Horse Gambling

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In New York, there may be rigid laws pertaining to online gambling, but there are still many ways to bet in the state. NY residents have long enjoyed the thrills of live horse racing and there are some great tracks in the state that support real money wagers on races.

The Best Online Horse Racing Sites

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Online bettors from the US have a number of great options when it comes to placing wagers at a trusted and secure site. For residents of NY, TVG has become a top choice for horse betting. Here, those who are signing up can grab the TVG welcome bonus when they make an initial deposit. Funds earned from this TVG bonus offer can be used to place wagers on many horse races that are supported and can generate amazing...

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Twinspires: 'Responsible wagering is what most people practice on a daily basis. For some, however, wagering or gambling becomes a serious problem that they are unable to control. This can lead to a state of compulsive or pathological gambling. Pathological gamblers cannot resist the temptation to gamble; they cannot stop regardless of their jobs, families or anything else.' If you need help, call 1 -800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537). Twinspires
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TwinSpires is one of the top-rated US horse betting sites and residents from NY are able to create an account and engage in the thrilling action of TwinSpires horse racing. This trusted site is always welcoming new members and those that create an account will have the chance to take advantage of the TwinSpires' features. With TwinSpires, there are many ways to place wagers and collect payouts while enjoying some of the best odds in the industry....

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Contents

Horse Racing in New York

All racing activities that take place in the state are overseen by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board and this will include off-track betting, harness racing, quarter horse racing, and thoroughbred racing.

Within the state, bettors can enjoy the action of racing at four different Thoroughbred tracks and seven Standardbred tracks. While live betting at these venues has been a popular pastime for many years, there is also the opportunity to engage in off-track betting.

With this option, bettors can place wagers on races that are being run in different locations.

How did Horse Betting Become Legal in NY?

Long before online gambling could be visualized, Capitol Hill lawmakers were tackled with interstate off-track betting. Up until 1970, Nevada was the only state that allowed off-track betting. Bettors in one location were given legal room to bet on horse races that are taking place on another track. Thanks to TV’s broadcast live feeds of distant races, audiences in an off-track betting facility could bet and watch the event in real time without stepping on the racetrack.

All that changed when New York went ahead and legalized off-track betting parlors in 1970. This created huge businesses in the Empire State by connecting New Yorkers to racetracks all over the country. After some time, hundreds of off-track betting facilities started to sprout all over New York City as well as the upstate area.

By the year 2000, a powerful amendment was passed (Interstate Horse Racing Act 2000) which expanded the activity to include the pari-mutuel wagers placed via the internet. From that point forward, betting over the internet was now legal within the US. And since New York had already allowed interstate off-track betting, the law also applied to New Yorkers.

Many of the top-rated racetracks in NY offer simulcast races, so bettors have the chance to place wagers on events that are being held all over the world, increasing their chances of winnings and enhancing the betting experience.

In New York, bettors will have a wide selection of live tracks to visit and wager. These include popular venues that are known to host some of the hottest and most popular horse races being run.

The available tracks within New York include:

  • Aqueduct Racetrack
  • Batavia Downs
  • Belmont Park
  • Finger Lakes Gaming and Race Track
  • Historic Track
  • Monticello Raceway
  • Saratoga Race Course
  • Tioga Downs
  • Vernon Downs
  • Yonkers Raceway

Betting on Horse Races Online

Even though there are a number of top-notch racetracks in the state of NY, some bettors will want more betting options and will turn to online sites that support real money bets on horse races.

Our Top 3 Horse Racing Betting Sites

BetAmerica

BetAmerica is the US top horse racing sites and is fantastic for punters since it covers horse racing, harness racing and greyhound racing, but you can bet on these events all around the world. BetAmerica Horse Racing features over 200 horse racing tracks from around the world including Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. However, US domestic tracks get special attention.

The wagering process works exactly the same as if you were actually on a track and you receive full track odds on all winning wagers. Major horse racing events such as the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, and Breeders Cup are well represented. BetAmerica additionally offers a great mobile app that you can access while you are on the go.

TVG

TVG is famous for their easily available tips and handicapping. At TVG, you can find expert daily picks, past performances and races replays, and all of this for free. TVG first started as a TV network that was known for broadcasting horse races. When online wagering became legal in the US, an online site was added that now allows bettors to enjoy extensive TRVG horse race betting. The site has a number of high paying TVG bonus offers and there are always new promos being presented.

To place a wager, you just register or login, select your race from the track list dropdown menu and you can monitor your slip in real time right away.

Twinspires

TwinSpires is the official partner of the American classic that heads off the Triple Crown. It should therefore be your favourite online operator, if you annually bet on on the Kentucky Derby. Members can enjoy a variety of different rewarding TwinSpires promotions featured on the site and TwinSpires offers some best odds in the industry.

Of course, other global races and tracks are supported on TwinSpires as well. You can find special information about them in the blog section, thoroughbred news, and content about harness racing.

What are the Best Horse Racing events to Bet on in NY?

If you are a thoroughbred betting enthusiast, then you’ll be impressed by the runner competitions organized in New York. The events come in plenty all year round depending on the season. If you have time on your hands, you can watch some of the most exciting races in history live at the stables. In case you are on the lookout for some of the best horse racing events to bet on in New York, we’ve got your back. Here are a few options that will blow your mind and earn you solid payouts if you make the right predictions:

Belmont Stakes

Belmont Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race which takes place on the first and second Saturday every June. You can catch the action live at Belmont Park, in Elmont New York. It is known as the “Championship Track” because nearly all American champion runners have competed in the Track. With it’s wide, long homestretch and sweeping turn it is considered to be one of the fairest tracks.

Jockey Club Gold Cup

Established in 1919, it is a thoroughbred race open to horses of three-year-old gender and above. It is the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park. Just like Belmont Stakes, the event is a spring meeting.

Wood Memorial Stakes

This is an American flat thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old horses, which takes place annually in April. The runners go head to head on a 9 furlongs dirt track at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, Queens New York. This event was ranked as a Grade II event since 2017, but before that, the grades were switched back and forth from Grade I.

Types of Horse Racing Bets Available

When it comes time to begin placing bets on horse races in New York, one will find they have many great options that can yield impressive payouts. So first of all, you will want to make sure you know exactly how to talk about NY Horse Betting.

Most used Horse Betting Terms

Here is an explanation for the most used Horse Betting Terms:

  • Blinkers: Blinkers are also known as blinders. These are devices shaped like cups that cover the horses’ eyes. This narrows their field of vision to just the track ahead of them.
  • Win: This is the most basic type of bet that you can make. You just predict the winner of the specific race.
  • Daily Double: This is a bet that requires wagers to pick the winners of two highlighted races. Typically, this races happen in a row.
  • Handicap: This is where a weighting system is added to the better horses in order to even up the odds in the race.
  • Colt: This is a young male horse.
  • Filly: This is a young female horse.
  • Pari-Mutuel: This is a type of bet where the bets end up pooled together and then the pay out is determined by the amount of bettors who picked the winning horse.
  • Place: This is a bet where bettors decide whether they think a horse will place first or second.
  • Show: This is a bet where bettors decide whether a horse will finish first, second, or third.
  • Trifecta: This is a bet where bettors choose which horses will place first, second, as well as third.
  • Furlong: This is a measure of distance.
  • Exacta: A type of bet where you have to choose the first and second place finisher in the correct order.
  • Gelding: A hard to control horse who ends up getting neutered to make him easier to control.
  • Harness Racing: A type of race where jockeys ride in small carts behind the horses.
  • Post Position: This is where the horses are in position in the starting stalls that is in relation to the position of the rail.

What are best bets to place?

Many new bettors will begin placing straight wagers as these are the easiest to place and the simplest to understand. There are a few Straight bets that are supported at leading horse racing venues in New York.

Here, one can bet to Win, Place, or Show. All of these can provide some great payouts based on the amount of the bet.

For those that are seeking a bit more action and wish to win more from the races they bet on, exotics may be a better option.

These are a bit more complex than Straight bets but they will offer more in terms of payouts when they win. Exotic bets can include Exacta, Trifecta, Superfecta and Box bets.

Bettors will also have the ability to place Multi-Race bets at some of the leading horse racing locations in New York and with these, one will be selecting the winner on consecutive races.

These bets include Daily Double, Pick Three, and Pick Four.

With so many betting options available, those visiting tracks in New York or betting at trusted online sportsbooks will find they always have great ways to wager and some outstanding opportunities to collect high paying returns.

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Horse racing
  • Early history
  • The modern age of racing
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Horse racing, sport of runninghorses at speed, mainly Thoroughbreds with a rider astride or Standardbreds with the horse pulling a conveyance with a driver. These two kinds of racing are called racing on the flat and harness racing, respectively. Some races on the flat—such as steeplechase, point-to-point, and hurdle races—involve jumping. This article is confined to Thoroughbred horse racing on the flat without jumps. Racing on the flat with horses other than Thoroughbreds is described in the article quarter-horse racing.

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Horse racing is one of the oldest of all sports, and its basic concept has undergone virtually no change over the centuries. It developed from a primitive contest of speed or stamina between two horses into a spectacle involving large fields of runners, sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment, and immense sums of money, but its essential feature has always been the same: the horse that finishes first is the winner. In the modern era, horse racing developed from a diversion of the leisure class into a huge public-entertainment business. By the first decades of the 21st century, however, the sport’s popularity had shrunk considerably.

Early history

Knowledge of the first horse race is lost in prehistory. Both four-hitch chariot and mounted (bareback) races were held in the Olympic Games of Greece over the period 700–40 bce. Horse racing, both of chariots and of mounted riders, was a well-organized public entertainment in the Roman Empire. The history of organized racing in other ancient civilizations is not very firmly established. Presumably, organized racing began in such countries as China, Persia, Arabia, and other countries of the Middle East and in North Africa, where horsemanship early became highly developed. Thence came too the Arabian, Barb, and Turk horses that contributed to the earliest European racing. Such horses became familiar to Europeans during the Crusades (11th–13th century ce), from which they brought those horses back.

Racing in medievalEngland began when horses for sale were ridden in competition by professional riders to display the horses’ speed to buyers. During the reign of Richard the Lionheart (1189–99), the first known racing purse was offered, £40, for a race run over a 3-mile (4.8-km) course with knights as riders. In the 16th century Henry VIII imported horses from Italy and Spain (presumably Barbs) and established studs at several locations. In the 17th century James I sponsored meetings in England. His successor, Charles I, had a stud of 139 horses when he died in 1649.

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Organized racing

Simulator 1940's Horse Gambling

Charles II (reigned 1660–85) became known as “the father of the English turf” and inaugurated the King’s Plates, races for which prizes were awarded to the winners. His articles for these races were the earliest national racing rules. The horses raced were six years old and carried 168 pounds (76 kg), and the winner was the first to win two 4-mile (6.4-km) heats. The patronage of Charles II established Newmarket as the headquarters of English racing.

Horse Gambling Game

In France the first documented horse race was held in 1651 as the result of a wager between two noblemen. During the reign of Louis XIV (1643–1715), racing based on gambling was prevalent. Louis XVI (reigned 1774–93) organized a jockey club and established rules of racing by royal decree that included requiring certificates of origin for horses and imposing extra weight on foreign horses.

Organized racing in North America began with the British occupation of New Amsterdam (now New York City) in 1664. Col. Richard Nicolls, commander of the British troops, established organized racing in the colonies by laying out a 2-mile (3.2-km) course on the plains of Long Island (called Newmarket after the British racecourse) and offering a silver cup to the best horses in the spring and fall seasons. From the beginning, and continuing until the Civil War, the hallmark of excellence for the American Thoroughbred was stamina, rather than speed. After the Civil War, speed became the goal and the British system the model.

Match races

The earliest races were match races between two or at most three horses, the owners providing the purse, a simple wager. An owner who withdrew commonly forfeited half the purse, later the whole purse, and bets also came under the same “play or pay” rule. Agreements were recorded by disinterested third parties, who came to be called keepers of the match book. One such keeper at Newmarket in England, John Cheny, began publishing An Historical List of All Horse-Matches Run (1729), a consolidation of match books at various racing centres, and this work was continued annually with varying titles, until in 1773 James Weatherby established it as the Racing Calendar, which was continued thereafter by his family.

Open field racing

By the mid-18th century the demand for more public racing had produced open events with larger fields of runners. Eligibility rules were developed based on the age, sex, birthplace, and previous performance of horses and the qualifications of riders. Races were created in which owners were the riders (gentlemen riders), in which the field was restricted geographically to a township or county, and in which only horses that had not won more than a certain amount were entered. An act of the British Parliament of 1740 provided that horses entered had to be the bona fide property of the owners, thus preventing “ringers,” a superior horse entered fraudulently against inferior horses; horses had to be certified as to age; and there were penalties for rough riding.

Contemporary accounts identified riders (in England called jockeys—if professional—from the second half of the 17th century and later in French racing), but their names were not at first officially recorded. Only the names of winning trainers and riders were at first recorded in the Racing Calendar, but by the late 1850s all were named. This neglect of the riders is partly explained in that when races consisted of 4-mile heats, with the winning of two heats needed for victory, the individual rider’s judgment and skill were not so vital. As dash racing (one heat) became the rule, a few yards in a race gained importance, and, consequently, so did the rider’s skill and judgment in coaxing that advantage from his mount.

Bloodlines and studbooks

All horse racing on the flat except quarter-horse racing involves Thoroughbred horses. Thoroughbreds evolved from a mixture of Arab, Turk, and Barb horses with native English stock. Private studbooks had existed from the early 17th century, but they were not invariably reliable. In 1791 Weatherby published An Introduction to a General Stud Book, the pedigrees being based on earlier Racing Calendars and sales papers. After a few years of revision, it was updated annually. All Thoroughbreds are said to descend from three “Oriental” stallions (the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Barb, and the Byerly Turk, all brought to Great Britain, 1690–1730) and from 43 “royal” mares (those imported by Charles II). The preeminence of English racing and hence of the General Stud Book from 1791 provided a standard for judging a horse’s breeding (and thereby, at least to some degree, its racing qualities). In France the Stud Book Française (beginning in 1838) originally included two classifications: Orientale (Arab, Turk, and Barb) and Anglais (mixtures according to the English pattern), but these were later reduced to one class, chevaux de pur sang Anglais (“horses of pure English blood”). The American Stud Book dates from 1897 and includes foals from Canada, Puerto Rico, and parts of Mexico, as well as from the United States.

Horse Race Gambling

The long-standing reciprocity among studbooks of various countries was broken in 1913 by the Jersey Act passed by the English Jockey Club, which disqualified many Thoroughbred horses bred outside England or Ireland. The purpose of the act was ostensibly to protect the British Thoroughbred from infusions of North American (mainly U.S.) sprinting blood. After a rash of victories in prestigious English races by French horses with “tainted” American ancestry in the 1940s, the Jersey Act was rescinded in 1949.

Evolution of races

The original King’s Plates were standardized races—all were for six-year-old horses carrying 168 pounds at 4-mile heats, a horse having to win two heats to be adjudged the winner. Beginning in 1751, five-year-olds carrying 140 pounds (63.5 kg) and four-year-olds carrying 126 pounds (57 kg) were admitted to the King’s Plates, and heats were reduced to 2 miles (3.2 km). Other racing for four-year-olds was well established by then, and a race for three-year-olds carrying 112 pounds (51 kg) in one 3-mile (4.8-km) heat was run in 1731. Heat racing for four-year-olds continued in the United States until the 1860s. By that time, heat racing had long since been overshadowed in Europe by dash racing, a “dash” being any race decided by only one heat, regardless of its distance.

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