Horse racing 101 ahead of the Kentucky Derby

Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; iStock Share articleAt its essence, horse racing isn’t complicated … but it does a great job of making the uninitiated feel like idiots. The racing form, ostensibly to inform bettors, looks like a spreadsheet strewn with figures, arcana and formatting designed specifically to be impenetrable. Its terms and measurements feel outdated. And once you move beyond a basic “win” bet, the wagering menu gets confusing (and expensive) fast. And so, newcomers will likely spend the first Saturday in May holding a mint julep and trying to decipher Kentucky Derby commentary like the following: This looks like a race where pace will decide everything. Given the early speed, I’m not sure the first flight will have an easy time establishing themselves. I’d rather lean towards a stalker that can stay in touch with the front and make a run late, especially since he is bred for the distance. Post position isn’t ideal for a few horses, and in a field this size, that can compromise their trip before they even hit the first turn. Several horses want to start fast and take the lead, but they might wear out early. I’d favor a horse built to endure the length of the race and that can stay close to the leaders and make a late move. Factor in starting position, and the horses starting out wide on the track will be at an early disadvantage. This guide is designed to be your Rosetta Stone, built to help first-time or novice racing viewers — probably enjoying the Kentucky Derby — learn the lingo and comprehend what matters when it comes to horse racing and wagering on those races. We’ll strip out the jargon, explain how to process essential info and give you a simple framework for understanding what you’re seeing and what you’re betting. Races are shaped by a few factors that control how they unfold. The most important is pace and how fast the race runs early. Some races start fast with multiple horses jockeying for the lead, opening the door for a “closer” (a horse suited to finish strong) to “drop in from the clouds” and win. Others are restrained up front, which makes it harder for horses coming from behind to catch up. Distance, traditionally measured in furlongs, also matters. Short races reward speed, longer races force horses to conserve energy and finish strong. Generally, any race shorter than a mile (eight furlongs) is considered a “sprint,” and anything a mile and over is considered a “route.” A horse that looks dominant going six furlongs (three-quarters of a mile) can fade when the race stretches out to 1 1/8 miles, while a horse that looks ordinary early can become dangerous once others start to tire. The Kentucky Derby is run at what is referred to as the classic distance of 1 1/4 miles, so endurance is important. Surface is the third piece of the puzzle, though those descriptions are a little easier to grasp. “Fast” simply means dry and firm and “sloppy” means the track is wet and muddy. On a sloppy track, you’ll hear people talk about certain horses being “mudders,” meaning they run better in the mud. If it’s raining, give those horses a look. Turf is the grass course. These races usually develop slowly and speed up late down the stretch, which is why you’ll often hear that turf favors closers. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-Co1hW']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Post position is where a horse starts in the gate. In a large field like the Kentucky Derby, post position can shape the entire race before it even begins. Horses are being asked to handle a specific setup and not all of them are built for it. Inside posts can save ground (and energy) getting to the rail, which has the shortest route to the finish line. However, those horses risk getting boxed in if others take the early lead and beat them to the inside of the track. Outside posts have a cleaner path early but can lose ground on turns since wider turns require horses to cover more distance. Every horse starts in the same place, a “maiden race” competing against other “maidens.” A maiden is simply a horse that has never won. A lightly raced horse with one or two starts can improve quickly in the maiden ranks, while a horse that has lost 10 times in maiden races is telling you it is better suited for pony rides at the local farm. Once a horse wins its maiden race, it moves out of that beginner pool and into the class system, where it’s placed based on ability, often a “claiming race.” In these events, every horse is for sale at a listed price, which tells you roughly what the market thinks they’re worth. Any horse entered into a claiming race can be claimed by another owner before the race, and whether that horse wins, loses or doesn’t finish, that new owner must pay for that horse. Because of those conditions, owners and trainers would never run a potential Triple Crown contender in a claiming race. Thus, results from claiming races are unpredictable and make a horse’s record in them of limited value. The next class up are “allowance races,” races for non-elite winners under specific eligibility conditions. These come in different flavors, usually based on what a horse has already accomplished. Most claimed horses seldom advance past this tier or races. The most common allowance races are “non-winners of one, two or three” races — which group horses by how many wins they’ve had. Then there are optional claiming races, which mix allowance conditions with the option to run a horse for a claiming price. Here, the trainer has a choice: keep the horse protected and still race against higher competition or enter it with a price tag so someone else can buy it before the race. At the top of racing’s competitive tiers are graded stakes. These are split into Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3. Grade 1 stakes, like the Kentucky Derby, are the biggest races with the best horses and the strongest competition. Grade 2 and Grade 3 are still strong but a step below in status. Below the graded stakes are listed stakes (strong competition but not quite top-tier) and restricted stakes (limited to certain horses based on conditions, such as whether they were bred in a specific state or are a particular age or gender). The major takeaway is that it’s the “grade” that matters, not the “stakes” tier as a whole. A horse winning a Grade 1 has proven something very different than a horse winning a restricted or listed stakes race, and that gap will have an impact if and when they meet on the same track. The easiest way to think about it is by using a baseball analogy. Claiming races are the low minor leagues (Single-A). Allowance races are basically AA or AAA, where players are better but not fully proven. Stakes races are the majors. Every horse comes with a team, collectively called its “connections,” not to be confused with the popular game on the New York Times and The Athletic. The big three figures in this group are the jockey, the trainer and the owner. When it comes to the race, at the center of these connections is the jockey. They decide where the horse sits early, when to make a move and how to navigate traffic. Some are aggressive and push for position, others are patient and wait for a lane. The trainer is the one making the bigger decisions. They choose which races the horse enters, where it trains and runs, how it’s prepared day-to-day and when it’s ready to race. Then there’s the owner. They pay the bills and are shown on television sweating every stride during the most expensive two minutes in sports. Horse racing doesn’t use fixed odds like most sports, it uses pari-mutuel betting, which means you’re betting against everyone else that makes a wager, not the house. All the money bet on a race goes into a pool. The track takes a cut (typically between 15 and 20 percent, depending on the track and wager) and the rest is paid out to the winners. If more people bet on a horse, its odds drop. If fewer people bet on it, the odds rise. That’s why the odds change right up until the race starts. The final price isn’t locked in when you place your bet, it’s locked in when the gates open, based on the total pool. You will hear references to the “morning line,” the track’s best guess at what the odds will be when the race starts. Before any real money is bet, a track handicapper assigns odds to each horse based on how they think bettors will bet the race. That means the horse with the lowest odds isn’t necessarily the one most likely to win, but the one expected to attract the most money. The morning line is a starting point — the real odds are whatever the crowd decides right before the gates open. Given this, savvy bettors wait to place their wager until just before post time to better ascertain the final odds. The basic horse racing bets are win, place and show. A win bet only cashes if your horse finishes first. A place bet pays if it runs first or second. A show bet pays if it finishes in the top three. Most tracks still use a $2 minimum, though some let you bet smaller amounts. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-GVY2F']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r From there, you move into exotics. These are harder to hit but offer bigger payouts. An exacta asks you to pick the top two finishers in order. A trifecta is the top three in order and a superfecta is the top four in order. You can also box horses, which means you’re covering every possible finishing order for your picks. That flexibility comes at a cost. A straight exacta with two horses typically costs a dollar or two. Box those same two horses and now you’re paying for both possible outcomes, so it doubles. Add a third horse and the number of combinations — and the price — jumps again. Straight exacta: You bet A to finish first and B second. Only one outcome wins, and it costs $1, although you can bet more. You would tell the teller, “Race 12, $1 exacta, 3 over 7.” Exacta box with two horses: You’re saying, “I don’t care which one wins, just finish in the top two.” Now you’re covering two outcomes, A/B and B/A, for a total of $2. You would say “Race 12, $1 exacta box, 3 and 7.” Exacta box with three horses: You’re covering six outcomes -- A/B, A/C, B/A, B/C, C/A, C/B -- for a cost of $6. You would say “Race 12, $1 exacta box, 3, 7 and 9.” You can also wager on winners across multiple races. The simplest of these horizontal wagers is the Daily Double, which requires bettors to select the winners of back-to-back races. There is also the Pick 3 (pick the winners of three consecutive races), Pick 4 (pick the winners of four consecutive races), Pick 5 (pick the winners of five consecutive races) and Pick 6 (pick the winners of six consecutive races). One caution here: jackpot or “Rainbow” Pick 6 bets can look tempting because of the huge payouts. The catch is that you not only have to hit every leg, but you often must be the only winning ticket to take down the full prize. Most beginners don’t lose because the sport is too complicated, they lose because they misunderstand a few key things. Betting favorites blindly is the most common mistake. The favorite wins more often than any other priced horse, but the price is usually too short to justify it. Essentially, you’re paying for certainty that often isn’t there and your money isn’t buying you any real advantage. Favorites typically win about 35 percent of the time. Ignoring race type when assessing a horse’s past performances is also common. A horse dominating a claiming race isn’t the same as a horse competing in allowance company. Class matters, and not adjusting for it leads to bad bets. Overplaying exotic bets is where money disappears quickly. The payouts are attractive, but the difficulty ramps up fast. Without a clear opinion on how the race will unfold, you’re just spreading money across combinations and hoping something hits. Even if you were 70 percent sure of the outcome of each leg, your chances would improve to 12 percent. Also, betting more horses is costly. Selecting two horses in each leg of a standard Pick Six would cost $64. Add a third horse to each leg, and the cost balloons to $729. Given all the things that can derail those winning combinations, that’s a lot of risk. Finally, it’s worth flagging the most honest mistake of all: picking a horse because you like the name, the color or the jockey’s silks. Everyone does it at least once. The first horse I ever bet winked at me in the paddock at Belmont Park and I was sure it was a sign. He finished dead last at 7-1 odds. Here are a few terms that show up everywhere in horse racing. You don’t need to memorize everything, but these come up often enough that they’re worth knowing. A furlong is a unit of distance and it equals one-eighth of a mile. A length, about eight to nine feet, is how distance between horses is measured. When races are close you’ll hear smaller margins like a neck, a head or a nose. If two horses hit the wire at the exact same time it’s called a dead heat. Past performances give information for each horse. This is the page in the racing program full of numbers, abbreviations and lines that looks intimidating at first. It’s really just a record of what the horse has done. Here’s an annotated breakdown courtesy of the Daily Racing Form. You’ll see basic info like age, trainer and pedigree, followed by recent races. Each line shows where and when the race was run, the distance, track condition, early pace, finishing position, odds and more. Like so much of this sport, at first glance, it’s a lot. And different companies like Daily Racing Form, Brisnet and Equibase present it differently. Ultimately, though, the underlying information is the same and now that you’ve digested the rest of this guide, you’re ready to get back to that mint julep and show your Derby party how savvy you are. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms