The betting language of the horse racing tracks

If you are interested in earning some extra money via betting on horses, then you should first familiarize yourself with the common slang words and jargon used at the tracks. For instance, when you hear the words ‘bridge jumper’, then you should know that it refers to a person that is betting a large sum of money on a single horse. Most people do not dare take such a risk, since bridge jumpers are very likely to suffer a big blow to their betting budget if they are wrong in their predictions. However, you will seldom hear this phrase on the tracks nowadays, as there are very few passionate gamblers willing to take this risk.

The second category of slang you will commonly hear at a horse track is the one referring to the various types of betting. Therefore, if a person is sure of the ‘lock’, which is a horse that has very high chances of winning the race, then he will ‘bet across the board’, meaning that he will place a win bet as well as a show and place bet. If he predicted right, then he will be winning a lot of cash. However, in order to make a large sum from this, you will need to place your bet on an ‘overlay, which is a horse with lower odds of winning, calculated on its past performances.

A third type of jargon that you can hear on the horse racing tracks is the one referring to all possible combinations of bets. For instance, if you place a ‘straight win bet’, then that means you are betting on a single horse that you consider will come in first. On the other hand, when you hear ‘double daily’ or ‘exacta’, that means that the person is betting on two horses. Usually, in order to find out how many horses you are allowed to bet on, you will need to pay attention to the prefix or suffix in the name of the bet.

Since there is a great deal of money involved and most people lose their bets, you will also hear expressions such as ‘inquiry’, ‘objection’ or ’photo finish’. Whilst the photo finish refers to a line-in picture to determine the winning horse when the race was tight, the inquiry and objection imply that the people who betted require an official or unofficial investigation of the race as they believe cheating or fraud has taken place.

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