Kentucky Derby Betting Guide

Kentucky Derby Quick Picks

The 147th running of the Kentucky Derby took place on May 1, 2021, and it was Medina Spirit (12-to-1) coming away with a wire-to-wire victory.

Although the 2021 Kentucky Derby is behind us, there is still plenty of horse racing to stay involved with, including the upcoming Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. ScoresAndOdds has partnered with TVG and TwinSpires to provide some great betting offers. You can take advantage of these offers using the links in this article.

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  • Bet The KY Derby From Home!
  • Legal Horse Betting
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  • Get Up To A $300 Risk-Free Bet
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  • Bet Horses From Home!

2021 Kentucky Derby Results

1st: No. 8 Medina Spirit ($26.20, $12, $7.60)
2nd: No. 7 Mandaloun ($23, $13.40)
3rd: No. 9 Hot Rod Charlie ($5.20)

A $2 exacta ticket with the No. 8 horse finishing first and the No. 7 horse finishing runner-up paid $503.60.

A $1 trifecta wager with the No. 8 horse finishing first and the No. 7 horse finishing second, and the No. 9 horse taking third paid $1,696.90.

A $1 superfecta wager with the No. 8 horse finishing first and the No. 7 horse finishing second, the No. 9 horse taking third, and the No. 14 horse finishing fourth paid $9,456.40.

Medina Spirit marked another Kentucky Derby victory for famed trainer Bob Baffert, who earned his seventh Kentucky Derby win. Baffert’s horses have finished first in the Run for the Roses in 1997, 1998, 2002, 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2021.

John Velazquez, who was Medina Spirit’s jockey for the 2021 Kentucky Derby, earned his fourth win in the race. Velazquez previously won the Kentucky Derby in 2011, 2017, and 2020.

How To Use TVG’s Kentucky Derby Offer

In order to be eligible to receive the risk-free bet, you’ll need to place an eligible wager. TVG defines eligible wagers as single-horse wagers, so exotic bets do not count. Examples of single horse wagers are bets to win, bets to win/place, bets to win/show, or bets to win/place/show.

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  • Bet The KY Derby From Home!
  • Legal Horse Betting
  • Great Bonus
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  • Get Up To A $300 Risk-Free Bet
  • Trusted Brand
  • Bet Horses From Home!

With the TVG offer, we can benefit from less risk as a downside due to the risk-free bet that’s being offered, so this is a time we might want to look at a long shot of a wager, which means going a little further down the odds board. If we were to bet the favorite using TVG’s risk-free bet off, though, we’d want to bet him to win because we’ll receive a higher payout than if we included placing or showing in the wager.

When offered a risk-free bet, we’re looking to wager on longer shots because we always have the fall-back option of getting a risk-free wager credit that we can hopefully make up our loss on while shooting for some upside.

We really like one horse that isn’t the favorite and is around 10-to-1 odds. The performance potential of this horse coupled with the payout we could receive if the horse wins is very attractive.

How To Use TwinSpires’ Betting Offer

To earn the full $200 bonus, new players will need to sign up using the code ‘BET200’ and then wager $800 within 30 days of creating an account at TwinSpires. This may sound like a lot, but turnover can go fairly quickly when you’ve got the Kentucky Derby quickly followed by the Preakness.

Similar to what we described for the TVG offer, we’d look to use the TwinSpires betting offer as a cushion that can give us some money back.

The absolute safest bet to make will likely be betting on the favorite to show, which means the horse only has to finish in the top three to cash. The payout won’t return much compared to what’s being wagered, though.

We could also bet on a few more exotic Kentucky Derby bets instead of just straight bets. Exactas and trifectas are always fun to wager on. They’re long shots to hit, of course, because you have to select more than one horse in an exact finishing position, but payoffs can be larger and they’re entertaining to sweat.

If you’re someone who is going to wager $400 or more on the Kentucky Derby, do so using the offer from TwinSpires so you can get some money back win or lose.

Taking the Boom-or-Bust Approach

If we really want to go big on betting the Kentucky Derby, we can take a boom-or-bust approach and fire on some of the much longer shots to win the race. The benefit here is that we can get our money back in the form of a wager credit thanks to TVG’s risk-free bet offer, so there’s a little cushion for us to land on.

Before you go thinking we’re crazy, let’s not forget about what happened just one year ago. At the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby, Country Horse won the race as a 65-to-1 longshot.

Types of Kentucky Derby Bets

Bettors wagering on the Kentucky Derby can do so in many ways. You can bet on more than just a horse to win. Betting on a horse to win is a straight-forward wager that is exactly what you think, you’re betting on the horse to win the race. Other single-horse bets are “to place” or “to show” bets.

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  • Bet The KY Derby From Home!
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  • Get Up To A $300 Risk-Free Bet
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  • Bet Horses From Home!

If you wager on a horse to place, you’re betting on that horse finishing in the top two positions, first or second. With a bet to place, you’ll receive a lesser payout than wagering on a horse to win because you have two chances for the horse to win instead of just one.

Likewise, if you bet on a horse to show, you’re wagering on that horse to finish first, second, or third, so now you have three chances to win. A bet to win will pay the most, a bet to place will pay the second most, and a bet to show will pay the least of the three.

There are several other horse-racing wager types you can place on the Kentucky Derby in addition to win, place, and show bets. Deemed “exotic” bets because they differ a bit from the norm, bettors can wager on the exact finishing positions of horses in the race for a chance at an even larger payday. The most common exotic bets are the “exacta,” “trifecta,” and “superfecta.”

With an exacta wager, you are attempting to predict the top two horses in the race in the correct finishing position. With a trifecta wager, you’re going even further in hopes of predicting the top three horses in the correct order. With a superfecta wager, bettors are attempting to nail down the top four horses in the exact order they finish in.

There is also an exotic bet called the “super high five.” As you might’ve guessed by the name, this type of wager calls for bettors to try and pick the top five horses in the race in exact finishing order.

Only the win portion of a win/place, win/show or win/place/show wager shall be counted as an Eligible Wager. If your Eligible Wager loses, you will receive a bonus equal to the amount wagered in your Eligible Wager, up to a maximum of $300 (“Bonus”). Limit 1 Eligible Wager.

When is the 2022 Kentucky Derby?

The 2022 Kentucky Derby, otherwise known as the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby, takes place on Saturday, May 7, 2022.

Where does the Kentucky Derby take place?

The Kentucky Derby takes place in Louisville, Kentucky, at Churchill Downs Race Track. Named for Samuel Churchill, the track opened in 1875.

How long is the Kentucky Derby?

The Kentucky Derby is run on a track that is 1.25 miles in length, or 10 furlongs. One furlong equals 220 yards. The race itself lasts about two minutes in duration, which is why the Kentucky Derby is often referred to as “the most exciting two minutes in sports.”

How much money is bet on the Kentucky Derby?

In most recent years, well over $100 million is bet on the Kentucky Derby each year. In 2019, more than $165 million was bet on the Kentucky Derby, which is a record number. The 2020 edition of the Kentucky Derby saw a reporter $79.4 million wagered, which is quite a bit of a decline from the record-setting 2019, but not to be unexpected with everything going on surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. In 2018, nearly $150 million was wagered on the Kentucky Derby. There has been more than $100 million bet on the Kentucky Derby every year but one (2020) dating back to 2005.

How do horse racing odds work?

Horse racing odds commonly use a pari-mutuel system to be calculated. This means all of the bets of a certain type are pooled together and then the odds are determined by the distribution of the bets among all bettors, after taking out the house take. The more money bet on a horse, the worse the odds will be and the lesser the payout. With pari-mutuel, the exact odds of a wager won’t be known until right before the race goes off when the betting window closes.