Search Traffic Mail Bag: Average BC Pick 4 Payout

By Dana Byerly, Hello Race Fans Co-founder

From time to time we’ll see someone come to our site in search of something interesting. Sometimes we have we have exactly what they’re looking for and sometimes we don’t. We’ve created a few posts and regular features based on those occasions where we didn’t quite have whatever the person was searching for, such as this post on using charts to help determine your wagering strategy, or our “what did it pay?” posts for big race days. Over the weekend another opportunity presented itself!

We’re happy to report that since Horseplayers aired a couple of weeks ago we’ve seen a notable uptick in search traffic on handicapping and wagering strategy. It’s hard to imagine this search wasn’t inspired by the high-flying pick 4 and pick 6 wagers of the Horseplayers: Breeders’ Cup average pick 4 payout.

What’s the average payout of the Breeders’ Cup pick 4? Good question, and one we could answer relatively easily! To answer this question we visited the handy Breeders’ Cup Stats site and specifically the Breeders’ Cup Classic page in Race Recaps (from there you can click on the date/track to access the chart for each race).

The Breeders’ Cup started offering a pick 4 in 2000. Since the minimum wager has varied through the years we’ve recorded the payout for a $2, $1 and $.50 wager. It’s not uncommon for the minimum wager to be $.50, but it can vary based on the host track. The pick 4s listed below are for the sequence that ends with the Breeders’ Cup Classic. To keep it simple we’re only using the Saturday pick 4 payouts for the years where the event was run over two days (2007-2014).

Breeders’ Cup Pick 4 Payouts and Averages

Obviously not all Breeders’ Cup pick 4 payouts are whoppers. 2013, for example, was the second lowest payout of the series. Payouts are dependent on the odds of the winners in each of the races, the amount of money wagered into the pool and the amount of winning tickets. Let’s take a look at a couple of the sequences.

2011 – $93,628.10 payout
2011 produced the highest pick 4 payout in Breeders’ Cup history, in part thanks to Court Vision, the second highest paying winner in Breeders’ Cup history. But, every horse in the sequence was a longshot.

Classic – Drosselmeyer – $31.60
Mile – Court Vision – 131.60, the second highest paying BC winner to date
Juvenile – Hansen – $16.20
Turf – St. Nicholas Abbey – $15.60

2010 – $7,796.10 payout
2010 paid less than the average but was still a sizable payout. The Dirt Mile had the biggest longshot but the Mile was won by the favorite.

Classic – Blame – $12.40
Turf – Dangerous Midge – $19
Dirt Mile – Dakota Phone – $77.40
Mile – Goldikova – $4.80

With an average payout of $17,745.15 for a $1 wager over the past 15 years, the Breeders’ Cup pick 4 certainly is an attractive option! If you’re not a regular multi-race player you can start practicing with a modest bank roll by doing something called singling and spreading. This is basically where you identify a horse or horses that you feel you can “single” (the only horse on your ticket in one race of the sequence) and then “spread,” or select multiple horses in the other races of the sequence. You can learn more about how to get started with this singling and spreading here!