How to Bet on Horse Racing: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
Horse racing betting can be an extremely profitable activity but that’s not to say that it’s easy to pick a winner; far from it.
The good news is that the more you watch it, understand it and know how to recognise horses with a better chance of performing well than their odds suggest, the easier it gets to return a profit.
But if you’re new to horse racing betting, on this page we’ll tell you how to place a bet; all the different types of bets you can place; the jargon used in horse racing betting, and we’ll round things off with some useful tips to consider before placing a bet.
How to Place a Bet
Let’s kick things off by explaining how to bet on horses.
If you’re an experienced sports bettor, whether on horse racing or other sports, this will be second nature to you. But if you’re not, here’s how to place a bet on horse racing.
1. Choose a betting site
Choose one or two sportsbooks from our recommended list, based on your own personal preferences – whether you prefer a good welcome bonus, plenty of odds boosts or a great live streaming service covering all the races you’re betting on.
If you’re mainly interested in competitive odds and the Best Odds Guaranteed promise that ensures your wins are always paid out at the biggest odds, make sure you’ve checked for these before signing up.
2. Open and fund your account
Register and provide some personal details such as your name, address, date of birth, and mobile number, as well as choosing a username and password that will be associated with your account. After fulfilling any KYC checks, fund your account with one of the several payment methods on offer, such as a VISA/Mastercard, a bank transfer or an e-wallet such as PayPal, Skrill or Neteller..
3. Navigate to the race you want to bet on
Click on Horse Racing on the left-hand column of the homepage where all the site’s sports are listed.
Start by choosing the country where the race you want to bet on is taking place. For example: UK, France, USA or Japan.
Then click on the day the race is taking place, the track where it will be held and the time the race will go off. For example: UK, Monday June 24, Brighton, 14:30.
4. Place your bet
An important element of understanding how to bet on horses in the UK is knowing that there are several different betting markets available. The winner market is the obvious one but there are many more, explained in detail below.
Pick the market you want to play, make your selection, choose your stake and confirm the bet.
Practical Examples When Placing a Bet on Horses
As this article revolves around how to bet on horse racing for beginners, let’s illustrate the processes mentioned above with a practical example.
1. Choose a betting site
Let’s say that you decide to open an account with Ladbrokes as the betting site with all the all-round best horse racing product.
2. Open and fund your account
Register at Ladbrokes after providing all the necessary details and fund your account. PayPal and Skrill are good payment options for their speed and ease of use, but make sure they are eligible for your Ladbrokes welcome bonus.
3. Navigate to the race you want to bet on
You want to place two separate bets on the 18:25 at Bath, on Monday June 24. Navigate to:
- Horse racing;
- UK races;
- June 24 races;
- Bath;
- Bath 18:25.
4. Place your bet
You decide you want to place bets on:
- Bet 1: Just Like Magic to win @ 15/2 for £10.
- Bet 2: The Bear of Saints to Finish Top 3 @ 5/1 for £10.
Bet 1:
Navigate to the winner market, click on the odds (15/2) on Just Like Magic to win.
You just want the horse to win so ignore the ‘Each-way’ box.
The last part of how to place a bet on horse racing is to decide on your stake.
Enter your stake – £10 – where it says ‘stake’.
Bet 2:
Navigate to the Top Finish market (at other sites it might be called Top 2/3 or ‘To Place’).
Ladbrokes offers Top 2 and Top 3 betting. You want Top 3 so click on the 5/1 button next to Bear of Saints.
Enter ‘10’ in the Stake box.
Types of Horse Racing Bets You Should Know Before Placing a Bet
There are many types of bets in horse racing. These are the ones you’re most likely to see at any given sportsbook.
Win
The simplest of all bets. You bet on a horse to win and it either wins, or it doesn’t.
Each-way
Half of your stake is placed on the horse to win, as per above. The other half is put on the horse to place, which normally means finishing Top 3, 4 or 5, depending on the number of horses in the race. The place price (odds) is a proportional fraction of the horse’s win price.
Depending on where the horse finishes, one of three outcomes are possible: a) The horse wins and you collect on both parts of the bet b) The horse places and you collect on the each-way (place) part of the bet only. c) The horse doesn’t place and you lose on both bets.
Winner Without Favourite
Where there’s a very hot favourite in the race, the bookie might offer this market where the named favourite is taken out of the equation. Let’s say the favourite is Black Cat and in that market, you back Golden Lion. If Black Cat wins and Golden Lion finishes second, you will have won because Black Cat isn’t part of the equation and Golden Lion was next best. If Golden Lion wins the race, you obviously have a winner, too. But if Black Cat wins and Tiger Tim finishes above Golden Lion, then you will have lost.
Horse to Win by x or More Lengths
Another market that you only get where there’s a hot favourite. It’s normally a one-runner market (meaning you can bet on ‘yes’ but not on ‘no’) and let’s say the favourite is Big Boat and the market is asking whether Big Boat will win by 3 or more lengths. It will look like this:
Big Boat to win by 3 or more lengths – Odds of 2/1
Not only do you need Big Boat to win but you need it to win by 3 or more lengths.
Top Finish/To Place.
Depending on the number of runners in the race, the market could be Top 2, Top 3, Top 4 or Top 5; in many cases, the bookie offers at least two variations of it.
If you bet on Lucky Coin to finish Top 3 at odds of 5/2, it doesn’t matter in which exact position in the Top 3 it finishes; it just needs to be in the first three.
Forecast
Here you’re trying to pick the winner and the runner-up in the correct order. So you might think Lucky Coin will win with Dollar Bill coming second. This is a very hard bet to win on, so the odds are always high.
Reverse Forecast
Similar to the bet above but here it doesn’t matter in which order those two horses finish. So as long as Lucky Coin and Dollar Bill finish first and second in any order, you’ve won. However, because it’s easier to win on than guessing the correct order, the odds on the Reverse Forecast are much lower than on the straight forecast.
Trifecta
This one takes the straight forecast to the next level! Rather than picking the correct finishing order of the first two, you’re picking the order of the first three. Much harder so the odds are much bigger.
Match Bets
The bookie will pick two horses of similar ability or similar odds, and ask which one will finish higher in the race.
For example:
Lucky Coin (5/6) v Dollar Bill (evens).
Pick one of the two and hope for the best!
Straight Accas
These work in the same way as they would in football. You pick two or more selections and the odds of each selection are multiplied by one another. So if you had Jungle Jim (2/1), Fruit Forest (2/1) and Dead Desert (3/1) in the racing acca, the acca’s odds would be: 2/1 (3.0) x 2/1 (3.0) x 3/1 (4.0) = 36.0. That's the good news; the bad news is you need all of them to win to get a payout, it’s not enough to get two winners and a runner-up.
Special accas: Trixie, Patent, Yankee, Lucky 15, Canadian, Heinz.
All these involve putting three or more runners together, leading to numerous different bets. Unlike the straight acca, you don’t necessarily need them all to win, but the more of them that do, the better.
The Trixie is one of the simpler ones. It’s made up of three selections and they make up three doubles and a treble. Let’s call the selections Red, White and Blue.
They’d then make up the following bets:
Bet 1: Red/White Double
Bet 2: Red/Blue Double.
Bet 3: White/Blue Double.
Bet 4: Red/White/Blue Treble.
Two of those winning means you’re guaranteed at least one double winning; if all three wins then all three doubles would win, as would the treble.
Yankees, Lucky 15s and the others work a similar way but involve picking more runners so a greater number of bets in total. A Lucky 15 for example, is made up of 15 bets (as the name suggests) so each of those bets needs to be paid for separately.
Common Terms & Phrases in Horse Racing You Should Know About
Like all sports, horse racing has its own jargon that takes some getting used to and is worth learning as part of the process of how to bet on horse racing for beginners. Here are some of the terms you should know about.
- Favourite – The horse who has the shortest odds and is therefore deemed the most likely to win. Also known as a jolly.
- Joint-favourite – Where two or more horses share favouritism, at the same odds.
- Odds-on shot – A horse who is shorter than even money, for example, 4/6 (1.66) or 1/2 (1.5).
- Long shot – Also known as an outsider, a horse who has not been backed in the market and is available at big odds, such as 20/1 or higher.
- Drifter – A horse whose odds are getting bigger than when betting on it first opened.
- Backed in/Steamer – A horse who a lot of money has been bet on, meaning its price has shortened.
- Starting Price – The official odds at which the horse was available at just before the start of the race.
- Banker – A horse who is seen as a sure winner.
- Dutch – Backing two or more horses in a way that you'll receive the same winnings irrespective of which one of them (if any) wins.
- In-play/in-running – Placing a bet on a horse after the race has already started.
- Betting Dividend – The amount you'll win on a horse for every £1 wagered on it via the Tote.
- Market mover – A horse whose odds have changed significantly since the market opened resulting in it either drifting (odds have increased) or steaming (odds have decreased).
- Nap – A tipster’s strongest, most confident selection of the day.
- Price – Another term for odds.
- Rule 4 – When a horse withdraws from the race close to the start, there are (Rule 4) deductions to the payouts on the winning horse (and on the place market) that are in proportion to the odds at which the horse was available at, at the time of the withdrawal.
- Stake – The amount you choose to bet on a horse.
- On the nose – A narrow winning margin, which may or may not be, a photo finish.
Useful Tips On How to Pick Your Winning Horse
Now that you’re almost up to date on most elements of how to bet on horse racing, let’s consider some tips on what to consider before making your selection.
Form is crucial, but not everything
You should always check the race card for the horse’s recent form. It will tell you in which position it has placed during the last few races that it’s run with the number on the furthest right being the most recent race. So figures of 1, 2, 4 mean the horse finished first, second and fourth in its last three races, winning last time out.
Whereas an excellent recent record means the horse has to be respected, it needs to be taken in the context of the quality of races it has been running in. If it’s been winning lower grade races against poor opposition, that might not be as impressive as a horse who has been placing in much higher-level races against strong horses.
Know your jockey
The jockey isn’t as important as the horse itself of course, but the very top jockeys like Tony McCoy, Frankie Dettori or Ruby Walsh have (or had) the ability to just get that little bit extra out of the horse, time its sprint to perfection or find a way to avoid trouble in the run-in.
There’s no doubt that having one of the top jockeys on board makes a big difference, though that’s factored into the horse’s odds anyway. What’s a big tell-tale sign is if a top jockey has been booked in for just the one ride at a particular track; it means the horse’s connections really fancy the horse.
Beware the steamer
A horse who has been backed in heavily, causing its odds to crash, is known as a steamer.
A lot of late money coming in for it is normally a sign that the horse’s connections fancy a big ride with a good chance of winning and are getting as much money as possible on it.
But that’s not to say you should…steam in. For starters, the horse’s odds will be shorter than they were a few hours before so you may not be getting a good price.
Secondly, the money coming in could just be other punters following the money or other bookies laying off their liabilities by backing a horse that was heavily-backed with them, at another bookie. There’s no guarantee the steamer will steam home.
Consider the trainer
The trainer is arguably more important than the jockey and perhaps second in importance only to the horse itself.
The top trainers not only improve the horse’s chances of winning in general but some trainers have particularly good records at particular tracks or in particular races.
It’s also the case that a stable (run by the trainer) is in particularly good form at the moment, having produced lots of good results recently, which further increases the horse’s chances of having a good race.
The track and conditions
Every track will have certain characteristics that are unique to it such as the length, the configuration of its turns and whether it's a right-handed or left-handed track.
Then there will be unique conditions on the day, such as the going. This won’t make a difference on an all-weather track but it does on turf. Lots of rain leads to soft ground whereas a lack of it leads to firmer turf. Some horses relish the former, others the latter, while most like something in between.
The more you know about the optimal conditions in terms of track and conditions for the horses to thrive in, the more conclusions you can draw about how it might perform once you know what the track and conditions are on the day.
Use reputable tipsters
There’s nothing wrong with following the suggestions of a tipster on a betting website or any other source, especially when you’re new to the game. However, before putting your money down, consider whether the tipster is worth following.
Make sure they have their P and L (profit and loss) over the last year or so clearly displayed and that the P and L is actively monitored by readers/followers, so you know it’s correct. Above all, make sure the P and L shows they’re up.
Also, ensure their tipping style is one you’re comfortable with. Some tipsters tip plenty of winners but generally at short prices so you get quite a few winners but never win that much each time. Others tip longshots so you may have to be patient to see those payouts come in but, you’ll win big when they do.