I recall reading somewhere that the P3's average in excess of 1K on a dollar ticket. How is that a bad bet?

:tro::tro:

As usual 80% of my handle will be Win, Doubles, and exactas.
Plenty of :$: to be made with good opinions on those bets on Cup day.
I'm am just not comfortable putting $100-200 into tri's,supers, and p3's on multiple races.
I might play a $200 p4 if I really like a sequence and think I can beat a heavy fav.
Id' love to make a DrugS like score this year.

I agree with doubles.

On this day or 2 days, its far and away the best bet. Its not even close. Chalk-Chalk-Chalk is an overlay most times because of the large fields and huge pools.

Your handle seems like its going to be a lot bigger then mine this year. Good Luck VJ.

Again, depends. I liked Friendly Island some as a crazy longshot in the Sprint back in '06. Did I think he could win at 60-1? No, not really. Bet him across the board (and keyed my top choice Bordonaro in multi's & exotics), and he paid $50 to place and $32.80 to show. How would I have felt if I just bet him to win, even though that wasn't really my opinion?

However, what I think you are getting at, would betting Zenyatta or Goldikova win PLUS place this year be a poor wager? Of course.

The P6 averages six figures on a $2 ticket... it's all relative...

I think what he is getting at is bet to win and then back it up with exactas with the horse you like for second instead of betting to place. It's one of the mistakes I make more often than I should. I like a big priced horse, it finishes second to a logical horse and I'm left with nothing because I didn't take a few extra dollars and back it up.

There was a thread, probably 3 or 4 years ago that dealt with something like this. The gist of it was it was better finacially to just put your horse under the favorite than bet the horse to place.

A thread does not make it right. If you like a big priced horse bet it w/p. Who says the chalk is always going to win?

It was " under " the favorite...not over.

I realize you know why, but for those that don't, it's just takeout dispersion.

The thread examined 250 races. That is a pretty large sample. Obviously I wouldn't recommend JUST playing the favorite, but that was how the thread went.

I know you have no desire to look at other ways of doing things, but some might. Say you like a horse and are going to bet $20 win/place. You're better off playing $25 or $30 to win and then using the rest playing your horse second in exactas.

I used to bet win/place, but I almost never do anymore.

I look at things different, and of course I have a desire to make $/more $. I just dont think its a lock system. You play it that way, then what happens if a bomb runs 1,3 and you can get $20p $12S..... Or something bigger like Phil said $50p $30s

My bad, that was what I meant. That's what I get for trying to do more than one thing at a time.

I think the longshot win + exacta underneath logicals is a great play and obviously the one I use the most. Net pool pricing has made it less valuable relative to just win + place than it used to. In my specific example I would have struck out on the exacta because Thor's Echo was nowhere near my tickets, but on a regular basis it's the smartest play, especially in jursidictions with cheap exacta takeout like KY or NY.

I know how you look at things. Nothing will change your mind after it's made up. But others might, which is why Hockey brought it up and I added to it.

Take the case Phil brought up. Say you bet $10 across the board on Friendly Island. You would have gotten back $414. But, if you bet $15 to win and then back wheeled for $1, you would have gotten back $477.70. Say you thought there were 5 horses that were also logical (the winner being one of them) you could have bet $20 win on Friendly Island and $2 exactas with Friendly Island underneath. The $2 exacta paid $955.40.

Obviously it isn't going to work out every single time, but in the long run, I'm confident it does.

The back wheel is the most under utilized part of handicapping that most people never talk about. I always forget about it because like an idiot I just hit the WP button instead.

I make the same mistake, but not as much as I used to. Part of it is laziness and part of it is stubborness. Not a great combo. :D

If you're betting overlays there's no reason to back-up. . . you'll win more over time. Obviously I'll box the horse I like to win w/ the logical horses if I think it's a contentious enough race or if I think there's only one horse who can beat mine I'll play that exacta straight or both ways depending on price. I'm not backing up my 6 or 8-1 shots with exactas under the chalks, because I'm not going to jump off a bridge if I run second and I'm only cutting into my (perceived) advantage.

The bottom line is that hedging kills your edge if you have one.

Look at the contest JMS and I had. We both ended up up, but were down on place bets if I remember correctly. I think the worst time to bet to place is when you're trying to beat a big favorite. You're getting a deflated place pay-off when the chalk runs second, and your EV goes down on your opinion that the favorite was beatable.

I will say, though. that if you're going to bet the Breeders' Cup w/ more enthusiasm than you normally bet on a day-to-day or weekend-to-weekend basis, then some sort of hedging/backing up to cut down on the variance is fairly safe and acceptable.

This is a good thread in general because there are so many options with regards to Breeders' Cup betting. I agree with the exacta under the logicals in lieu of a place bet.

Last year 6 of the 14 Breeders' Cup races featured "IRS" payoffs for 10 cent supers. 11 of them paid over $250. The late Pick 4 was three solid favorites and a 21-1 shot, that could rationally be construed as an overlay, and it paid $752, reduced a few hundred dollars after Quality Road's scratch.

It's important to have a plan to be diverse, and of course, figure out what to bet after you figure out who you like.