Preakness Stakes: Can someone explain odds to me?

[Caoimhe]

I understand the horses that are 20:1 or 10:1 but the favorite, Barbaro is at 3:5. How does that pay out? 20 to 1 means i bet 1 I win 19, 10:1 means I bet 1 I get 9 payout. So if I bet on Barbaro, do I lose money if he wins? I don't get it.

I've always loved to watch horse racing but I am no gambler and I've NEVER understood odds and payouts. Anyone with some patience care to explain?

PS I am rooting for Barbaro.. I'd like to see a Triple Crown winner..

[tjwmason]

1. You get the stake back - plus $3 for every $5 staked.

So if you bet $5 you get $8 back.

[Mutley]

3. You understand the Preakness?

That's great. You know, I live about 5 minutes away from Pimlico. :P

[Kajsa]

2. Poor Barbaro!

Now he's hurt!

It's just heartbreaking.
A hind leg injury on a horse
is serious.

I hope he's OK.:-(

[Caoimhe]

4. That was really hard to watch

Poor horse! Poor jockey! Thank god he was quick thinking and pulled up so fast. That horse would have ran the whole race on three legs if he'd have let it. It is a sad part of horseracing. Did he get kicked? did it just snap? It was really really hard to see him standing there after they got the saddle off and he kept lifting his foot way up high like.. why?? why does that hurt so bad?? ouch!

Hard to even care about the winner after something like this happens. Do any of you know why it is so often the case (or used to be) that horses with broken legs were shot, and no real attempt made at setting it? Is it because you can't keep them from putting weight on it? I'm sure glad they don't shoot people when they break a leg, I'd be dead!

[Kajsa]

5. I don't know what they do

if the leg is broken.

I too, heard ( back in the day) they were put down, or shot if a leg was broken.

There must be some way, today, that they can get a leg to heal properly.

I'm really praying that is the case for Barbaro. He is such a neat horse.

I hear you.
With my bad back and leg they would have shot me years ago.

[Caoimhe]

6. I am following another thread on this

This seems like a good explanation

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2296896&mesg_id=2296994


hard to explain to a horse to keep the weight off his leg for a few weeks or months :(

[Kajsa]

8. Thanks for the link.

I so hope Barbaro can get through this OK.

[Justpat]

7. They stopped shooting horses for injuries

a long time ago. One of the first people to screw a horse's leg together was a Dr. Jenny from the Unionville, PA area
screwed together Swap's leg when he broke it. That was back in the late fifties. Dr. Jenny was one of the first to do
surgery on horses and he was a innovator in the field of equine surgery. The New Bolton center was set up so he could
do his work there.

It is now possible to save more horses than we lose.

The early days of saving equine fractures involved rather bulky casts that they have since perfected. Most horses
that suffer severe injuries are not fitted with a gel cast that they can put on immediately to stabilize the leg until
they can examine it and x ray it.

Equine hospitals are set up to do surgery just like human ones. I worked at a surgery clinic in VA for four years. We
did everything from arthroscopic surgery to colic surgery.

[Kajsa]

9. Thanks for the info.

This is good to hear.
And thanks for all your hard work
at the VA clinic.:-)

[Justpat]

10. Kajsa, equine medicine has kept pace with human

medicine in most areas.

The vet, Dr. Jenny from PA, did joint replacement surgery on horses and dogs before it was done in people.

It is often a serious injury when horses break something while traveling at high speed, but we are able to
take care of a lot of them.

[Kajsa]

11. This is very encouraging.

I sure hope Barbaro has a very good chance for recovery.

I'm still very, very sad about this.

It's heartbreaking.

[Justpat]

12. I've been in the business for 36 years and this is

very sad to me too.

This type of injury is really serious but I am hoping the Dr. Bramlage can do something to save him for stud duty.

[Awsi Dooger]

13. Less than even money is an odds-on favorite

Or theoretically a greater chance than all other possibilities combined. The media routinely gets this wrong. It happened before the Derby when an MSNBC scroll listed Brother Derek as the morning line odds-on favorite, even though he was 3-1 on the early line and much higher than that in actual parimutuel odds. Before a football season, announcers will nonchalantly announce the Patriots, or whoever, are the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl, even though the odds are let's say 6-1 or higher. Somehow they think the term odds-on goes along with favorite, and they have no idea it adds a completely different meaning.

The numerals are routinely flopped. A boxing favorite, for example, should be listed at 1/3, not 3/1. But it's common for broadcasters to make that mistake and say "3/1 favorite." That makes it sound like betting 1 to win 3, instead of the correct 3 to win 1.

In horse racing, the base payout is $2. So an even money horse will pay $4, your original $2 returned plus another $2. A 30/1 shot will pay $62, your $2 returned plus 30 times the $2. When you get below even money, it's a small ratio added to your $2. So a 1/5 favorite would pay $2 plus 1/5 more, or 40 cents for $2.40 total. Payouts like that are much more common for place and show prices than win prices, since not many horses on the typical card are below even money.