Kentucky Derby: Historical Payouts (2000 - 2012) - Part I

The Kentucky Derby is one of the best (if not THE best) betting races of the year. Twenty horses all going a mile and a quarter for the first time in their career and, typically, a testing and demanding pace all the way around the track. Throw all those factors together with huge pools and high interest nationally and internationally, and the payouts can be life changing if you're on the right side of the ledger. With that in mind, let's take a look at the payouts at the Derby since the year 2000, beginning with the Median, High and Low payouts across the wagering pools.

*All payouts are displayed as either $2 or $1 base bets, regardless of the changes in the base during the time frame.

**Part II to this piece will look at the individual results across the same time frame with an eye towards a comparison between the payouts in the Double and the win parlay.

***Any and all errors or omissions are the result of poor typing!

****Updated the charts with respect to the Oaks/Derby Double.

While the exotics are extremely enticing on Derby day, if you're playing a simple heavy win bet, and you come up with the winner, your return will likely be quite good. Since 2000, the median Win payout at the Derby is a healthy $23.00, essentially 10/1 odds. If you're playing a $20, $40 or $100 win bet, that'll put you into some nice money pretty quickly.

The win bet, along with the Exacta, Trifecta and Superfecta all offer excellent spots to pick up some good cash. The lowest Exacta since 2000 is $65 for a $2 wager, with the median right around $300. The Tris and Supers follow a similar pattern, with half of all Trifectas over the last thirteen years paying more than $3,400.

The Pick 6 is probably the Derby day wager with the greatest risk when you consider the multiple times the sequence has triggered a carryover in the last 13 years. And, to that same point, the median payout in the Pick Six is actually lower than the median in the Pick 4 ($11,228.20 vs. $12,292.20).

The differences between the Pick 3 and the Pick 4 are just massive; just one more leg in the sequence between the two wagers but the median, high and low payouts are far apart. The Pick 4, and incredibly popular wager over the last ten years, typically pulls in an average of just under $2 million into the pool ending with the Derby (with the 2012 pool exceeding $2.7 million). The Pick 3 ending with the Derby averages right around a million in handle.

The $0.50 Pick 5 is just a couple of years into its existence, so I've excluded it from the above chart. We'll give it a few more years until we begin to comparing that wager with others on the day.

Below is the breakout for each year by wager:

Win, Exacta, Trifecta & Superfecta Payouts since 2000

Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5 and Pick 6

Oaks/Derby Double, Woodford Turf/Derby Double

Notes:

• In 2000, 2002 - 2005, and 2008 - 2011, the Pick Six paid to five correct.
• The 2005 Superfecta paid to a single ticket.
• The 2002 Oaks/Derby Double was a consolation payout.