Kentucky Derby Superfecta Betting Strategy to turn $10 into $20,000

Important: This is an old article. To see this year's strategy, please visit click here to read this year’s strategy!

Turning $10 into $20,000 sounds too good to be true, and you’d be right if I was talking about sports. I’m talking about Horse Racing, and specifically the Kentucky Derby this weekend.


Know nothing about horses? That’s fine, stick with me here and I’ll explain why.

First, I have a sign-up offer from our partners at Daily Racing Form which will give you $10 free for just signing up. No need to deposit anything! (Offer expired,click here for this year's best offers.

Second, I am going to give you the exact wagers that have the best chance to turn that free $10 into $20k that you can take home.

Still skeptical? Let me explain what makes Horse Racing different from sports betting and why I love the ponies and you should too.

Why you should bet on Horse Racing

In horse racing, all wagers are done in a pool. The track and government take a fixed cut out of this pool, and the rest are divided up among the winners of the bet. On a normal race day, the payout is typically fairly inline with the odds. But during a big race day, the general public will throw in a lot of money on favorites as a “sure thing”. This massively inflates the pool and allows smart bettors to pocket that money.

See where I am going with this?

The Kentucky Derby is the biggest day in horse racing, which also makes it the biggest pool available. Typically more than $200,000,000 is wagered with the vast majority of that by spectators and casual bettors just wanting to turn $2 into $5 by piling on the favorite.

But the favorite has only won 5 out of the last 34 derbies. That’s equivalent to 8-1 odds, but the favorites are always listed as 3-1 or even 3-2. Clearly there isn’t any money to be made taking the favorite, but the public is going to do it anyway every single time.

That’s a good thing though, because that means the pool is bigger for the sharp bettors to cash in big.

This is why you can turn $10 into $20,000 during the Kentucky Derby and why I love the ponies so much!

I want you to get a taste of the action, especially with our friends at DRF giving you a free $10 to get started with for just signing up! (Click here to get that offer)

My $10 Superfecta Strategy

In the main event, Race 12 of the Kentucky Derby, I really like the following horses:

#9 - Tiz the Bomb
#15 - White Abarrio
#16 - Cyber Knife
#6 - Messier

I really like #9 to win, #15 and #16 to be second or third, and #6 to be fourth. I also like horses #3, 8, and 10 as possible contenders for fourth place.

A $1 superfecta bet on this race is projected to pay over $20,000. So we’re going to use your free $10 to create 10 superfecta bets using these horses to increase our odds of hitting the jackpot!

This is what the bets look like - don’t worry, I’ll explain how to place them in a moment:

$1 Superfecta:
9 with 15, 16 with 15, 16, with 3, 6, 8, 10

$1 Superfecta:
15 with 9 with 16 with 6

$1 Superfecta:
16 with 9 with 15 with 6

If you were to go up to the window at Churchill Downs, you could say this to the teller and they would understand it perfectly and ask for $10 and give you your betting slips.

But, you can do this from the comfort of your home (legal in all states!) using DRF Bets. I’ll walk you through how to place these bets one by one.

Walkthrough

Step 1: Use this link to sign up with DRF and get your free $10.

Step 2: First thing Saturday morning, go to https://bets.drf.com/churchill-downs and select race 12.

Step 3: Where it says “Select Wager Type”, choose “SPR”. This is for Superfecta, a bet on the top 4 places.

Step 4: Click “$ Enter” and enter $1 as the wager amount.

Step 5: Select horse 9 for 1st place.

Step 6: Select horse 15 and 16 for 2nd place.

Step 7: Select horses 15 and 16 for 3rd place.

Step 8: Select horses 3,6,8, and 10 for 4th place.

Step 9: This should give you a total wager of $8, click place bet.

Congratulations, you’ve just placed your first exotic ticket! All this did was create a seperate superfecta bet for each possible combination of the selections we made, which is 8 total.

Step 10: Return to https://bets.drf.com/churchill-downs and select race 12.

Step 11: Where it says “Select Wager Type”, choose “SPR”.

Step 12: Click “$ Enter” and enter $1 as the wager amount.

Step 13: Select horse 15 for 1st, horse 9 for 2nd, horse 16 for 3rd, and horse 6 for fourth.

Step 14: Click Place bet.

We placed this bet in case #15 comes in first instead of #9, pushing #16 to third. If you’re keen to put some money up, go ahead and add 3,8 and 10 for fourth to increase your chances of winning.

Step 15: Return to https://bets.drf.com/churchill-downs and select race 12.

Step 16: Where it says “Select Wager Type”, choose “SPR”.

Step 17: Click “$ Enter” and enter $1 as the wager amount.

Step 18: Select horse 16 for 1st, horse 9 for 2nd, horse 15 for 3rd, and horse 6 for fourth.

Step 19: Click Place bet.

Like the previous bet, we’re creating this one as a contingency should #16 come in first, pushing #9 to second and #15 to third. We’d typically suggest keeping 3,8,10 as fourth place options, but that would go over our budget of $10.

All 10 of these bets are high risk, but we’re putting the odds in our favor both through sharp handicapping as well as sharp betting strategies.

Bonus $50 Strategy

If you’re willing to put a little more money in, I would suggest this strategy for $50 budget:

$10 Win on 9
$1 Exacta Box: 9, 15, 16 ($6 total)
$1 Straight Trifecta: 9, 15,16 with 9,15,16, with 6,15,16 ($10)
$1 Straight Superfecta: 9,15,16 with 9,15,16 with 9,15,16 with 3.6,8,10, ($24)

The $10 winner could pay $300, the $1 exacta could pay $250, the $1 trifecta could pay $1600, and the superfecta as much as $20,000!

This slip pretty optimally combines the horses I feel are best to increase the odds of a winning bet paying out. If you want to bet more, I’d just increase the wager size proportionately across this strategy making your payout even bigger!

Good luck!

Author Profile
Ben Hayes

Ben has been a sports writer for over 35 years, dabbling in college and pro basketball, college and pro football, baseball, college lacrosse, minor league baseball and even college gymnastics. He's also been involved in the gaming industry for nearly 30 years and has been looking to beat the books since he was 13! Ben has had great success in handicapping college football, the NFL, college basketball, the NBA and MLB for 27+ years. His Twitter handle is @BenHayesWAW