People have been betting on horse races since horses have been running. Betting on the outcome of horse races can be fun and profitable if you know what you’re doing and can beat the odds.

On this page you will learn how you can bet on horse races around the world, online, anytime, anywhere.

Place a £2 bet and see what you win
You’re betting on horse races and want to know how much your winning bet will give you. To compute your £2 win price, take the odds of your horse and multiply the first number by 2, divide that by the second number, and then add £2 — simple as that!

Following is a list of payoffs for a £2 bet at various odds for quick reference.

Bet £2 and win:
1/9 £2.20
1/5 £2.40
2/5 £2.80
1/2 £3.00
3/5 £3.20
4/5 £3.60
1/1 £4.00
6/5 £4.40
7/5 £4.80
3/2 £5.00
8/5 £5.20
9/5 £5.60
2/1 £6.00
5/2 £7.00
3/1 £8.00
7/2 £9.00
4/1 £10.00
9/2 £11.00
5/1 £12.00
6/1 £14.00
7/1 £16.00
8/1 £18.00
9/1 £20.00
10/1 £22.00
11/1 £24.00
12/1 £26.00
13/1 £28.00
14/1 £30.00
15/1 £32.00
16/1 £34.00

Types of Horse Racing Wagers (and Your Chances of Winning)

When it comes to betting on horse races, before you even place a bet on a horse you need to decide what type of bet to place. As the bets you can make range from a simple bet on a single horse in one race to choosing the winning horses for six consecutive races, you may need to the information in the following table to help you explore your betting options:

Bet Type	Your Chances of Winning	Explanation and Expectation	Suggested Plays (Based upon a £100 Bankroll)
Show	Very good	Your horse must finish 1st, 2nd, or 3rd; modest payoffs	£6 per horse
Place	Good	Your horse must finish 1st or 2nd; payoffs better than to show	£5 per horse
Win	Average	Your horse must finish 1st; payoff determined by the win odds	£4 per horse
Quinella	Average	Your horses must finish 1st and 2nd in either order; a normal play is to box three horses	£2 quinella box using three horses costs £6
Exacta	Hard	Your horses must finish 1st and 2nd in exact order; riskier bet that can pay a little or a lot, depending on the horses’ odds	£1 exacta box using three horses costs £6; £1 exacta box keying one horse with three horses costs £6
Trifecta	Very hard	Your horses must finish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in exact order; can be expensive to play if you use a lot of horses	£1 trifecta keying one horse to win over three horses costs £6; £1 trifecta keying two horses to win over four horses costs £12
Superfecta	Extremely hard	Your horses must finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th; hard to bet unless you have a sizeable bankroll; big payoff possible	£1 superfecta keying one horse to win over four horses costs £24
Daily Double	Hard	Your horses must win the two consecutive races; chance for a nice payoff with mid-priced horses	£2 daily double using two horses in each race costs £8; £2 daily double keying one horse to three horses costs £6
Pick 3	Very hard	Your horses must win three consecutive races; it’s a daily double plus another race; £1 unit makes it affordable	£1 pick 3 using two horses in each race costs £8; £1 pick 3 keying one horse with three horses in two other races costs £9
Pick 4	Extremely hard	Your horses must win four consecutive races; chance for a big score for a modest amount	£1 pick 4 using two horses in each race costs £16
Pick 6	Thinking man’s lottery	Your horses must win six consecutive races; very expensive to play; huge payoffs possible; a home run bet	£2 pick 6 using three singles with two horses each in the other three races costs £16

There are many different types of horse racing, including:

Flat racing, where horses gallop directly between two points around a straight or oval track.
Jump racing, or Jumps racing, also known as Steeplechasing or, in the UK and Ireland, National Hunt racing, where horses race over obstacles.
Harness racing, where horses trot or pace while pulling a driver in a sulky.
Endurance racing, where horses travel across country over extreme distances, generally ranging from 25 to 100 miles (40 to 161 km)
Different breeds of horses have developed that excel in each of the specific disciplines. Breeds that are used for flat racing include the Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, Arabian, Paint, and Appaloosa. Jump racing breeds include the Thoroughbred and AQPS. Harness racing is dominated by Standardbred horses in Australia, New Zealand and North America, but several other breeds, such as the Russian Trotter and Finnhorse, are seen in Europe.

Flat racing
Flat racing is the most common form of racing, seen worldwide. Flat racing tracks are typically oval in shape and are generally level, although in Great Britain and Ireland there is much greater variation, including figure of eight tracks like Windsor, and tracks with often severe gradients and changes of camber, such as Epsom Racecourse. Track surfaces vary with turf most common worldwide, dirt more common in North America, and newly designed synthetic surfaces, such as Polytrack or Tapeta, seen at some tracks worldwide.

Individual flat races are run over distances ranging from 440 yards (400 m) up to two and a half miles, with distances between five and twelve furlongs being most common. Short races are generally referred to as "sprints", while longer races are known as "routes" in the US or "staying races" in Europe. Although fast acceleration ("a turn of foot") is usually required to win either type of race, in general sprints are seen as a test of speed, while long distance races are seen as a test of stamina. The most prestigious flat races in the world, such as the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Japan Cup, Epsom Derby, Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup are run over distances in the middle of this range and are seen as tests of both speed and stamina to some extent.

In the most prestigious races, horses are generally allocated the same weight to carry for fairness, with allowances given to younger horses and female horses running against males. These races are called conditions races and offer the biggest purses. There is another category of races called handicap races where each horse is assigned a different weight to carry based on its ability. Beside the weight they carry, a horse's performance can also be influenced by its position relative to the inside barrier (post position), its gender, its jockey, and its trainer.

Jump racing
Jump (or jumps) racing in Great Britain and Ireland is known as National Hunt racing (although, confusingly, National Hunt racing also includes flat races taking place at jumps meetings; these are known as National Hunt flat races). Jump racing can be subdivided into steeplechasing and hurdling, according to the type and size of obstacles being jumped. The word "Steeplechasing" can also refer collectively to any type of jump race in certain racing jurisdictions, particularly in the United States.

Typically, horses progress to bigger obstacles and longer distances as they get older, so that a European jumps horse will tend to start in National Hunt flat races as a juvenile, move on to hurdling after a year or so, and then, if thought capable, move on to steeplechasing.

Endurance racing
The length of an endurance race varies greatly. Some are very short, only ten miles, while others can be up to one hundred miles. There are a few races that are even longer than one hundred miles and last multiple days. These different lengths of races are divided into five categories: pleasure rides (10–20 miles), non-competitive trail rides (21–27 miles), competitive trail rides (20–45 miles), progressive trail rides (25–60 miles), and endurance rides (40–100 miles in one day, up to 250 miles (400 km) in multiple days). Because each race is very long, trails of natural terrain are generally used.

Contemporary organized Endurance racing began in California around 1955, and the first race marked the beginning of the Tevis Cup. This race was a one-hundred-mile, one-day-long ride starting in Squaw Valley, Placer County, and ending in Auburn. Founded in 1972, the American Endurance Ride Conference was the United States' first national endurance riding association. The longest endurance race in the world is the Mongol Derby, which is 833.2 km (517.7 mi) long.