- Fact-checked by Josh Miller
- Edited by Diana Westfield
How to bet on horses comes down to three choices: which horse, which bet, and which price. The horse is the hard part and nobody can do that for you. The other two are just rules, and once you know them you’ll never stand at a counter wondering what “each way, 1/5 odds, three places” actually means for your fiver. So how do you bet on horse racing in practice? This guide goes from the simplest bet up to the placepot, using normal UK terms.
How to bet on horses: the win bet
You back a horse to win. If it does, you get your stake back plus the odds times your stake: £10 at 5/1 returns £60. Anything else, second by a nose included, loses. It’s the cleanest bet in racing and the one to start with. The betting ready reckoner lists the returns at every price for any stake.
Each way bets and place terms
An each way bet is two bets of the same stake: one to win, one to place. £5 each way costs £10. If the horse wins, both parts pay. If it only places, the place part pays a fraction of the odds.
| Race | Places paid | Fraction of the odds |
|---|---|---|
| 2 to 4 runners | Win only | – |
| 5 to 7 runners | 2 | 1/4 |
| 8 or more runners | 3 | 1/5 |
| Handicap, 12 to 15 runners | 3 | 1/4 |
| Handicap, 16 or more runners | 4 | 1/4 |
Those are the standard terms; bookmakers often pay extra places on big races. Take £5 each way at 8/1 in a 16-runner handicap. It finishes fourth: the place part pays 8/1 divided by 4, which is 2/1, so £15 back on £10 staked. It wins: £45 plus £15, so £60. Each way makes most sense on bigger prices in big fields, and very little sense on a 6/4 favourite. The CasinoCalcs each way calculator settles any of these.
Taking a price or the SP
When you bet, you can take the price on offer now or leave it to the starting price, the official price when the race goes off. If you take 8/1 and the horse is backed into 4/1, you still get 8/1. If it drifts to 12/1, you’re stuck with 8/1, unless your bookmaker offers Best Odds Guaranteed on that race, which pays the bigger of the two.
The catch with taking a price is non-runners. If a fancied horse is withdrawn late, the bookmaker applies a Rule 4 deduction to bets struck at earlier prices, because the field got easier. The Rule 4 calculator shows what comes off. Your stake on a non-runner itself is refunded.
Forecasts, tricasts and the placepot
A forecast asks you to name the first two in the right order, a reverse forecast in either order (two bets), and a tricast the first three. They pay well because they’re hard; the dividends are worked out after the race. The tricast and forecast calculator works out the cost of combination bets before you place them.
The placepot is a tote bet: pick a horse to place in each of the first six races at a meeting. It’s cheap to play with several horses per race, and the placepot calculator does the line count. For Saturday multiples like the Lucky 15, see the bet calculator.
Reading a race before you bet
Odds are a probability with a margin on top. A 3/1 shot is priced at 25%, and if the whole field’s prices add up to 120%, that 20% is the bookmaker’s cut. If you want a second opinion on the prices, the horse race predictor turns odds or your own ratings into win and place chances. Just remember that the favourite loses about two races in three. That’s not a flaw in the system, it’s what the odds were telling you.
Next steps: how to read horse racing form, each way betting explained, starting price explained and ante post betting.
Set a stake for the day and stick to it. BeGambleAware.org has free help if racing stops being fun.