August 20 Saratoga ROI Wagers go here

[JolyB]

Originally Posted by RUFFIAN

RQ

R2 $30 Quinella 1-6 ($30)

WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
EXACTA AND QUINELLA 🤔

Ruff, I'll take a shot at answering your question. The exacta requires that your picks finish first and second in exactly the order you picked. However, the quinella only requires that your picks finish first and second in either order.

In RQ's wager, he will cash a winning ticket if #1 and #6 finish in the top two places in either order. If he had played an exacta for 1-6, his pick of #1 would have had to win and #6 would have had to finish second. That's the short answer to your question.

RQ could have also played a $15 exacta box on 1 and 6 for the same $30 total wager and would be rooting for the same either/or finish. However, there are some reasons which I really don't want to get into now that might make the quinella the more desirable play for the same money and other instances where the exacta box route might be a better form of money management. As a very rough rule of thumb, you can expect a $2 quinella to pay around half of a winning $2 exacta (after all, there is much less risk). When you might expect the payoff to be better than half or worse than half is where the money management aspect comes in - that's for the postgraduate course.

The quinella is only offered at NYRA on races 2 and 4. There are some players who ridicule it as a poor man's exacta box; however, it can be a useful part of the bettor's arsenal depending upon your expectations of the outcome of the race and the expected payoffs.

Hope that helps to answer your question. If you want to discuss more, we can do that too.