2011 Kentucky Derby Betting
According to tradition, the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby will take place on the first Saturday in May at the famed Churchill Downs race track in Louisville, Kentucky.
Nicknamed the “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” and the “The Run for the Roses”, the Kentucky Derby is the Super Bowl of thoroughbred horse racing. It marks the first leg of the triple crown.
Despite a wet day, attendance for the 136th Kentucky Derby was 155,804, the sixth-largest Derby crowd ever. Millions more people head to their local track or tune in on television to watch the race, and many of these folks try their luck at picking the winning horse.
If you’re not one of the many who make the trip to Louisville for the big race, you can still place your wagers at your local track or an online sportsbook.
If you’re looking to make some serious change on the Derby you don’t want to place your bets blindly. It is imperative that you do your homework. Find out about the top contenders, which trainers have done well and which jockeys have rode to glory.
According to current odds at Sportsbook.com, Uncle Mo is the favorite at +350 followed by Dialed In (+400), Archarcharch (+900), Nehro (+1000) and Mucho Macho Man (+1000). Don’t get too fixated on the favorites, though. This year’s field is the most wide-open I’ve seen in a very long time.
Todd Pletcher is among the best trainers in the industry, and he finally broke his losing streak at the Kentucky Derby with Super Saver last year. In addition, Bob Baffert and Nick Zito horses can never be counted out. Baffert has trained three Derby winners and Zito has trained two. Midnight Interlude (+1500) is Baffert’s best shot and Dialed In is Zito’s.
As far as jockeys go, none have been better than Calvin Borel in recent years. He has rode the winning horse in three of the last four Derby’s. Borel is currently without a horse to ride but I expect him to have one by race day.
The horses, the trainers and the jockeys are the three things you must know before placing your wagers.
Below, I have gone ahead and broken down the most popular wagers to fill in all of you new to betting horses.
Straight bets:
Win – With a “win” bet, you are picking the horse you think will win the race. If the horse you pick crosses the finish line first, you get the money. For example, a $100 wager on Dialed In to win at +400 would profit you $400.
Place – You can also bet a horse to “place”, which means you will win your wager if that horse finishes first or second.
Show – You’ve probably already guessed that a “show” bet pays when a horse finishes in the top three.
Exotic bets:
Exacta – Hang around the betting booth at your local track and you’ll hear many horse racing bettors placing “exacta” wagers. You must pick the two horses that finish first and second in the exact order to cash in this wager. I recommend you “box” your exacta to improve your chances of winning. By doing so, you will win your wager if the two horses you picked finish first and second in any order.
Trifecta – Maybe you’ve heard someone say they hit the trifecta and you weren’t sure what they were talking about. Well, they cashed in big because they picked the top three horses in the exact order they finished. Just like we discussed above, you can box this exotic and get paid by picking the first three finishing horses in any order.
