How to Win Betting Trifectas

Here are some tips on how to make money betting trifectas.

Essentials to know about trifectas.

1. Trifectas in general are poor value if you bet just in captive tote markets. However there is now competition from online bookmakers which means better value for punters.

2. The tote takes much more out of the trifecta pools than the tote takes out of its win pools. .
 
3. Betting for the win with bookmakers and you can at times have markets where close to $100 is being returned for every $100 bet. If the wrong horses win for bookmakers then more than $100 is being returned for every $100 bet. You can also compare bookmaker prices with every tote. Play the trifectas on the tote and you know only around $80 is returned for every $100 bet.

Save money. Don't take poor value trifectas.

1. Many punters look at the tote prices and don't even know the horses they are backing. For them it is purely a numbers game with the odds stacked against them.

2. They bet the tote favourite to win with the most popular tote horses for second and third. Maybe throw in a few tote firmers as well. Or they box the top four or five tote horses. 

3. Another common method is to take the odds on favourite for first with the field for second and third in the mistaken belief that they will get value from the good thing winning.

4. These must all lose because they are the most popular ways of taking trifectas. In pools where only $80 is returned for every $100 bet the most popular wins pay way under their true odds. 

5. How often do punters box the entire field when there are no more than six runners? We've seen more than one punter in a TAB box the five horse field for $60. When asked why, the reply was along the lines of, "I can't lose." On one occassion we saw a punter get back just $11. We certainly call that losing. Like losing 80% of your wager! Of course you must lose if you start boxing entire fields. The tote is not a charity. 

How can punters win money betting trifectas?

1. By doing the opposite of most trifecta punters.

2. That means for a start knowing the form and not just treating trifectas as a numbers game. That rules out many tote punters.

3. Not taking trifectas in small fields where it is obvious that the short priced favourite will run a place and probably finish in the first two.

4. Only taking a favourite to win with horses at big tote odds for second and third. But you must know that those horses at big odds are realistic place chances. Otherwise you might as well burn your money. It is not a numbers game. 
  
5. When you box horses, or take a few horses as standouts for the win,  which have approximately the same chances of winning and are at good tote odds, avoid including the tote favourite. But again you must know it is a false favourite. If the favourite is a top place chance then you are throwing your money away.

6. Many punters take trifectas as an easy betting option because they have no idea what horse is going to win the race. It is actually much tougher to get three horses to finish in the top three in those wide open, races with large fields than to back three horses, each at big odds, just to win the race. 

Well there you have it. Playing trifectas seriously to win is not easy. You need a solid betting bank and there will be some runs of outs. There must be if you are going for the collects of $400 and more. 

Of course if you want to play trifectas like many punters, boxing the top selections in fields of seven or eight runners you will have regular collects. Just like the second race at Morphettville last Saturday. In a fields of seven This seven horse race was won by the $2.80 favourite Reventon. The $3.00 second favourite, Life Is a Cabernet finished second. The third most favoured horse in the betting, Hang Up, at $3.20, finished third. Boxing four of the seven horses that ran on SuperTab and getting the "winnning trifecta" returned you $18.80 for a $24 outlay. You outlayed $24 and lost $5.20. With winning collects like that you must lose long term.