A Day at the Races Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Daily Racing Form

The "Daily Racing Form" started publication in 1894. It contains a wealth of information about every horse in every race at every major race track in the United States. It contains so much information that a beginner is likely to be overwhelmed. Don't despair! With a little practice you will find the "Daily Racing Form" easy to use. Among other information, you will find the horses' pedigrees, past performances, career earnings, speed and class ratings, the names of the breeder, owner, and trainer, and much, much more.

It even contains an analysis of each race and selections by racing experts. A "tip sheet" doesn't contain much of this information; it just contains the predicted finish of each race, and some of them are written by people who don't know much more about horse racing than you do! Skip the tip sheets and stick to the "Daily Racing Form." A couple of tips: each regional edition of the "Daily Racing Form" contains information on several race tracks; make sure you are looking at the information for the track you are at! And it doesn't give the post position numbers for the horses.

In addition to the "Daily Racing Form," you may wish to purchase a program, a locally prepared publication that contains much of the same information in an abbreviated format, and lists the horses by post position number.

Answer: $2

When dealing with so-called straight bets - win, place and show - the minimum bet at almost all U.S. tracks is $2. You don't have to bet multiples of $2; you can bet $3, $7 or $11 if you want to, but you must bet at least $2, and you must bet in even dollar amounts (you can't bet $2.50). No one knows how the $2 bet became standard, although there are a lot of theories. But we do know that it has been that way for well over 100 years. If you had bet $2 on a horse race in 1900, you were betting a good chunk of your weekly pay check. Today it's a piddling amount. But racing fans are very conservative, and if there was an attempt to raise the minimum, you can be certain the bettors would rise in revolt. The $2 bet is one reason the $2 bill has stayed in circulation so long; you seldom encounter one in every day life, but some race tracks still use them.

This might be a good place to explain the difference between the three basic bets: win, place and show. If you bet a horse to win, it must finish first in order for you to win your bet. If you bet a horse to place, you win if it finishes first or second. And if you bet a horse to show, you win if it finishes either first, second or third. Now, you are probably asking yourself, "Why should I bet a horse to win, when it has to finish first, when I can bet it to show, and win even if it comes in second or third?" Well, betting a horse to win usually pays more than betting a horse to place, and betting it to place usually pays more than betting it to show. Let's say Blazing Bob wins the race. He might pay $20.00 to win, $6.00 to place, and only $4.00 to show. Betting a horse to place or show increases the odds of you cashing your ticket, but if your horse wins, you get less money back. On the other hand, if you had bet Blazing Bob to win, and he finished third, you wouldn't get anything back if you had bet him to win or place, but you would be a winner if you had bet him to show.

Answer: Track, number of the race, number of the horse, amount and type of bet

Let's say you are at Deadbeat Downs. Why does the clerk need you to tell him the name of the track? Doesn't he know where he is? Of course he does, but nowadays most tracks take bets not only for races at their own track, but for races at other tracks as well. You may be able to bet on races at a dozen different tracks. So he needs to know at which track the race you are betting on is taking place. Next, he needs to know which race you are betting on, because most tracks offer advance wagering. You might want to bet the seventh race on the card, but can't wait around until it is run; you just want to make your bet, go home or go to work, and check the results later. You never bet a horse by name. You always bet it by the number it has been assigned in the race. The clerks don't have time to memorize the names of all the horses in all the races at all the tracks. Finally, you tell them the amount and type of bet, in this case, "$2 to win." Let's say Dapper Dan is horse number 6 in the first race. You would tell the clerk, "Deadbeat Downs, first race, number 6, $2 to win."

Don't worry if you make a mistake. Most clerks will figure out what you want, and will help you if they are not too busy. But one thing is very important: don't get in line to bet until you know which horse or horses you want to bet on, and how much you want to bet. It is considered very rude to the other patrons behind you in line if you wait until you reach the betting window to make up your mind!

Answer: The bettors

All American racing involves parimutuel betting. This means that the odds on each horse are determined by how much is bet on him. If a lot of money is bet on one horse, called the favorite, those who bet on him will receive a modest return. If very few people bet on a horse, he is called a longshot, and those who bet on him will be handsomely rewarded. Parimutuel betting was first used in France in 1874.

Parimutuel betting works like this. All of the money wagered on a race is placed in a pool. The track deducts its percentage from the pool, an amount called the take. It then deducts the amount bet on each horse from the pool, and divides the remainder by the amount wagered to determine the odds. This sounds more complicated than it is. Let's say there are ten horses in the race, and each horse has $10 bet on him to win. The pool would be $10 x 10 = $100. The track takes $20 out of the pool as its percentage, leaving $80. It would then subtract the $10 wagered on the horse, leaving $70. $70 divided by $10 = 7. The odds on each horse in this race would be 7-1. If you bet $2 on the horse to win, you would receive 7 times your bet of $2, plus you would get your $2 wager back, so the payout for a $2 bet would be $16.

The more money that is bet on a horse, the lower his odds. The less money bet on a horse, the higher the odds. In real life, the numbers don't often add up exactly. For example, afer performing the math, the payout for a winner might be $8.68. The track will round this down to the nearest dime, or, at some tracks, to the nearest twenty cents, and pay only $8.60. This is called breakage. The payout cannot be less than a certain amount, usually $2.10 or $2.20 for a $2 bet, even if one horse is an overwhelming favorite, and the track actually loses money on the race.

These calculations are constantly changing, and are computed automatically and displayed on the "tote board," which is located on the infield of the track near the finish line, and on television monitors throughout the track facility. There is no guarantee that the odds won't change before the race starts. You may bet on a horse at 5-1, and find that when the race starts, his odds have dropped to 2-1. You are paid according to the final odds when the race starts, not what the odds were when you placed your bet. Of course, it works the other way, too. You may bet a horse at 3-1, and find his final odds are 6-1.

You may see odds like 5-2, or 8-5. In the first case, you simply add the numbers to determine your payout out; in this case 5 + 2 = $7. The second case is a little harder; it means a $5 bet would pay $13. To determine how much you would win on a $2 bet, you have to divide 13 by 5, and then multiply by two: 13/5 = 2.6. 2.6 X 2 = 5.2, so your $2 bet would return $5.20.

You may also see odds like 4-5, or 1-2. These odds indicate that a horse is a heavy favorite and will return less than "even money." A horse that is 1-2 will pay only $3 if he wins. These horses are known as "odds-on favorites," and win frequently, but the low return you receive doesn't justify betting on them unless you want to wager a large amount of money.

Answer: Picking the winner in two different races

Most tracks offer at least one daily double. This involves selecting the winner in two different races, usually the first and second races on the card. You make only one bet, but both of the horses must win. If you select Dapper Dan in the first race, and Rapid Robert in the second race, they must both finish first in order for you to cash your ticket. If either horse loses, you lose your wager.

The daily double is very popular. Many tracks offer more than one daily double. The "Daily Racing Form" or the track program will tell you what types of betting are allowed on any particular race.

Some tracks offer a "Pick 3" or "Pick 4" which is like the daily double, except you must select the winners of three or four consecutive races. The chance of winning is small, but the payouts are usually substantial.

Answer: Selecting the first and second place finishers, in order, in the same race

The exacta is one of the wagers that horse players call "exotic" bets. At some tracks it's called a perfecta or an exactor, but the idea is the same: you must select the horses that will finish first and second in the same race. Let's say you select the number 4 horse to win, and the number 7 horse to come in second. The race must finish 4-7 in that order for you to win. If they finish 7-4, you're out of luck; you have the right horses, but in the wrong order. If you want to make sure you win if you select the right horses you can "box" your exacta. This means betting every possible exacta combination involving the horses you've selected. If you select two horses, your bet would involve two possible combinations; in the above example, boxing the four and seven would mean you were betting 4-7 and 7-4. You could box three horses, and this would involve six combinations. Suppose you box the 3, 4, and 7. If you tell the clerk you want an exacta box on the 3, 4, and 7, you are betting 3-4, 3-7, 4-3, 4-7, 7-3, and 7-4. Note that betting $2 on a straight exacta costs $2; boxing two horses would cost $4; and boxing three horses would cost $12. You can box as many horses as you like, but the cost increases rapidly; at $2 per combination, a four horse box would cost $24, and a five horse box would cost $40. If you boxed four horses to win the exacta, and it paid only $18, you would win your bet, but still lose money!

A few tracks offer a bet called the quiniela. It has its origins in the sport of jai alai, and is one of the few Basque words to have entered the English language. When you bet a quiniela, you have to pick the the horses that finish first and second, but it doesn't matter which order they finish. So if you bet a 1-2 quiniela, you win if the finish is 1-2 or 2-1. It's basically the same as a two horse exacta box. The quiniela usually pays less than the exacta, because you are getting two possible winning combinations for a single bet.

Answer: Betting on two or more horses to win in the same race

There's no rule against betting on more than one horse in a particular race. At first glance, this may seem a foolish thing to do, because one of your bets is sure to lose, unless the race finishes in a dead heat. But sometimes this can make sense. Suppose Rapid Robert is 3-1 and Fast Freddie is 5-1. You bet $2 on each horse to win, a total of $4. If Rapid Robert wins, you'll cash his winning ticket for $8, netting a profit of $4. If Fast Freddie wins, you'll get $12 for your winning ticket, a profit of $8.

This can be a profitable strategy in races where you don't like the favorite's chances of winning, and the other horses are going off at relatively high odds. It doesn't make a lot of sense to do this if one of your horses is a strong favorite. If Rapid Robert's odds were 1-2, you would only receive $3 for your winning ticket, and once again you would lose money, even though you got to cash one of your winning tickets.

Answer: The race track stewards are reviewing the race

An inquiry (also called a steward's inquiry) is something you don't want to see if you are holding a winning ticket. Like all sports, horse racing has its rules, and the stewards are the officials that enforce them. An inquiry means that that the stewards have spotted a possible infraction of the rules, and and are reviewing the race before posting the official results. An inquiry usually results when one horse has impeded the progress of another horse by bumping into him, forcing him to check his speed to avoid a collision, or forcing him to go wide by drifting into his path. The stewards may decide to uphold the results of the race, or they may disqualify the offending horse. Seeing your winning horse "taken down" is one of the saddest things that can happen to a bettor.

An "objection" is similar to an inquiry. This means that after the race is over, one of the jockeys has lodged a claim of foul against one of the other horses. An objection also results in a review of the race by the stewards. An objection is less likely to affect the results of a race than an inquiry, but objections are sometimes upheld, and can result in your winning horse being disqualified.

The only time you want to see an inquiry or an objection is when the horse you bet to win finishes second. If the winning horse is taken down, your losing ticket may suddenly become a winner. That is why you should never throw your tickets away until the race is declared official. Every year, bettors discard millions of dollars of winning tickets, many of them because the results of the races are changed by inquiries and objections. At most tracks, you will see people collecting losing tickets that bettors have thrown away. They sort through them, and sometimes find a "losing" ticket that is actually a winner!

Answer: Lucky Louie will not run in the race

Sometimes horses who have been entered in a race will be withdrawn at the last minute. This may be for any number of reasons. It may be that it has rained, and the horse does not run well on a sloppy race track. The horse may be sick or lame, and be scratched by the stewards. Or the trainer may have found another upcoming race that he thinks suits his horse better. Scatches are usually announced ahead of time; if a horse is scratched after betting has started on a race, all wagers on that horse will be refunded, so never throw a ticket away on a horse that has been scratched. You won't win anything, but you will at least get your money back.

Answer: To have fun

Very few people consistently make money betting on the horses. The track's take and the many variables that go into selecting the winner of a particular race are obstacles that are too great to overcome. Betting on races is a form of entertainment; watching your horse run to victory is a thrill like no other.

As with other forms of gambling, you should bet rationally, and never bet more than you can afford to lose. Learning basic horse racing terms and handicapping fundamentals will increase your chances of winning, but every veteran horse player will tell you that the horses will win in the long run. Still, you can get a lot of enjoyment out of betting on the horses, and you will have lots of stories to tell about your adventures at the track. And who knows? Maybe you will be one of the few who does score a big win!