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Melbourne Cup 2016: Exotic bet help - quinellas, trifectas, first fours and more!

31st October, 2016
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Strapper Naima Kermarrec brushes the Robert Smerdon Mosheen at Aquanita Stables at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Editor
31st October, 2016
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While everyone wants to win the Melbourne Cup, punters that can predict the top two, top three, or the top four horses are the biggest winners.

Betting win and place or each way is standard stuff. If you like the Aussie horse, Jameka, she’s about $8 to win and around $3 to place. That means a $10 bet won’t win you much more than $80.

If you want your $10 to go a lot further on a much harder, riskier bet, it’s worth looking the exotic bets.

These include Quinellas (first two horses in any order), Exactas (first two horses in exact order), Trifectas (first three horses) and First Fours (first four horses in any order). Just like on any race, punters pool their money into the giant Melbourne Cup pools and the winners all take a slice of the collected money, minus a cut to the tote. It’s exactly like lotto, but you’re looking at horse form, not just numbers.

If there’s a crazy upset in the race, these pools with millions in them can pay big time.

The NSW dividends on exotics on the 2015 Melbourne Cup, with Prinze of Penzance winning at $101 were:

Quinella – $910.60
Exacta – $2,050.70
Trifecta – $26,045
First Four – $185,975

What does that mean? It means your $10 could’ve earned a slice of $185,975 if you picked the top four. Of course, you don’t have to pick them in exact order. Boxing allows you to pick horses to finish in any order.

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The problem is, that means your $10 is spread out among dozens or even hundreds of combinations. Still, 1 per cent of nearly $186k would’ve been a nice pay day!

A helping hand with your Melbourne Cup exotics

First a deep breath. It’s very, very hard to win the Melbourne Cup, let along pick an exotic. I’ve only done it a handful of times. That’s because I’ve had trifectas with two horses in the top three, but my other horse finished fourth. Racing can be cruel.

My extensive Melbourne Cup 2016 preview should give you most of what you need to know about the contenders, but you’ll need some luck as well. There’s quite often a surprise horse in the finish because when 24 horses and their jockeys go around a track all sorts of things can happen. Horses get bumped, get stuck behind other horses, don’t jump out of the barrier promptly, and so on.

My opinion of the race is that the speed will be at least normal to fast, but not breakneck.

To me that means we can’t ignore 17 Almandin, 12 Jameka, and 6 Hartnell, but there should be enough for 1 Big Orange, 13 Heartbreak City, and 23 Qewy to be in the finish. I also like Japanese roughie 3 Curren Mirotic as either a horse to run top 3 or finish at the back, so we have to include him in Trifectas and First Fours.

The main issue is that Almandin, Jameka and Hartnell run one-two-three in any order, and the exotics won’t pay much. It’s also very unlikely – something might strike trouble so we have to throw in some rougher horses and hope for a good result.

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My numbers for you to consider if you’re down at the tote – and just remember, this isn’t easy!

Quinella/Exacta:

1, 6, 12, 17

Trifecta/First Four:

1, 3, 6, 12, 13, 17, 23

Best of luck and let us know your numbers below.

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