Across the Board May Be Bettor Way to Go
On opening day at Santa Anita, Dec. 26, 1989, in the third race, Oh Wow, a 2-year-old maiden, jumped into fourth out of the No. 6 post position and didn’t make a move in the one-mile race until the three-quarter pole. Oh Wow then moved into third and into the stretch ran second by half a length.
In the stretch Oh Wow took the lead and held on to win by half a length. The horse paid $21.60 for every $2 win ticket, $7.60 to place, $5 to show and a total of $34.20 across the board.
In the fourth race, another mile effort, but this time for 3-year-olds, Mythical Being took the lead at the start and held it all the way to win by four lengths. The horse paid $28.40 to win and $51 across the board.
The fifth race, about 6 1/2 furlongs on the turf, for 3-year-olds and up, saw Waterscape run with the leaders until near the finish, where it took the lead to win by a head. The horse paid $53 to win and $78.20 across the board.
Another long shot, Oeilladine, in the seventh race, one mile for 3-year-olds and up, remained back in the pack until the stretch, where it moved up to third. Down the stretch the horse took the lead and won by 2 1/2 lengths. It paid $24.20 to win and $39 across the board.
In all these races, the horses proved that place and show betting, along with win wagering, would have been profitable. Bettors only had to make a “combination” or an “across-the-board” wager to benefit from the payoffs. Total betting in each race would have been $6. And if bettors had caught these wins, their profit for the four races would have been a slick $178.40.
Although the experts claim that it is sheer lunacy to bet place and show, many players believe that they are taking out insurance when they bet all three places.
The general mill of race track goers philosophize that if a “good” horse fails to win, then it may end up either second or third. If the horse ends up second, then the combination betting may recoup the entire wager and may even show a profit, depending on the odds of the horse. And if it finishes third, it still may return some money, particularly if it is a long shot.
“Byron” is one of those players who lacks the confidence to simply bet a horse to win. He needs the protection of betting win, place and show. To him, it’s not whether he wins or loses, but how the race is bet.
They call him Byron after George Gordon Noel Byron, England’s romantic poet, because he constantly spouts poetry whether his horses win or lose.
Byron generally follows a handicapper in the newspapers. What he’ll tell you is that although they win only about 28% of their selections, they do win or lose in streaks. And what he tries to do is catch a hot handicapper.
Sometimes when the favorite hasn’t won for a while, Byron will switch from a newspaper handicapper to favorites. However, he would rather wager on the handicappers, because when the handicappers’ selections do win, the prices usually turn out to be higher than what favorites would pay.
One of the more profitable days for Byron was Feb. 17 at Santa Anita, where Bob Mieszerski of this newspaper picked five winners and three seconds out of nine races. After Mieszerski lost the first race on Donuts To Dollars, he won the second with Super May, which paid $11.40 across the board.
The rest of the day Mieszerski won with J. L.’s Tribute, returning $22 for win, place and show; Forest Fealty paid $10.40 across the board; Sir Beaufort returned $9.60, and False Tenet totaled $8.40. His second-place horses were Cove Dancer, returning $9.60 for place and show; Sunny Blossom, $4.30, and The Maheras Case, $7.40.
For the day, total bets would have amounted to $54 ($6 a race) and returns would have hit $83.10, for a profit of $29.10.
On Jan. 10 at Santa Anita, Byron came up with another big day when Pat Ray, also of The Times, picked five winners and a third.
For the day, Byron bet $54 on the nine races. His payoffs were $96.40 for a $42.40 profit.
Opponents of the system believe that betting win, place and show combinations will cost three times as much money--$54 versus $18--if all nine horses run out of the money. In addition, they say that if the $6 a race were bet to win instead of across-the-board, over a full season, players would win a great deal more money and would need fewer winners to show a profit.
Byron, however, loves to paraphrase Hamlet when challenged on betting across the board. “Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of proponents of win betting, or to go ahead and buy insurance in the form of across-the-board wagering, that is the question!”