PUNTING ON TRIFECTAS

Betting on first and second favourites is a logical, albeit unexciting type of wagering strategy.

Trifectas: Most punters quickly tire of this type of betting, but it can be beneficial in the event the profits accumulated are sufficient to allow the punters to risk bookmakers money on longer odds type bets.

Selecting Trifectas

One very common form of this is to attempt to pick a Trifecta, where the winning wager requires the punter placing it to select which runner will finish first, second and third along with the exact order of that finish.

It does not suffice to simply pick the top three horses. If the horse picked to win places second, that picked to finish second third and that picked for third wins, the wagerer loses the entire amount staked.

The trifectas trail only the exacta in terms of popularity amongst exotic bets. The payouts for correctly selecting the trifecta can be astronomical, depending on the odds (popularity) at which the horses win at. Of course, a huge potential payday means that odds against are also astronomical, hence the necessity for not basing one’s entire punting strategy on trifectas. There are trifecta variations that offer better chances of success, with a commensurately lower payout.

Standout Trifectas

For example, you can have what is called a Standout Trifecta, where one or more runners is picked to win. In this wager, the punter may pick any number of horses, along with other horses to run to place second and third, any one of which posting the victory supplies a winning wager.

Obviously this type of bet would cost more due to the fact you are selecting more horses. If a fourth runner is added, the cost of the wager increases and so on. A common type bet like this could be 3 runners selected to win and the field to run second and third. If any of those 3 horses win the race you then win on the trifecta. You are hoping the 2nd and 3rd place getters are not fancied which then increases your winnings.

This progressively higher wager can get much higher if the field is large enough. The payout for this type of wager often hardly justifies the effort and is quite common for punters to layout more on the bet and receive back less even if they select the trifecta.

A boxed trifecta, if three runners are selected, they may finish in any order and supply a winning ticket. Additional runners will increase the cost of the wager, with four runners costing $24, five, $60, and so on.

Trifecta Flexi Betting

It has never been easier now to bet on trifectas now that TAB's have introduced Flexi Betting.

You can increase your chances of winning by having as many trifecta combinations as you want at an outlay to suit your pocket. You decide how much you want to invest on the race by having a percentage of the bet only.

For example, betting on a box five Trifecta usually costs $60.00. Say if you want to invest $30.00 only on the trifecta, and if your selections get up you will receive a percentage of the final dividend, in this case 50%. If the trifecta dividend pays $400.00 you would receive $200.00 for your outlay. If you had invested $15.00 on the race you would receive 25% or $100.00 of the final dividend.

Choosing the right races for trifecta betting is nearly as important as selecting the place getters in the race. Some of the factors to consider when selecting the race would be, number of runners in the race, track conditions, class of the race, money in the pool, odds of the runners and so on.

Trifectas can be hard enough to score without betting on the wrong race. For example: betting on a track that is heavy is when you may find unfavourable horses running lengths better than predicted, and then being placed in the first 3. The trifectas will pay very well but having selected those place getters would be difficult.

Include Longshots

The only longshots you want to be placed are the ones you selected and predicted. Obviously when these unfavoured horses win or are placed in the first 3 the larger the dividend will pay due to the fact not many people have selected them. The people who are picking these type of trifectas usually have used their own lucky no's, or have picked them out of a hat or similar.

Things come to those who wait. There are days when the favorites win the race with the 2nd and 3rd favorites filling the places. Punters win on the trifectas but may in fact lose money because of the amount they outlaid. But then there are days when a 15/1 and a 10/1 and a 20/1 come 1st and 2nd and 3rd and the favorites no where to be seen. There will be no line up at the trifectas payout window.

With Trifectas, the strike rate is low due to the difficulty, but hopefully the ones that are successful pay out enough to cover the past losses.