The wagering menu for the Breeders’ Cup is a feast waiting to happen and when the 2-day slugfest is all said and done, nobody will be hungry. The tablecloths will be loaded with options starting on Friday November 4 at Santa Anita.
The first 8 races Friday will feature a wagering menu that spotlights win, place and show, exacta, trifecta and superfecta bets. Those events will also offer Pick threes and eight daily doubles. A Pick 5 begins in the first race, a Pick 4 in the third and the Pick 6 in the fourth race. Two Pick 4s will also be available starting in the sixth and seventh races.
The Saturday card wagering menu will feature just about the same line-up and for those that like to have a reason to wake up, there will be a special Distaff/Classic daily double. It will start in the ninth on Friday and end in the twelfth on Saturday.
The two-day card will unfold like this. The $1 million Cup Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf will start the ball rolling. It will be followed by the $1 million Las Vegas Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. The ladies enter the picture next with the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and some of the best of the weaker sex close the action in the $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
A pair of $2 million events will be the appetizer for the November 5 card in Arcadia, California.
The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, the Filly & Mare Turf follows and then comes the Sprint.
The Turf Sprint, Juvenile, Turf and Filly & Mare Sprint make up meat of the sandwich with the best toppings yet to come. The Mile and the $6 million Classic conclude the festivities.
There will be guarantees for the horizontal pools but that is really a moot point. With an event like this, the money will pour in. Last year the Breeders’ Cup handled over $155 million.
What may be more important concerning the wagering menu is that the minimum bets that will be accepted. In the last several years, the racetracks have finally figured out that the more money that is in circulation, the healthier the overall handle will be. Hence, the lowered some of the bet minimums and this gives the ‘little guy’ a shot to have a huge day.
Tradition holds fast in this wagering menu too. The win, place, show, daily double and Pick 6s wagers have always been $2 and that will stay in place. The Breeders’ Cup will have $1 Exactas and a $1 wager on the Distaff/Classic daily double.
Here is where it gets great for those with limited bankrolls. There are 50 cent minimums for trifectas, Pick threes, fours, fives and also the Super Hi 5.
Picking the first four finishers is never easy and that is why the superfecta will be offered for a mere dime.
Sometimes, horse bettors get lost in the process of just picking a winner but all experienced players know that picking winners is just half the problem. The main thing is to bet correctly and this is why the wide wagering menu that is offered will benefit all kinds of players.
Here are a few examples of how the wagering menu can be exploited. Last year on the first day of the Breeders’ Cup, the 50-cent Pick Four ended with the 7-1 Hit it a Bomb and the exotic bet paid $12,420.05.
On Saturday it was proven that even if a favorite was victorious, a nice windfall could be found. Runhappy was the winning chalk in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint but the $2 superfecta returned over five thousand.
A similar result happened in the Juvenile last year. The co-third choice won the race and Nyquist paid $11.40. Two of the next four betting choices finished in the first four and despite that logical finish, the payoff was solid. The $2 superfecta paid over $5,500.
Last year the Breeders’ Cup was staged at Keeneland. This year, Santa Anita has opened up the options for bettors and that will certainly help the handle. With the smaller minimum bets available, an individual or a blue collar betting syndicate, can get paid without dipping into the mortgage payment.
