Superfecta Bet in Horse Racing — How to Bet a Superfecta
Superfecta is regarded as a high risk, high reward horse racing wager. It has a fantastic payout potential, but it’s incredibly tricky to predict.
In a superfecta bet, you’re required to accurately predict the first four finishers in a race, in exact sequence. In other words, you must pick the four horses you believe are going to finish the race in the top four positions, but also the order they will finish in.
As you can imagine, determining the top four horses is extremely difficult, and any such prediction would have to be based almost entirely on luck. This makes superfecta more suitable for recreational players than seasoned pros.
This article will help you learn the ropes of superfecta bets in horse racing. We’ll run you through the different types of superfecta bets and give a few examples illustrating the concept of superfecta betting.
What Is a Superfecta Bet?
With superfecta bets, you need to guess the exact finishing positions of the top four horses in a race. Apart from predicting the winner of the race, you need to predict the runner-up, the third-place finisher, and the fourth-place finisher.
It seems like an impossible task, but it can be done. Just ask one of the dozens of bettors that made successful superfecta predictions over the years and raked in millions of dollars for it.
For example, in the 2005 Kentucky Derby, one extremely lucky superfecta bettor walked away with over $860,000. The most impressive part? He staked only one dollar.
That’s exactly why people would even consider making such a bet. The minimum stake for superfecta bets is $0.10-1 for most tracks. These limits apply to both online and land-based sportsbooks.
To purchase a superfecta ticket online, you merely need to select this bet type, choose four horses that you think will finish the race first, second, third, and fourth, respectively.
For instance, let’s assume that there are ten horses participating in the race. If, for example, you chose horses 2, 1, 7, 10 to finish the race in that particular order, and instead they finish 2, 1, 10, 7, your bet fails. But if you get it right, and they come in just like you predicted (2, 1, 7, 10), the payout will be massive.
It’s worth mentioning that superfecta is not available for all races at all tracks.
Superfecta Box
Suppose you want to increase your chances of winning with superfecta bets. In that case, you can box your selections, which would cover every possible combination with regards to the finishing positions of the four selected horses. Put differently, you don’t have to predict the order in which the chosen horses will finish the race. As long as the four chosen horses finish in any of the top four spots, you’ll get your payday. But there is a catch — a superfecta box will cost you more than a straight superfecta bet.
A superfecta box is essentially a combination of multiple bets, and you have to pay for each one. Since there are 24 different ways in which your horses could finish in the top four positions, a $1 superfecta box will cost the bettor $24.
You can also add more horses to the betting slip, but that would cost you more. For perspective, a seven-selection box covers 840 combinations and costs $840.
Superfecta Wheel
The superfecta wheel is used when bettors are sure about which horse will win the race but are not sure of the exact order for the remaining three horses — positions two through four.
This bet is more cost-effective than the superfecta box as you would only have to pay for bets covering combinations of three horses.
Let’s say you picked horse #7 to win the race. You could place the full wheel superfecta, covering every possible combination with horse #7 winning the race. Or you can place a part wheel and select three horses to finish in positions two through four (in any order) and combine these selections with horse #7 winning the race.
The math here is simple — the more horses you select, the more you’ll have to pay for your wager. A four-selection wheel will cost you $6 as there are six possible combinations. On the other hand, you’d have to pay $504 for a ten-selection wheel.
Superfecta Payout
With superfecta, there are no odds involved. Instead, the payoff is determined by the parimutuel system. The amount of money you can win from a superfecta bet depends on the number of winning tickets and the size of the prize pool.
Let’s say that 10,000 people have all placed a $1 superfecta bet and that the sportsbook’s commission is $100. That would mean that the total prize pool for that race is $9,900 — this money is shared among all winning tickets.
