Daily double, Pick 3 and Pick 6 are considered “exotic” bets and involve a combination of horses when placing bets in horse racing. All of these bets also involve more than one race. They may seem confusing, however, these types of bets are actually very easy to understand and place.
A daily double bet is when you select the winner in two consecutive races. You may think “Why don’t I just place two ‘win’ bets on those two races separately?” But you receive more value betting the daily double. The payouts are not lottery-tier like other exotic bets, but can still get a decent return without risking a ton of money. A Pick 3 is an expansion of the daily double, as it consists of choosing the winners of three consecutive races. This type of bet also goes through picking winners of four and five consecutive races.
The Pick 6, similar to the others, is a bet where you select the winner in six consecutive races. Instead of placing wagers against a bookmaker, you are placing wagers against a pool of people which is also known as pari-mutuel betting. It is one of the most popular bets in part because the winnings are unlimited and a jackpot is paid out if you hit all six winners. The minimum wager can vary from track to track but is typically $2. The payout is determined by two factors: the number of people who placed a wager on the series of events and how many winning tickets there are. If no one wins that day, the pool of wagers carries over to the next racing day. Multiple tickets can win the Pick 6 and bettors will split the jackpot. Consolation payouts may be given out if a bettor correctly picked five of the six winners.
A couple of days after the 2008 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, an anonymous bettor became an instant millionaire by winning the Pick 6. The bet cashed in on the ninth race of the day when a longshot horse won with 49-1 odds. Races 4-8 were also correctly picked on their ticket. The entire pool of Pick 6 wagers was awarded to the bettor at an amount of $1,127,774. The pool was boosted by the carryover wagers from the Kentucky Derby Pick 6 when no one won. It was the second-largest payout to a single ticket holder. On June 25, 2003, the record payout to a single ticket holder was $1,168,136, proving that one of these bets certainly can be life-altering if won.
Photo Credit: Google Creative Common Licenses, Joey Dufresne Twitter
