THE JOCKEY is the rider of the horse (in harness racing it is the driver).

THE TRAINER is well, the trainer. Their job is to figure out what racing surfaces, distance, and level of competition best suites the horse.

THE OWNER is just that, the person who owns the horse. There can also be ownership groups where there are many people involved.

MAIDEN: A race for horses who have never won a race.

MAIDEN CLAIMING: All horses in the race are for sale and have never won.

CLAIMING: All horses in the race are for sale, but they have won a race before.

ALLOWANCE: A step up in quality from claiming, the horses are not for sale.

STAKES: The top level of races. Stakes races then continue into a tiered system ranked on importance:

• LISTED STAKES

• GRADE THREE (G3)

• GRADE TWO (G2)

• GRADE ONE (G1): The Kentucky Derby for example is a Grade One race.

Horses rise and fall within the ranks all the time, just like human athletes. If you have a horse jump from winning a maiden into a stakes race, the trainer and owner obviously think highly of the horse but the level of competition is drastically tougher. Did their win deserve that class jump? That’s up to you to decide with your wagering!

All wagers with TVG are a pari-mutual system. The track takes a slice of money off the top (takeout) and after that the remaining cash is paid out to the bettors. This means we are playing against each other, not the house. Under the pari-mutual system the odds change. So while you may have made a bet on a horse at 10-1, they may go off at 5-1.

Odds in a race will change if a horse is SCRATCHED, or taken out of the race. If the horse you bet scratched you will get a refund.

Racing uses fractional odds instead of decimal or money line, here are the odds and what their payoffs would be based on a standard $2 WIN wager:

There are three basic bets that are the foundation of racing wagering. They are WIN, PLACE, and SHOW.

WIN: Horse needs to finish 1st

PLACE: Horse can finish 1st or 2nd

SHOW: Horse can finish 1st, 2nd, or 3rd

• You may hear people say they bet "across the board", that means they made a win, place, and show bet on the same horse.

EXACTA: You pick who you think will finish 1st and 2nd in order

TRIFECTA: You pick who you think will finish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in order

SUPERFECTA: You pick who you think will finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in order.

Hi 5 or SUPER 5: You pick who you think will finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th in order.

• You can BOX these bets, meaning the horses can finish in any order. However, this makes your bet more expensive.

• You can also make a WHEEL or KEY bet where you have one horse selected to win, and multiple to come in second or third. You'd use this when you're sure of the winner, but not as confident about everyone else.

QUINELLA: You pick two horses who you think will finish 1st and 2nd in order. Differs from the EXACTA because the horse can finish in either order. This bet is available on some, but not all, American tracks.

OMNI: You pick two horses, and if they finish in the top three in any order you win. This bet is available on select international tracks in France, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Hong Kong.

TRIO: You pick the first three horses, and if they finish in the top three in any order you win. This bet is available on select international tracks in France.

There are also multi-race bets, also called horizontals (as in they go across the program) too. They involve picking the winner in a certain amount of races determined by the track.

DOUBLE or DAILY DOUBLE: Pick the winners of two races

PICK 3: Pick the winners of three races

PICK 4: Pick the winners of four races

PICK 5: Pick the winners of five races

PICK 6: Pick the winners of six races

A JACKPOT bet is where not only do you have to pick all the winners of the designated races (Jackpot Pick 5, etc) you have to be the only person to do so. If multiple people hit, the jackpot prize pool gets carried over to the next day.

A CARRYOVER is when no one came out as a winner in whatever that bet type was, and all the money in the pool gets carried over into the next day’s equivalent bet. Carryovers can go on for multiple days.

For the multi-race wagers you can pick multiple horses per race, but it will cost more.

For multi-race bets you can look up the WILL PAYS or PROBABLES to see how much a bet, such as an exacta, will payout if the two horses come in.

If a horse you added into a multi-race bet is scratched it will automatically substitute in the post time favorite.

All races are run on three types of surfaces. Turf, dirt, and synthetic. Many tracks even have two tracks inside their oval, dirt on the outside and turf on the inside. During the 2000’s and 2010’s, many tracks installed synthetic racing surfaces, which is like astroturf for dirt. Synthetic tracks will always be labled fast.

Around the world, tracks use the same labels to let the public know how wet the track is.

Need extra help? Watch some of our Tutorial Videos or see what our experts are betting.

Click here to see all the races we have today.