How To Bet Trifectas And Superfectas
The purpose of this blog has always been to share ideas thatmay help others cash more tickets (trifectas and superfectas in thisinstance), not to pat myself on the back after winning. In fact, one of theteaching examples will show a losing bet when I felt the thought process wascorrect, though the end result was not.
When playing trifectas many bettors focus on narrowing downwin contenders, and work their way down to the 2nd and 3rdpositions. On the other hand, I like to work my way from the bottom up byindentifying horses that may not be winfactors, but have a decent shot at running 2nd or 3rd. Thisgives the option to spread on the top line in tris and supers, which in turncreates bigger payoffs when longshots win. This is more commonly known as thereverse pyramid method.
Though horses like this can be found running every day, atevery track and at every level, I find myself employing this method most inmaiden and non-winners of 2 lifetime races. Here are a few examples over thelast few days.
Some people advise against going after the big wins that Trifectas and Superfectas can offer. We don’t agree with this advice. It might not be the BEST way to get value when betting on horse racing, but it’s not worst either. We regularly bet Trifectas and Superfectas ourselves, and we have a lot of fun doing so. The major attraction of Trifecta betting is the possibility of huge payoffs. Every week, all across North America, there are a few five-figure Trifecta payoffs, and on racing’s biggest days these payoffs can reach six figures. A relatively new type of wager when compared to Exactas, Trifectas are not yet well understood by the betting public. This wager combines your selections to finish first and second in every possible combination. Example: If you be a 'Trifecta box 3-4-5,' you win if those three horses finish in any order first, second and third. This bet can be used with Exactas, Trifectas and Superfectas; it can be wagered in $1 increments and at lower increments at some tracks. Many bettors will choose to place boxed wagers for their trifectas and superfectas at this year’s Belmont. They’ll pick three or four contenders and bet every possible combination featuring those horses – just like the quinella bet when they pick two horses to finish 1-2 or 2-1.
One of my favorite tracks to play in the winter isHawthorne, so as I was getting crushed on Wednesday in a multi-trackhandicapping contest, I was also playing some races from the South Chicagooval. The 6th race was a $5,000 claimer for non-winners of 2 raceslifetime. #4 Contemporary Art looked like a good candidate to hit the board,but not win. His lifetime record of 23-1-4-4 hints that he does not have thatkiller instinct to win, but one that likes to run with pack. Also, his sprintrace 2 back showed he can handle track and retaining top rider Eddie Perezdespite clipping heels and finishing poorly in his last.
This race also looked like some chaos could occur as far aswho might end up in the winner’s circle, since #5 Kinzig was even money on themorning line while sporting a lifetime record of 13-1-5-0. I decided to wheel#4 in 2nd and 3rd in the trifecta. The tickets werestructured like this 1,2,3,5,9/4/1,2,3,5,6,7,9 and 1,2,3,5,9/1,2,3,5,6,7,9/4
Fortunately, Contemporary Art loomed boldly on the turn andflattened out like usual. Unfortunately it was for 5th place. Bylooking at the chart some big prices landed in the top 2 spots of the trifecta,the suspect favorite ran poorly and the trifecta returned a handsome sum. Agood thought process that just did not materialize.
Fast forward to Thursday…I was looking for someone to playin a head-to-head tournament over the first 6 races at Betfair Hollywood Parkon DerbyWars, but could not find any takers before first post, so it was backto regular betting. The 4th from BHP was a $20,000 maiden claimer at1 1/16 miles where #4 Tiz Futurity had very competitive speed figures, but adismal lifetime record of 17-0-2-1. Rather than longshots possibly winning,this race looked to go through only the #7 Midnight Cassanova and #8Chocolatier. The only chance for chaos would be in the 2nd or 3rdrow. Here were my tickets: 7,8/4/1,2,7,8 7,8/1,2,7,8/4 and then I wanted topress the combinations with the 7 & 8, so 7,8/4,7,8/4,7,8 and a straighttrifecta 7-8-4.
How To Bet Trifectas And Superfectas
Though the result was chalky, hitting the trifecta multipletimes paid for Wednesday’s losses and then some. Plus, I gave myself a chancefor a nice payout had the #7 or 8 ran out of the money. The odds on my keyhorses were not too big in both of these examples, but one can clearly see thevalue created just by asking logical horses to hit the board.
*PPs provided by Brisnet and result charts by Equibase