The Daily Racing Blog has been known to occasionally Wager on Horse Racing. And aside from a long weekend at Saratoga, the next best betting bonanza for us is the Friday and Saturday action of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
This years BC takes place on November 6th and 7th at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky.
The Breeders’ Cup is essentially the NCAA Tournament condensed into two days. It’s where the best horses (based on their accomplishments throughout the year) travel to a neutral site (it’s Kentucky this year but the host venue rotates annually) and square off in bracketed or divisional matchups.
For instance, the best horses in sprint races (run at distances under a mile) on the dirt (there’s also a turf division) face-off in what’s known as the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. There’s a male division of the race and also a female division known as the Filly and Mare Sprint.
In total, there are 14 divisional BC races (five on Friday and nine on Saturday) that attract not only the best horses from coast-to-coast but also from international racing hotspots like England, France, Australia, South America, and even Japan and Hong Kong.
There are many variables to consider (including how international runners will perform against U.S. competition) when assessing – or handicapping – each race. The detailed level of analysis in 14 stacked Breeders’ Cup races gives horseplayers unique opportunities to make a huge betting score.
Anyone new to the event might be a bit overwhelmed and wonder where to start, how to bet, and on which horse(s) to bet. So here are a couple of things to know if you’re new to betting on the Breeders’ Cup.
There are so many betting options at the Breeders’ Cup, so you may want to map out a wagering strategy. Try to narrow down a list of races to bet and use that to guide your budget in a way that allows you to make your largest Wagers in the races (and on the horses) that you feel the strongest about.
In races that traditionally have been characterized by volatility (like the turf sprints and some of the juvenile races with younger 2-year-old horses that’ll be run on the November 6th Future Stars Friday card), DRB likes to find a key horse around which to make our bets.
The great thing about the Breeders’ Cup is that nearly every race is loaded with a full field of capable runners. For that reason, you can expect with some degree of confidence that there will be a longshot who runs 1st or 2nd in a majority of the races. In other words, rarely do the two betting favorites in a BC race actually finish 1st and 2nd.
If you can identify one of those longshots and make a strong Win and Place bet (for a horse at odds of over 8-1) or even a Show bet (for runners over 12-1) you can score a decent return without having to rely on anything other than your horse running his or her race.
But you can also use those same longshots in Exactas and Trifectas in a way that can be very rewarding. Bear in mind that in last year’s Breeders’ Cup the Post Time favorite Won just 3 of the 14 races.
Just how much money can you make betting the Breeders’ Cup? Look no further than last year for a great example; On Friday, STORM THE COURT (45-1) was on the top of an Exacta that paid $976.40 for a $2 wager! A Winning $2 Trifecta ticket on the race returned $7,861. Earlier in the day, the $2 Trifecta in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf paid $11,967.
Breeders’ Cup = Value.
