Every bet at a pari-mutuel track works the same underlying way: your money joins a pool with everyone else's, the track takes out a percentage (takeout), and whoever picked right splits what's left in proportion to how much they bet. What changes from bet to bet is what "picked right" means, how many horses you have to name, and which pool, and which takeout rate, your money goes into.

The table below covers every bet type you'll find at a US track, with Churchill Downs' own minimums and takeout rates as the reference point. Another track can set its own minimums for the same bets, so check the program or the app before you assume.

Every bet, side by side

The bet menu

Bet What has to happen Minimum at Churchill Downs Takeout pool
Win Your horse finishes 1st $2 17.5%
Place Your horse finishes 1st or 2nd $2 17.5%
Show Your horse finishes 1st, 2nd or 3rd $2 17.5%
Exacta Pick 1st and 2nd, in order $2 straight, $1 boxed 22%
Trifecta Pick 1st, 2nd and 3rd, in order $0.50 22%
Superfecta Pick 1st through 4th, in order $0.10 22%
Super High-5 Pick 1st through 5th, in order $1 22%
Daily Double Pick the winner of two consecutive races $1 22%
Pick 3 / Pick 4 Pick the winner of three or four consecutive races $0.50 22%
Pick 5 / Pick 6 Pick the winner of five or six consecutive races varies by track varies, often lower on a jackpot bet

Win, place and show are called straight wagers: one bet, one horse, one of three outcomes. Everything else on the list is a multi-horse or multi-race wager, where you're betting on a combination rather than a single finish, and where the cost rises with how many horses or races you cover.

Why place and show pay less than win, and why they're not fixed

A win bet pays whatever the win pool, after takeout, works out to for your horse. Place and show are different: under Kentucky's pari-mutuel regulation, the place pool's profit (what's left after takeout and after returning everyone's place bets) is split into two equal halves, one for the horse that finished first and one for the horse that finished second, each divided among the people who bet place on that horse. Show splits the same way into thirds, one for each of the first three finishers. That's why a heavily bet favorite that finishes second can pay a very small place price: the pool's profit for that position is being divided among a lot of winning tickets.

The Future Wager: betting before the field is even entered

One bet on this list doesn't fit a single-race or multi-race mold at all: the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, a separate pool Churchill Downs runs in rounds months before the race, on named 3-year-olds and an "all others" field, closed off entirely from race-day wagering. How Kentucky Derby Future Wagers work covers its own rounds, pool and minimum.

Calling a bet at the window or in an app

The three things every bet needs, in order

  1. The amount

    A round dollar figure at or above the bet's minimum. Tellers aren't set up for odd cents on a straight bet.

  2. The bet type

    "To win," "exacta," "trifecta," and so on. For an exotic, say whether it's straight, boxed, keyed or a part wheel.

  3. The horse or horses, by program number

    Not by name. For an exotic, give the numbers in finishing-position order: first the win position, then place, then show, and so on.

What it costs on average

Takeout means every pool pays out less than it takes in, by design, which is why the average bettor loses money over time regardless of which bet type they favor. How to set a horse racing betting budget works through what that costs on a real number and how to limit it to what you can afford to lose.