With this bet you must pick the first two finishing
horses in the order of their finish. In other words,
you must pick the horse that wins and the horse that
finishes second.
Exacta Box
A "box" on two or more horses in a race means taking
all the possible combinations of those horses in each
place of finish. If you have determined that two horses
are the best in the race but you are not sure which
one will win and which one will finish second, then
the safest bet is to do the exacta box. You can box
more than two horses, but it is very important to remember
that with each additional horse you add to the box that
the cost of the wager goes up substantially. The formula
for calculating the cost of an exacta box is (horses
in box x (horses in box minus 1) x dollar amount of
bet). A $2 box of two horses would be (2 x 1 x 2) =
$4. A $2 box of three horses would be (3 x 2 x 2) =
$12. A $2 box of four horses would be (4 x 3 x 2) =
$24. As you can see the cost of the exacta box increases
greatly with each additional horse. Also remember that
you can wager a $1 exacta box. This reduces the amount
of your wager by 50% but also reduces your earnings
by 50%.
Exacta Wheels
If you are confident in a horse winning a race, but
may have several choices as to the second place finisher,
you may elect to do an exacta wheel. If for example,
you think the #4 horse is going to win and either the
#2, #5, #7, or #10 horse will finish second, you could
place the following wager: ($2 exacta wheel the 4 WITH
the 2, 5, 7, 10). Following the same formula for calculating
the cost of the exacta wager as above we have (1 x 4
x 2) = $8. So it will cost you $8 to do an exacta wheel
with one horse to win and any one of four horses to
finish second. Another point to note is that some horses
do not like to win. They allow other horses to pass
them without making an extra effort to win the race.
This can easily be determined by simply looking at their
past performances. If for example, their racing record
indicates that they have won one race and have finished
second six times, you may want to place multiple horses
in the win column and this "seconditis" horse in the
place column. The previous wager might be ($2 Exacta
Wheel the 2, 5, 7, 10 WITH the 4).
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