If you’ve ever watched a horse race, odds are that you’ve seen someone at the track placing bets on horses. If you’re like most people, this is the first time that you’ve participated in betting on races. But if you’re new to it, here’s what you need to know — and how to get started.

The basic process of betting on a race involves three steps:

1. The bettor places a wager on one or more horses to win.
2. The race takes place, and the winner is identified.
3. Once the race has ended, the bettor either wins or loses his/her bet.

Of course, there’s a fourth step, which is the part where you have fun watching the rest of the races. And while we’ll touch briefly on all four steps in this article, our focus will be on the first two. As a beginner, you can bet on just about any horse race you want, from the Kentucky Derby to the Santa Anita Handicap. You should take into account that some races are considered “win-and-place” events where your horse only needs to finish first or second, but others are considered “show” events where your horse must show to win. We’ll talk more about the difference between show and win-and-place events later.

The person should not only have the idea of how to place the bet. The guidance of the right time to quit the casino game is also a must for the players. He should try to focus on the platform that will give him a good amount. The platform like 188bet provides the detail regarding the right time to quit the game. This will help the players to take decision without emotional breakdown.

Step One – Place Your Wagers

First things first — before you even go to the racetrack, you need to lay down the cash to cover those bets. That means setting up an account with a sportsbook (or bookmaker) so that you can keep track of your bets. Most major racetracks have sportsbooks, as do many other tracks such as Saratoga and Gulfstream Park in Florida, Monmouth Park in New Jersey, Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, Keeneland Raceway in Lexington, Kentucky, Calder Casino & Racecourse in Ontario, California, Laurel Park in Maryland, Oaklawn Park in Arkansas and Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. You can also find several online sportsbooks, but those sites generally charge higher fees than their brick-and-mortar counterparts and often require customers to deposit more money to set up an account. In addition, they may not offer the same kinds of promotions that local casinos do, such as free tickets to sporting events.

So, let’s say you want to make a wager on the Belmont Stakes. First, determine which type of bet you’d like to make. There are three types of wagers you can make — exacta, trifecta, and superfecta. An exacta is a wager on two horses to finish 1st and 2nd; for example, $5 on each of War Emblem and Bernardini. A trifecta is a bet on three horses to finish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd; for instance, $20 on each of Smarty Jones, Rags To Riches, and Risen Star. Finally, a superfecta is a wager on four horses to finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th; for example, $100 on each of Smarty Jones, Rags To Riches, Risen Star, and War Emblem.

Once you figure out which kind of wager you’d like to bet on, you then select the horses you want to bet on. For example, if you wanted to bet on the exacta, you would select War Emblem and Bernardini. Then, using a calculator or on a paper slip, multiply the price by the number of horses you want to bet on, then add them all together. So if you were going to place a $5 exacta on War Emblem and Bernardini, you would simply write 5 x 2 = 10 dollars across the top of your slip, then cross out the dollar signs and put the numbers in. Then you would enter the total number of dollars bet ($10), then sign your name and date the slip, and hand it over to the person taking your bet.

Step Two – Win or Lose?

Now that you’ve placed your wager, you may wonder whether you should win or lose. This depends on the race you’re betting on, as well as the type of wager you made. For example, if you bet a five-dollar exacta on War Emblem and Bernardini, and War Emblem finished first and earned $500, then you would win your bet. However, if War Emblem finished third and Bernardini beat him by a nose, you would still lose your bet because you only wagered five bucks on each horse.

But what about a six-dollar exacta? That’s a little different. Because now, if you had bet $6 on each horse, you would have won both bets! Of course, as soon as you see the actual results of the race, you might change your mind. So to avoid potential regret, make sure you fully understand the rules of the game before you begin betting.

Step Three – Take Your Time

Finally, once the race is over, you’ll receive your results. After you open your ticket, you’ll probably notice that there are multiple lines on the back of the ticket showing the order of finish. The line closest to the right is the one that counts, so if your horse finishes sixth, you’ll want to look for your horse’s name near the bottom of the list, rather than the top. It might sound obvious, but just because your horse finished sixth doesn’t mean that he or she didn’t win anything. Instead, it means that he or she was beaten by another horse who came in ahead of him or her.

In short, if your horse finished fifth, it doesn’t matter that your horse didn’t come in first, second, or third. What matters is that he or she finished in front of the horses ranked fourth through eighth. Similarly, if your horse finished seventh, it doesn’t matter that your horse didn’t come in first through sixth. What matters is that your horse finished in front of the horses who came in seventh through tenth.

For example, let’s say you’ve been playing for awhile and you’ve gotten really good at racing games. While playing your favorite horse racing video game, you start getting tired of winning every single race. So you decide to play a few hundred games and bet on the races. Each time, you place an exacta, trifecta, or superfecta bet on different horses. When you win, you think, “Hey, I’m doing pretty well!” So you continue to play, knowing that you’ll eventually hit a losing streak. But then one day, you see something amazing on the screen. Your horse, named Sweet Potato Pie, won the race! You feel great, and you continue to play, even though you know that eventually, you’re going to lose.

That day comes when you start losing again. You feel terrible, but you don’t give up. You continue to play, hoping that someday you’ll win again. But that never happens. One day, you wake up and realize that you’ve lost everything.

At this point, you might ask yourself, “Why did I keep betting on these stupid horses?” Well, the answer is simple. You thought that if you continued to bet on the same horses, sooner or later, you’d win. But you couldn’t have known that your horse, Sweet Potato Pie, would win. No one could have known that. So, instead of trying to figure out why you kept betting on the same dumb horses, just accept that you’ve lost everything. Now move on to something else. Don’t worry, you’ll figure out how to get through life without gambling sometime in the future.