What is the best type of bet in horse racing ?

[erhaab1965]

Simple question , what do you think is the best value bet in horse racing ? singles , doubles , trebles , Tote singles , each way , place pots , Tote swingers , Yankee , patents , super goliaths etc etc... Personally over 90% of my bets are singles , occasionally each way if the odds and place terms dictate i should do so. 5% will be doubles or trebles and the remaining 5% will be any of the other exotic bets on offer. The bet which in my opinion is the best value in all of British horse racing is the Tote Trifecta . This is definitely the hidden gem for punters , I don't know why so few punters don't have a go each sataurday. I use a few betting shops and they all say that I'm the only punter who does this bet. Is there anybody on here who does the Tote Trifecta ?

[Mr.Wilson]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? Personally the best bet you'll have in gambling is the double. The bookmakers fear doubles.

[ExpectTheUnexpected]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? Best type of bet for me, this month especially, is to not bet. Absolutely no luck lately haha.

[Trotter]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? For the last few years I've been singles only, mostly win, very occasionally EW When I started betting again after quite a long break and opened my intewrnet account I thought it would be good discipline to stick to singles But recently my discipline has been going to pot in several ways, one of which is that I've started doing Yankees.............done 3 so far and I'm about 3 quid up over the 3 yankees...........one I was a few pence up with 2 winners, the next one I had 4 losers, the next one I just about more than doubled my stake with 3 winners I'm sure it's not a recipe for long term success...............:unsure

[ExpectTheUnexpected]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ?

For the last few years I've been singles only, mostly win, very occasionally EW When I started betting again after quite a long break and opened my intewrnet account I thought it would be good discipline to stick to singles But recently my discipline has been going to pot in several ways, one of which is that I've started doing Yankees.............done 3 so far and I'm about 3 quid up over the 3 yankees...........one I was a few pence up with 2 winners, the next one I had 4 losers, the next one I just about more than doubled my stake with 3 winners I'm sure it's not a recipe for long term success...............:unsure

Even though I do multiples like yankees and lucky 15's to give me maximum interest for minimal exposure(5/1 winner money back - good enough for me), I've faced the fact that i'm really just making a donation to the bookie of my choice lol. Simple maths really. First horse on a lucky loses, 8 of your 15 bets are goosed. But tbh, I enjoy it and really that's what it's all about for me. If i wanted a more controllable profit, i'd do singles, but the vast majority of the time, it's a 10p lucky 15 25p e/w accy on a saturday, with £3 worth of football coupons. Guess if you want profit, it's singles, or a high interest savings account.

[jayalexander]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? I like lucky 15's, although wouldn't do one if it was only single or double the odds for one winner. Thankfully betfred and a local office near me offer 3x - the local office used to do 4x but have stopped that now. In essence, 4x the odds turned the bet into evens as long as you had a 7/2 winner, which I thought was mental of them to offer. Even with 3x the odds it's 9/2, I think. I've had some luck with these kinds of bets but haven't worked out if I'd have been up or down in terms of profit. I suppose one of the reasons why I like these bets is down to a slight lack in confidence, in general. If I had more confidence I'd place the same stake on the selections as singles but a lucky 15 allows me to play for smaller stakes, in the hope of landing a multiple, too.

[Trotter]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? Yes, that's a good way of looking at it...........I suppose I'm trying to be disciplined enough to make a profit But I can afford to chuck away a few quid out of my profits on fun bets......after all it is meant to be a hobby and I enjoy the thrill of the multiple bet same as the next man.........:p

[mowgli77]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? Each way on the 2nd or 3rd favourite in an 8-10 runner race with a short priced and overrated favourite. Love these type of races/bets. You often find you have an 8 runner race with only 4 having any realistic chance of winning. You are often getting your stake back if it places and a nice profit if it wins.

[BKI Punter]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? Win singles and EW doubles for me. Kinda decided to stop EW betting for singles.

[mowgli77]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ?

Win singles and EW doubles for me. Kinda decided to stop EW betting for singles.

Due to profits or confidence? I had a period of 2nd places at double figures and just kept kicking myself for going win only. I don't see it as a negative going ew, more a safety net. What was/is your approach to ew betting?

[erhaab1965]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? I posted my original thread after a heavy drinking session and I've missed a few points. The Tote Trifecta in general is an absolutely awful bet , the one which is value is the rollover race each Saturday afternoon . This is the bet that professionals don't want you to find out about. I have no idea why the Tote no longer promote this bet or advertise the rollover in either in their shops/website/Racing Post. Basically every day there is a trifecta meeting , it is available on all races with 8 or more runners. The aim is to get the first 3 in the correct order , exactly like a tricast except the return is based on the size of the pool divided by the amount of winning units. The everyday ones are pretty awful with pools ranging from £100 to £2-3K for supporting races on a Saturday afternoon. Because these pools are so small they are often not won or partly won. All this money is rolled over on to a feature handicap each Saturday afternoon. You often see £10k or more added to the pool and this is not advertised anywhere. The professionals pretty much clean up every single week. The dividend always pays more than the tricast purely because of the dead money , whereas the normal trifectas are pretty poor.

[erhaab1965]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? You can see for yourself how much is in the pools everyday by checking the results section of the Racing post. You will be astonished how poor the pools are and how many are carried forward to the following Saturday. The best pools are straight after big festivals such as Royal Ascot and Cheltenham. The Saturday after Cheltenham this year had the Uttoxeter Grand National Trail as the rollover race . It had a pool of £147k , a lot of that was rolledover money from during the week . The supporting races had pools of around £1k. The trifecta paid £6k compared to £3k for the tricast. Last weeks Grand National saw a pool of £94k with only 42p of winning units so therefore around £40k was rolledover to Ayr's Scottish National along with the rollovers over the next 7 days.This saw a pool of £215k. It paid £13.5k compared to the tricast of £7k The race before the Scottish Grand National had a pool of £1k so this gives you an idea of how much the pros pump into this bet each week

[BKI Punter]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ?

Due to profits or confidence? I had a period of 2nd places at double figures and just kept kicking myself for going win only. I don't see it as a negative going ew' date=' more a safety net. What was/is your approach to ew betting?[/quote'] Confidence really. Have had a freakishly good run since Jan, and looking at results, would've been far more profitable backing win only instead of EW, so both confidence and profits actually. I still bet on the place market on Betfair, but that's if the place odds are very good value, not as a stake saver. Also, forgot to mention, match bets. I think this is one bet the bookies regularly price up in our favour.

[erhaab1965]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? I used to do this bet each Saturday with good results . I no longer spend hours and hours looking at form so I don't bother with it much unless ii have some free time . I know there are plenty of you guys on here who are quite devoted as spend lots of time studying , maybe it would be worth your while to have a crack at this . I used to anticipate which race it was going be , its normally the hardest TV race , and then spend hours studying. You can get confirmation by ringing the Tote on Friday afternoon. It won't cast a lot of money because the minimum unit is 10p not £1 just like placepots. Also you don't have to do full cover , I never do because its too expensive . I probably come up with a list of 4 to 6 to come first , up to any 8 to come 2nd and up to any 10 to come 3rd. I normally have a perm of 300 to 700 lines. I'll then do a few more smaller perms incase fancied horses come in .Whenever I do hit its always a good return. Its pretty much a safe bet in the long run because you can have 10 horses running for you in a 20 runner handicap .

[bowles10]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? win singles mainly, dont often go ew whatever the price, yes its frustrating, ive had an 80/1 2nd i backed to win !!! anyway, i have found a decent bet recently in backing 5 horses and doing 10 trebles, annoying when you get 2 up but 3 or 4 and its decent money.

[erhaab1965]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ?

win singles mainly, dont often go ew whatever the price, yes its frustrating, ive had an 80/1 2nd i backed to win !!! anyway, i have found a decent bet recently in backing 5 horses and doing 10 trebles, annoying when you get 2 up but 3 or 4 and its decent money.

I much prefer win singles , instead of each way I will back 2 more more runners in bigger fields . In the National I backed 6 horses .......still no winner though. For those who like lucky 31's , instead of a £1 lucky 31 costing £31 , try 10 doubles @£3.1 for same price. 3 winners normally gets you a bigger return. The 4 fold and five fold is usually money down the drain. Your money will last longer.

[Aidymac]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? Bookies love people that do multiple bets. I used be very fond of the Lucky 15, but you could be a year trying to just get 3 selections up, no good! Win single or e/w @ 12/1 or bigger is my bet now.

[richard-westwood]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? i get a lot of placed horses so my general rule is i back e.w over 11/2 and win below .... that way i can hoover up all the minor place money which isnt much on a single horse but totally racks up at the end of the season ......i hate multiples as i know the bookies love punters who do them .....i do love the e.w double though and have a bash at that from time to time and my biggest wins have come from that bet so its one for the big bucks with lowest risk

[best mate]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? Win singles or each way doubles on certain 5/2 to 4/1 shots. Anything over 10/1, then an each way single. Looking at win singles, someone a lot wiser and much richer once said to me, never ever place a bet on a bet devised by a bookie. He was referring to double, trebles, yankees etc etc.

[Trotter]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ?

Win singles or each way doubles on certain 5/2 to 4/1 shots. Anything over 10/1, then an each way single. Looking at win singles, someone a lot wiser and much richer once said to me, never ever place a bet on a bet devised by a bookie. He was referring to double, trebles, yankees etc etc.

I guess in the olden days when people used betting shops it was easy to avoid 'bookies benefit bets' because they had special betting slips printed up for them...............

[robertob]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? Mostly win singles for me, seldom Each-Way. I prefer to to have two win bets in a race rather than an EW bet. Though I also do sometimes each-way bets if I feel strong about a big priced horse anyway.

[Edberg]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? 90% win singles 5% each way singles 4% different combos 1% exacta, trifecta

[corky]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? win singles are my preferred bet,anything over 8/1 i will bet place only, but not every bookmaker takes place betting, therein lies the answer

[harrisman]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? Interesting the different viewpoints. I'm surprised that nobody seems to have mentioned that the best bet (if there is one) will be the one most suited to the particular event-sometimes the best bet is not to participate because of the weather or nature of the event or odds on offer. Sometimes the best bet will be a lay or even a place lay or a dutched bet or even a tote E/W or even just tote place bet with a small yard and un fashionable jockey on board-its surprising how often these crop up on some of the smaller tracks. This year I have adopted a much more conservative strategy and am happy with maybe just a 0.5 points or point daily profit and incrementally things have been increasing nicely. Although I guess I don't treat it as a bit of fun any more-I've got plenty of o ther hobby's for that.

[Darran]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? I think the above post is the best answer on here. The best bet is whatever is suited to the race. For example today I have done two bets I very rarely do and that is a place lay and a bet in the betting without the fav market. It seems pointless to me to limit yourself to a certain bet it should be judged on a race by race basis. Win singles would make up most of my betting but then my two biggest wins have come from an e/w treble I did last month and a yankee I had up at Cheltenham last year.

[Watching-brief]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? im surprised no ones mentioned the best bet to have is a winning one haaa joking lads , i find that a patent works well or even a super gladiator depending on the amount of runners in your selections races

[Blazing Bailey]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? I generally stick to singles with the occasional EW. I used to do some doubles/trebles & yankees etc but I worked out that they lost me a lot more than I won back and it really wasnt worth it. I occasionally do a forecast on the flat if I think two runners in a race are ahead of their mark and it has actually done quite well for me and I quite often bet on the place only or w/out market when the situation suits. I have heard a lot of people comment on how bookies dont like the EW double but never really dont it myself.

[Monterosso]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? Personally, I've just been doing win singles for some time now and have dropped each-way punting altogether. 2pts win would be my standard bet and I much prefer to do that than go 1pt e/w, regardless of the price. Previously I would have found myself to be relying on confidence quite a lot, so getting some nice placed horses that I've had and each-way bet on would help in that regard. I just find now that it's utterly pointless (plus all I can think about is the long-term game; making my reliance on here-and-now confidence non-existent somewhat) and I'd rather wait patiently for the winners to come up. My spreadsheets also told me that my profit would have been increased significantly by doing win-only, and it obviously makes sense to listen to that!

[fintron]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? I'd say 90 % of my bets are each-way singles, typically between 9/2 and 20/1, around 5 % are win singles at odds less than 9/2, and the rest are small stake multiples and forecasts, to try win big off a very small outlay. I don't bother with any of the Totepools as I wouldn't want to stake enough to justify a perm and don't like betting blind without knowing the possible return. The whole win or each-way debate is something that I've considered plenty. A few friends kept saying to me that without winners, you won't make a profit, and they are right. However, confidence is such a major factor in punting, you need to bet with conviction and be confident you are going to hit the bookies. Monte mentions above he is accustomed to the losing runs and can keep focus throughout them, I'd say I am in the other camp and like to see regular returns to keep confidence high, for personal reassurance that the methodology behind the selections is sound. From a pure profit and loss point of view, win only would be more profitable for me (last season could have upped profits by 50 %) but I know that is just back testing and, in reality, in the middle of a losing run, things might change due to loss of confidence. There can be a natural gravitation towards shorter priced picks off final shortlists, as there is more chance of ensuring a return. I do sometimes back two or three against the field instead of one each way single, but that is very rare. Sometimes I do it if there is a front runner I think is quirky but might get a soft lead. I dont want to put all of the eggs in one basket so have a single on him and also on ones that could pick him off. The other situation is at courses renowned for bad luck in running, like Lingfield or Kempton. I might try and pick two or three incase the main pick hits a wall of horses and his chance goes.

[harrisman]

Re: What is the best type of bet in horse racing ? interesting viewpoints about win v e/w, although sometimes I think it's difficult to compare easily-maybe in retrospect-When I do an E/W bet it's because I expect the chances of the horse being placed shorter than the E/W odds on offer. I am not expecting it to win although that may be an occassional bonus.With regard to my previous post it may well be that the ' value bet' in the particular race is the E/W bet for a horse to be placed even though it's unlikely to win against a short priced favourite who maybe offers little value. 5 and 8 runner fields are perfect for this tactic, with the E/W profit often much better than a pure place bet on the exchanges.I guess there are many approaches although this one has been working nicely for me this year so far, as always depending on the available odds-the significant factor.I guess the other reason I am not keen on purely straight win only always as unless you have an extremely large bank available and have a big priced winner at the start of a sequence of results it is much harder for a gradual compounding of your stake which to me has to be the key to long term larger profits surely the ultimate goal?