Saver bets

[ceejay]

I'm curious as to peoples' opinions on "saver" bets. Do you make them? Under what circumstances? In hindsight are you glad you made them?

I make them rarely with the idea that in general they reduce my returns. For example if I like the 1-2 exacta, betting the 1-3 (just in case) reduces my odds. That said, I use saver bets as "sanity" protection.

[so.cal.fan]

Being a win bettor, I like to "take a stand". Once in a while another horse in the same race will keep making me feel uncomfortable, the only way I can describe the feeling.
In such a case, unless it is the favorite, I'll bet it to win too.
On rare (very) rare occassions, if I really am worried about a favorite, I'll bet a (YIKES) quinella.

[ridersup]

If you bet horses that are 6 or 7 to 1 to win you are going to have many more place than win. It helps my bottom line and sanity to have a saver exacta or better still a quinella where they are allowed. With an exacta you have to throw away one ticket but with the quinella you can cash them both. In any event the exacta or quinella is usually much better than the place bet.

Case in point. I really thought A.P. Valentine had a reasonable shot at winning the Belmont so I played him to win. I also recognized that Point Given could run a monster race and ruin my win bet so I used him in a saver exacta which payed $20. Didn't get my win but went away with a profit.

Been using saver exactas and quinellas for quite a while and they suit my game so I use them when betting long shots to win.


Ridersup

[Rick Ransom]

The only time I'll use a "saver" bet these days is if my top rated horse is not an overlay but the 2nd rated is (at good odds). In this case I might put use an exacta as a saver because the top rated horse is usually still not a big underlay (maybe -10%) and usually has a >=35% chance to win. So, the exacta usually produces an overlay anyway and might increase my chances of cashing by 6%.

I don't like quinellas (unless they are "house quinellas" like the bookies do in Nevada), because they usually wipe out any advantage I would have had by playing the exacta one way only. I think you have to take a stand on the win horse in exactas. I will play the 2nd and 3rd choices on the bottom of the exacta.

Pick 3's are my most profitable play, however. I can play 2 horses in each leg, hit about 1 out of 8 playing every race, and show a good profit. The percentage would be higher if I only played one horse, but think about the losing streaks!

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I'll say that if you have a good selection method, the more specific the bet is, the more profitable it is. That is what I've always found to be true with my selections over more than 20 years. Therefore, I don't bet to place or show, don't bet two horses in one race, and don't play quinellas. That's my advice to people of normal intelligence like myself. If you're a "handicapping genius", please ignore my advice. That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

I also have to mention that there are some methods based on early speed that are good at selecting a horse that either wins or quits and runs out of the money. If you are using such a method, don't use your 2nd selection as a "saver". Use a completely different method to select it.