Sharpen those lucky handicapping pencils. Loosen the rubberband on the bankroll. It’s the most glorious time of year for horseplayers. The Breeders’ Cup is here!
The Breeders’ Cup is the Super Bowl of horseracing: 14 Grade 1 races worth more than $34 million that conclude another thrilling season. This is where champions are crowned and fans have front row seats to follow the action at Keeneland.
NBC Sports and Peacock will present 10 1/2 hours of live coverage across NBC and the USA Network over Friday and Saturday. Coverage begins Friday 1-6 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock with Future Stars Friday, showcasing five championship races exclusively for 2-year-olds.
On Saturday, coverage resumes from 1-3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock before moving to NBC and Peacock from 3:30-6:30 p.m. ET, culminating with the $7 million Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at 6:16 p.m. ET.
It’s all on the line for owners, breeders, trainers and jockeys looking for the defining victory to clinch an Eclipse Award. What about the horseplayers?
This is their championship weekend as well. The Breeders’ Cup offers a wealth of wagering opportunities with value plays not usually available the rest of the year.
For starters, there is the incredible lineup of talent culminating with the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) featuring Japan superstar and defending Classic winner Forever Young, last year’s Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner and Horse of the Year Sovereignty, and this year’s Derby and Belmont winner Golden Tempo.
You'll find that kind of depth through each of the 14 races covering every division. With full fields expected for each race, the value opportunities abound. Many of the stakes run throughout the year have small fields which usually leads to smaller payoffs.
With so many choices here, the money spreads around rather than centralizing on one or two favorites. That’s the key to finding the value. Payoffs tend to be higher due to the size and talent in each Breeders’ Cup race.
For the bettors, there is no shortage of ways to play. It doesn’t matter your bankroll or experience level. Wagers start as low at 10 cents for superfectas. The minimums for traditional win, place and show bets are only $1.
Let’s look at the ways to play:
These are the traditional win, place and show bets – a format as old as racing itself
Win: The easiest to grasp. Your horse must finish first. The odds on the toteboard and on the telecasts are the win odds, so you can track your potential payoff. Those rewards can be gigantic, as in 1993 when Arcangues returned a Breeders’ Cup record $269.20 for a $2 win bet in the Classic.
Place: A wager made on a single horse, same as a win bet. The difference: you win if your horse finishes first or second. It usually returns less than a win bet … but then, you have two chances instead of one. Pick a longshot, and you will be rewarded. Spain won the 2000 Distaff at 50-1 and returned $36.80 to place.
Show: Novice players love this bet -- it’s the easiest to cash. Select a horse and if it finishes first, second, or third, you are a winner. Payoffs are usually lower than win or place, but then you cash a lot more tickets.
That doesn’t mean you can’t find value. Golden Missile finished third in the 1999 Classic and paid $30.20 to show.
There are a multitude of wagers that involve combining multiple horses within one race. You can play a single combination, or you can “box” them to finish in any order. Let’s look at what’s on the Breeders’ Cup menu.
The exacta: As the name suggests, you select two horses (one to win, the other to place) and they must finish in that exact order. It is a $1 base wager and is the easiest single-race exotic to hit. And it can be rewarding. When Bar of Gold (66-1) beat Ami’s Mesa (18-1) in the 2017 Filly & Mare Sprint, the exacta returned a whopping $2,060.40 for a $2 investment.
The trifecta: The trifecta ups the ante by requiring the first three finishers in exact order. The base trifecta wager is 50 cents.
The superfecta: It gets tougher as we go. “The Super” is the first four finishers in exact order. It’s a taller challenge, but the base price shrinks to 10 cents. The smaller base price allows you to box various combinations without busting your bankroll. As the degree of difficulty ratchets up, so do the potential payoffs. In the 2023 Classic, even though favored White Abarrio won, he was followed home by Derma Sotogake (26-1), Proxy (17-1), and Arabian Knight (3-1). The superfecta paid $1,060.14 for just a dime on the combination.
Super High 5: The Super High 5 can mean super high payoffs. Now we need the first five finishers in order with a base price of $1. When Ushba Tesoro (7-2) ran fifth to complete the Super High 5 in the 2023 Classic, the payoff was $53,593.30 for a $1 investment.
Multi-race bets: Most of us are familiar with the old-fashioned daily double where you select the winners of consecutive races. The two-day Breeders’ Cup offers a seemingly infinite number of multi-race bets to suit all tastes.
There are “rolling doubles” all day long on Friday and Saturday with a new double beginning with each race until the finale on the card. The early double will be races 1 & 2 followed by 2 & 3, then 3 & 4, all the way through the program.
The minimum Daily Double wager is $1, both on the rolling Daily Doubles and on the Special Daily Doubles.
The Pick 3: Now we have to select three winners in a row, and the Pick 3s roll throughout both cards until there are only three races left. The minimum on the rolling Pick 3 wagers is $1. The All-Turf Pick 3 minimum is $3 for Friday.
Race 6: Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1)
Race 8: Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1)
Race 10: Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1)
There will be two Pick 4s on Saturday:
The All-Turf Pick 4 is a 50-cent minimum wager and will package four of the best turf races in the world together with top-flight fields of international competitors. The four races, in order, are:
Race 5: Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1)
Race 7: Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1)
Race 9: Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1)
Race 11: Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1)
The All-Dirt Pick 4 is also a 50-cent minimum wager. The four races, in order, are:
Race 6: Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1)
Race 8: Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1)
Race 10: Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1)
Race 12: Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1)
There will also be Pick 5s and Pick 6s, each adding to the handicapping challenge while sweetening the potential rewards.
Let’s recap those betting minimums as you allocate your wagering capital:
$3 All-Turf Pick 3, $3 Late Pick 3
0$1 WPS, Exacta, Daily Double, Pick 3, Pick 6, Super High 5, Special Daily Double
50-cent Trifecta, Pick 4, All-Turf Pick 4, All-Dirt Pick 4, Pick 5
10-cent Superfecta
As you can see, the potential action has something for everyone, from the novice to the battle-hardened handicappers, from the conservative player to the dream chaser. Good luck, and good wagering.
The writing team at US Racing is comprised of both full-time and part-time contributors with expertise in various aspects of the Sport of Kings.
