The Swinger Bet
 

Anyone in favor of North American tracks offering this wager?

Basically, you choose two (or more, I guess) horses and they have to finish in the top three in any order. IOW, you can run 1st & 2nd, 1st & 3rd, or 2nd & 3rd, and you cash.
I think it's a good bet for the beginner/casual fan to keep them in the game, and stretch their bankroll.
I've noticed that when I attend the races with newbies or the "2-3 times a year crowd" they tend to bet small (like $4 a race, usually to place or show :D).


Interesting note: in the 5th at Chantilly today the #7 horse scratched at the gate, but still got paid off in the swinger bets, and the quinella :confused:
A $2 swinger with the winner paid $8.80...I checked to make sure that the bets weren't transfered to the post time favorite, and they weren't. The favored #10 horse ran out of the money.
Anyone know how that works?

Interesting, never heard of it.

The wagering menu is already too big. Rolling doubles, pick 3s, etc... Would this even break $1,000 in the pool at a mid-tier track?

Does California still do that "Roulette" thing that gets $200 bet into it? Seems like another like that idea.

roulette was cancelled - I liked the bet and if you could make a decent line, half of the races had an overlay between R,B,G. Of course you could only bet $2 and towards the end the pools were closer to $50 at both SA and GP.

It's called the Quinella Place in HK, Omni in UK pools.

I have heard it called the "inexacta" more than once. :) I like it as a wager - play it periodically with UK/Hong Kong with decent results. I agree that it would be one that may be "newbie" friendly. Take your date to the track, you each pick a horse in the race, and play the omni/swinger.

I saw the Omni pool on Dubai Cup day. I didn't know what it was but pool sizes seemed decent. I know a few casual betters that would love that bet instead of wondering/asking how much it cost to box exactas/tri's or being intimidated by the bets. Don't have to think as much and they want/like the feeling of cashing a ticket. Kind of like playing blackjack or roulette as mentioned only on horse racing. Great for the casual fan. I'm sure it would come with a nice 22-25% vig making the track happy.

In Hong Kong at least, it appears to have the same 17.5% as Win, Place, Quinella, and Double.

Don't exactly remember how it worked, but R.D. Hubbard tried something like that at Hollywood Park, think it was something like 1st & 3rd for an 'almost exacta'. Regardless it didn't last very long.

I occasionally place a swinger/omni/QP bet at Hong Kong, when I think the favorite will run out, and can't make up my mind over a couple of other contenders. It's a bet that provides some value at Sha Tin where the larger fields and lots of bets spread out by the fans makes the payoffs okay. It's also a good bet for players like me that find a long shot ambling up for a well beaten third in many races.

Sha Tin doesn't offer exactas, but their quinellas usually pay pretty good - they are difficult to hit, even with a couple of stronger favorites. For almost all of NA racing, it's not as good a fit, as the connections usually crush the more favorable combos. Keeneland offered the OMNI back about 15-20 years ago, and I thought it might catch on a bit, as that's a tough track - but, it didn't. I think Saratoga would work too with the bet with the larger fields and contentious races, though an awful lot of chalk underlays seem to make it on the board.

That's an odd deal with the omni still paying out on a late scratch, though we are talking about the French here. Maybe they have a rule about late scratches to avoid the mob rushing the windows. At Sha Tin they payoff on the 2nd place finisher for the second half of a double - which is kind of interesting, though I'm sure the purists would poo poo it for its "consolation" flavor. Doesn't matter though, we can't get the multi-race bets here in NA for HK anyway.

It's a useful wager to use for beginners.