More on Gambling on the Horses

In my post-Kentucky Derby post, I discussed a scenario by which if you had bought a $2 ticket on every potential superfecta combination in that 19-horse race, you would have earned a profit of more than $370,000. I also pointed out that this was true because the top four finishing horses in the race were not favorites and had fairly long odds.

I also suggested not making this kind of wager. I hope you followed my advice today, in the Preakness; here's how it played out today:

There were 13 horses in the race. That means there were a total of 17160 possible superfecta wagers. Had you bought a $2 bet on each of them, you would have spent $34,320.

And you would have been very, very sad. The top four finishers were among the favorites and the superfecta paid only $2903.80. Your loss would have been $31,416.20.

The moral remains the same: Don't wager on the horses.