Have you ever placed a ‘first four’ bet?

There are dozens of different types of best available to punters. These range from simple ‘win’ and ‘place’ bets to complicated accumulators which can confuse even the most experienced punter.

If you are looking for a healthy profit on a single race, a ‘first four’ bet might be for you.

First Four

A First Four bet requires you to select the first four finishers in a given horse race. It is similar to a ‘quinella’ and a ‘trifecta’ – bets which require you to pick the first two or three finishers in a given event.

You can place a First Four bet on any nominated race covered by the national TABs including thoroughbreds, greyhounds and harness.

There are several different types of First Four bet available.

Straight First Four Bet

A straight First Four bet requires you to pick the first four finishers of a particular race in the correct order. This is the easiest way for you to maximise your profit as it requires just one stake. A win is paid only in the event of your nominated four runners finishing in the correct order.

Box First Four Bet

A box First Four bet requires you to pick the first four finishers in a nominated race in any order. You make four selections and if they occupy the first four places, in any order, you will win.

There are 24 permutations for your four horses to finish in the first four places and so a box First Four is made up of twenty-four bets. A $1 stake would therefore result in a $24 outlay for this particular bet.

Standout First Four Bet

A standout First Four bet is a good value option if you have a very clear idea of which horse will win a particular race. You select one runner which you believe will win the race, and then three further runners who you believe will finish in second, third and fourth places. If your chosen first place runner wins the race, the other three runners can finish in the next three places in any order.

A standout First Four bet reduces the number of combinations. In the example above there would be six possible permutations and so six bets. This type of bet is sometimes called a ‘roving banker’ bet.

Flexi First Four Bet

A flexi bet allows you to decide how much you wish to spend on their bet. For example, a box First Four bet with four runners costs $24 to receive 100% of the final dividend. If you only wished to stake $12 then a flexi bet allows you to do this and you will win 50% of the dividend.

Whilst there might be a degree of difficulty in picking the first four finishers in a given race, the various box and standout First Four options give you a good choice of options when trying to profit from picking the first four finishers.

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