any differences across different betting sites are minor. Bettors who can place an exotic bet at one racebook will have no trouble placing them anywhere else.
Starting with the absolute basics, bettors need to begin by choosing a safe, legal and licensed horse racing betting site. BettingUSA’s recommended horse racing betting sites hold licenses in multiple states, combine all wagers with each track’s wagering pools (which guarantees full track payouts), and have operated for years in the USA. The next steps are to sign up for an account and make a deposit.
After signing up and depositing, bettors have everything they need to place exotic wagers, watch live races, and claim their winnings.
The next step is to log in and choose an upcoming race. Most horse racing betting sites provide a list of upcoming races immediately after logging in, sorted by minutes to post (MTP, or when the race begins). Next, bettors can select any upcoming race to view the card, wagering options, track conditions, jockey information, and so on.
After selecting a race, bettors can use a menu to select the type of wager they want. Some online racebooks use dropdown menus to display the available types of exotic wagers, while others use buttons that users can select to choose their wagers. In the following screenshot, the wagering interface uses a dropdown menu where customers can choose between various straight and exotic bets.
In this example, I have opened the dropdown menu to select a superfecta bet:
Tip: You may notice the above screenshot displays a “straight” betting option even though I have selected a superfecta. The word “straight” can cause some confusion because it can have different meanings depending on the context. In this case, the word “straight” means I am placing a plain, old-fashioned superfecta without any extras like boxing or keying it (more on that below).
After choosing the superfecta option, it’s time to add selections to the wager:
In this example, I have chosen horses number 2, 4, 5, and 7 in that order. If you look just above the list of runners, you’ll see the words “1st,” “2nd,” “3rd,” and “4th.” That’s how users select which horses they want in which order, because superfectas require bettors to pick the exact finishing order.
The last steps are to submit the wager and by hitting the “submit” or “place wager” button and wait for the results. If your bet wins, the racebook will credit your account after the race, allowing you to continue wagering or withdraw your winnings.
Boxing Exotic Bets In Horse Racing
Now, we move into some of the more complex types of exotic horse racing wagers. Boxing a bet is one step up from placing a plain exotic wager, but it is still not too difficult. The main thing to understand is that boxing an exotic bet lets you cover every possible combination of selections.
Predicting the finishing positions of two, three, four, or more horses is what makes exotic wagers such high paying bets, but doing so is no easy feat. Horseplayers interested in increasing their chances can box their bets to cover additional outcomes – for a price.
Boxing a bet involves covering every possible combination of selections. The bettor also has the option to add additional horses to the ticket.
For example, consider the trifecta bet. Picking three horses to finish in first, second, and third place in that exact order is extremely hard. It’s also a good way to secure a large win if successful.
A bettor who is willing to spend a little money can select three horses and box the bet to ensure it wins no matter the order those horses finish. For example, if the bettor places a three-horse box trifecta on horses 2, 3, and 4, he will be covering each of the following outcomes:
- 2-3-4
- 2-4-3
- 3-2-4
- 3-4-2
- 4-2-3
- 4-3-2
By boxing the trifecta, the bettor has guaranteed a win if the selected horses finish in the top three spots in any order. Assuming a $2 base wager, this bet would cost $12 because it covers six possible finishing positions.
The costs of boxing exotic horse bets rise sharply as bettors add more horses to the mix. For example, adding just a single horse to the above box would cost $48. It’s an expensive bet, but it covers all 24 of the possible finishing positions of the four selected runners.
Bettors can also box exactas, perfectas, Pick 3s, Pick 6s, and other exotic wagers.
See these pages for a more detailed discussion, formulas for calculating prices, and more:
How To Key Exotic Horse Racing Bets
Moving up one more step in difficulty is the keyed exotic horse racing bet. The trick to understanding this bet is to understand how to box a wager (see above).
Keying a bet involves selecting a horse as the “key” to win the race and then adding two or more other selections who can finish in any order. It’s similar to a box bet, but it is more efficient for bettors who have a strong read on one horse as the likeliest to win.
By picking one horse as the key runner who must finish first, the bettor can reduce the number of possible combinations and in turn reduce the cost of the wager.
For example, a bettor can key a trifecta by placing Horse #4 over horses 6, 7, and 8. This bet will win if Horse #4 finishes first and any of the other selections finish in second and third place in any order.
One thing to keep in mind with this bet is that it only wins if the keyed horse(s) finishes in first place. The bettor has reduced the number of winning combinations by keying the horse, but he has gained by saving money on the wager.
A $2 trifecta box bet with four horses would cost the bettor $48. If the bettor keys one of those horses over the other three, the keyed horse must win, but the bet’s price drops to just $12.
Bettors can key exactas, trifectas, Pick 3s, Pick 6s, and other exotic bets. Read more about keying horses, including how to calculate costs, here:
Wheels And Part-Wheels
Wheels and part-wheels are just ways to describe specific types of keyed exotic bets.
A full wheel involves selecting one or more key horses and the rest of the field to cover the remaining positions. For example, an exacta full wheel on Horse #7 over the field in an 8-horse race would cover all of the following outcomes:
- 7-1
- 7-2
- 7-3
- 7-4
- 7-5
- 7-6
- 7-8
A $2 exacta full wheel in this example would cost the bettor $14 because it essentially places seven different exacta bets, pairing #7 with the field. This bet would win in all outcomes, as long as #7 finishes in first place.
Full wheel bets can get expensive depending on the type of exotic wager involved and the number of horses in the race.
A part-wheel simply describes keying one horse over several others but not covering the entire field. Continuing the above example, an exacta part-wheel might key Horse #7 over Horses 1, 2, 3, and 4, which would win in the following outcomes:
- 7-1
- 7-2
- 7-3
- 7-4
For more discussion, see our page on quinella wheel bets:
Horse Racing Exotic Bets FAQ
Wes Burns has more than a decade’s worth of experience as a writer, researcher and analyst in the legal gambling industry and is co-founder of BettingUSA.com. As a former professional online poker player, Wes approaches his work from the viewpoint of players.