2025 Breeders’ Cup Exotic Bets: Exacta, Trifecta, and Superfecta Picks

Key takeaways:

• The Breeders’ Cup’s deep, competitive fields at Del Mar create prime opportunities for big exotic payouts across both days.
• Exacta, trifecta, and superfecta wagers reward players who can identify value horses to outrun their odds in chaotic, high-quality races.
• In the Juvenile Turf Sprint, Havana Anna, Obliteration, and Cy Fair offer upside at prices behind the classy favorite True Love.
• Precise looks like a key single in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, with Infinite Sky, Imaginationthelady, and Ground Support rounding out exotics.
• Saturday’s Turf Sprint could produce another upset—Khaadem and She’s Quality bring strong late kicks, while Motorious and Arizona Blaze add proven class.
• Program Trading offers value in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, with Notable Speech, Rhetorical, and Sahlan as logical contenders for trifecta and superfecta spots.

Win, place, and show may be the classic and basic horse racing wagers, but Breeders’ Cup betting includes a lot more than that! The 2025 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, happening October 31 and November 1 at Del Mar, offers two days of great opportunities for life-changing exotic betting scores.

With double-digit field sizes the norm in each Breeders' Cup race, there are always world-class horses who get ignored in the betting pool and outrun their odds on each of the two days. Finding those horses and playing them in exotic wagers is a great way to make your Breeders' Cup weekend rewarding.

Naturally, you can bet which horses will win their Breeders’ Cup races at FanDuel Racing. Also, discover 2025 Breeders’ Cup odds and bet the Breeders’ Cup with exclusive bonuses and promos.

If you are new to betting exotics or just need a refresher, exotics are horse-racing bets that involve more than one horse. Win, place, or show are straightforward: you pick a single horse to finish first, second, or better, or third or better. In a vertical exotic, instead of just picking a winning horse, you try to pick the first two, three, or four horses across the wire in exact order. They are more difficult to hit than straight bets because they involve multiple horses, but on the other hand, they pay more money—even life-changing amounts if you can get a long shot or two in them.

These are the exotic bets you can make on any of the Breeders' Cup races.

• Exacta bet: Pick the first- and second-place horses in order.
• Trifecta bet: Pick the first-, second-, and third-place horses in order.
• Superfecta bet: Pick the first-, second-, third-, and fourth-place horses in order.
• Super high five bet: Pick the first-, second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-place horses in order.

Though you can just play single combinations and hope for luck, seasoned bettors typically play multiple combinations in order to cover a group of race outcomes that they find possible. One strategy is to box a bet: choose a group of horses and cover every combination, so you win if your chosen horses finish in any order. However, since you are covering every possible combination, boxes can get expensive, and they do not necessarily maximize opinions on a particular horse.

You can both control ticket cost and focus more on specific opinions by using a key or wheel. By keying or wheeling, you can select a particular horse to win (or come second, or come third), or "wheel" a specific horse or two through each position along with some other horses. These cover fewer combinations than a box, but both cost less and focus your opinions on specific horses you think are more likely to run well.

This focuses on single-race betting strategies for exactas, trifectas, and superfectas. But, if you are the kind of player who prefers just picking winners, consider horizontal exotic wagers like Daily Doubles, Pick 3, Pick 5, Pick 5, and Pick 6 bets. In those, you win if you pick the winners in each race of a multi-race sequence.

Exotic Wagers for Friday Breeders' Cup Races

Get your Breeders’ Cup exotic betting started with Future Stars Friday at Del Mar on October 31. The card features five World Championship races, three on the grass and two on dirt, all of which drew deep fields of horse racing’s rising stars. With those fields full of young horses liable to take a step forward at any time, these juvenile races often feature exciting finishes and massive payouts for exotic wagers.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, Race 6

Although likely favorite True Love got the best of Havana Anna (6-1) in the Cheveley Park (G1) at Newmarket last out, that’s a six-furlong race, and the turn back to five furlongs should help this daughter of Havana Grey turn the tables. She has tactical speed from a good middle gate, and she really came into her own in five-furlong races over the summer. Her form on good ground is strong enough to bode well for handling California, and regular rider Gavin Ryan sees fit to make the trip over.

Obliteration (15-1) comes out of the Indian Summer at Keeneland, a reliable place to find exotics horses in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. There’s enough speed to make it tough for Indian Summer winner Schwarzenegger, but Obliteration drew nicely and should be able to track from just off the pace and battle into the exotics at a price. Cy Fair (6-1) showed an appealing new dimension for trainer George Weaver in her last race. Though she was close to the lead in her first two races, she rallied from last in a compact field in her final race, the five-furlong Algonquin at Woodbine, getting the sort of trip that could work again on Friday.

True Love (7-2) has the class to consider for underneath rungs, though she may be an underlay on top. She won the Cheveley Park and hails from the powerful Aidan O’Brien barn, and has never finished out of the exacta. However, O’Brien has yet to bring a winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, and at a short price, there are questions of whether her European speed will compare in California.

• Havana Anna (6-1)
• Obliteration (15-1)
• Cy Fair (6-1)
• True Love (7-2)

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, Race 8

The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf has a strong favorite in Precise (6-5). The Aidan O’Brien trainee brings consistency and class that the rest of the field cannot match: though she was narrowly beaten on debut at six furlongs at Fairyhouse, she has won four straight since. She won three seven-furlong races, including the Moyglare Stud (G1), and then took a step forward when she romped by 3 ¼ lengths in the Fillies Mile (G1) at Newmarket on October 10. She is coming into her own at this mile distance, and shapes as a strong key horse even from the outside gate.

A profitable betting strategy in exotics is to play price horses around a strong key, and there are good options for price horses around Precise in this race. Brad Cox has known all along that he has a two-turn horse in Infinite Sky (20-1): she was off the board on debut at Ellis going 1 1/16 miles, though even then she closed up good ground after loping far off the pace early. She got rolling a bit sooner next out at Kentucky Downs and won a maiden mile by daylight, and then worked out a similar late-running trip to finish a close second in the Jessamine (G2), a historically live prep for this race.

Imaginationthelady (10-1) is the horse that beat Infinite Sky in the Jessamine. She got first jump, coming from midfield and finding enough to hold her off. It was a good dimension of versatility after she disputed the pace in her debut win, showing that she can stay off of what is likely to be a contested pace in this race. Ground Support (15-1) wired the Miss Grillo (G2), another live prep for this race. However, she showed on debut that she had tactical speed, coming from a tracking spot to win on debut at Kentucky Downs. She still has upside to improve in just her third career start, and should be once again overlaid coming from the barn of sharp but lesser-known trainer Kelsey Danner.

• Precise (6-5)
• Infinite Sky (20-1)
• Imaginationthelady (10-1)
• Ground Support (15-1)

Exotic Wagers for Saturday Breeders' Cup Races

Horses aged three and up take the spotlight Saturday, November 2, for nine World Championship races on Breeders’ Cup Saturday, featuring the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. Turf and dirt, sprinting and routing, there are races for every kind of horse—and full, exciting fields for every bettor to play in their exactas, trifectas, and superfectas.

Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Race 5

Looking at recent history, there’s no better spot on Breeders’ Cup Saturday to go for the gusto in exotic wagers than the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. With an overflow field and a lot of room for chaos over the five-furlong trip, long shots find the frame—and even the winners’ circle—year in and year out.

The Woodford (G2) at Keeneland is a strong prep for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, and it’s where Khaadem (10-1) found a renaissance this fall. The nine-year-old, a Group 1 winner as recently as last year at Royal Ascot, isn’t a stranger to coming stateside—he has hit the board in the Turf Sprint (G2) at Kentucky Downs the last two years. But, he stayed in Kentucky and passed every single horse in the final furlong to win at Keeneland. With a lot of horses who do their best work on the front end, he could get the right setup for another powerful late surge at Del Mar.

Even with the huge exotic prices in this race, there is usually at least one runner near the top of the final odds who finds the frame. Once again, that looks like Motorious (7-2). Second in this race last year, he comes into the race in similarly sharp form. He loves five furlongs, he loves Del Mar, and even from challenging inside posts, he just does his thing: finds a spot, uncorks a late run, and gets his head in the frame.

Two others to consider for exotic bets in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint are She’s Quality (20-1) and Arizona Blaze (5-1). She’s Quality is a five-furlong specialist, and even though she hasn’t won since an ungraded race last year, she has been second four times this year and has finished in the superfecta in two of the top turf sprints in the world in her last two starts: the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp (G1) and the Flying Five (G1). Though she may be more forward than some of the others, she finishes in the top few against good horses often enough to respect at a huge price. Arizona Blaze won the Flying Five last out, and proved last year that he could take his form to Del Mar when he rallied for second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

• Khaadem (10-1)
• Motorious (7-2)
• She’s Quality (20-1)
• Arizona Blaze (5-1)

Breeders’ Cup Mile, Race 10

Though the past performances of Program Trading (10-1) show a lot of layoffs and he has struggled to string multiple races together, he has finally gotten into a good rhythm at the age of five—and just in time, with the Breeders’ Cup Mile coming up. A Grade 1 winner at ages three and four, he was on the shelf for over a year but has returned with a pair of smart efforts in the Bernard Baruch at Saratoga and then the Coolmore Turf Mile (G1) at Keeneland. He returns in four weeks, a huge sign of confidence from trainer Chad Brown, given all the layoffs, and he is already a Grade 1 winner at Del Mar. If he moves forward third off the lay, this tactical son of Lope de Vega can surprise people and key high payouts.

Notable Speech (5-2) was the beaten favorite in this race a year ago, but was beaten by less than a length. He is a better horse now than he was at three, and comes off of just the kind of no-doubt-about-it win in the Woodbine Mile (G1)—despite some early trouble—that would suggest this Charlie Appleby trainee is ready for the Breeders’ Cup. Expect a strong late rally once again.

Rhetorical (5-1) is the up-and-comer in the turf mile division for trainer Will Walden. He came up through the New York-bred ranks this year, but took a shot in the Coolmore Turf Mile in October. He was surprisingly well bet that day—9-1 in an 11-horse Grade 1 despite coming out of a state-bred race—and held off Program Trading to win. If he holds that form, he should find the frame. Sahlan (6-1) is a lightly-raced three-year-old with just six starts, but his midpack style should suit, and he has won his last two in group-level company. He upset the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp (G1) over a soft course last out, but two back he romped in a Group 3 at Deauville over good ground, suggesting he could take to the California footing.

• Program Trading (10-1)
• Notable Speech (5-2)
• Rhetorical (5-1)
• Sahlan (6-1)

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