posted June 16, 2008 at 16:22 in Triple Crown Betting Trends

The superfecta was once thought of as a sports betting ‘sucker bet’ but with all the information available for horse betting faithful and with all the competition, the best players now sometimes look to this off track betting wager to make the big score.

The ‘super’ is just an extended trifecta and demands accuracy in picking the 4th finisher in a race.

The wager also has made friends among the little guys since the 10-cent super was introduced.

The lure of the ‘super’ is the hope that a large payoff may be available because of a huge overlay. It takes confidence to key runners but it can be more cost efficient than boxing runners.

One way to attempt to hit this bet is consider it as a win bet, plus a few. With this kind of thinking one would key one horse to win and then have a number of runners underneath to fill out the 2nd, third and fourth slots.

Keying one horse on top with 4 others for a dollar amounts to $24. Adding another horse and it will cost $60 for 5 horses.

Now it can get expensive. Key one runner with 6 horses and you are up to $120 for a dollar bet and go one step further to 7 horses and the gambler must come up with $210.

Still, the key is a good way to go as a horse bettor can isolate his top pick and not give all the horses in a bet the same chance theoretically by making them all equal when boxing.

If boxing the ‘super’, you better be close to an ATM. A 4-horse dollar box cost $24, a 5-horse buck box cost $120 and a 6-horse box goes for $360.

Wheels also are costly. A $1 dollar wheel in a 7-horse field cost $120, an 8-horse field goes for $210 and a 10-horse field wager would need $504 to make the bet come true.

One need go no further than the Belmont Stakes for horse bettors to see the value of the ‘super’ if one can isolate the correct horse.

With the debacle put in by Big Brown, Da’ Tara was allowed to lope along on the lead on his way to a $79 win mutuel. Even with the second choice running second and the third and fourth finishers dead heating, the 2-dollar ‘super’ paid an astronomical price of over $48,000 with Anak Nakal in the third spot and over $47,000 with Ready’s Echo accounting for the show price.

The Belmont Stakes payoff was no isolated incident either as far as a life changer is concerned. In the 5th race just last Saturday, the third choice in the race was 2nd but was beaten by a 20-1 shot with the longest shot on the board running third, followed by a 12-1 item.

The ‘super’ came back $39,177.50 for a dollar.

Horse bettors should look to this type of bet if they have an inkling that the favorite is a false chalk or can allow for several live longshots to follow a logical horse to the wire.

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