Caulfield Guineas Countdown: Where Bets Meet Thrills and Chills
The Caulfield Guineas is a Group 1 race and stands as the major race for 3-year-olds in the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It’s held at Caulfield Racecourse every year, takes place over 1,600 metres, and is an amazing race for future sires. It boasts a prize pool of $3,000,000 and is at Set Weights for the horses taking part. In 2023, the Caulfield Guineas will be run on October 14, 2023, at Caulfield Racecourse.
This race is known to shape a horse’s career, with many champions becoming subsequent sires.
The most important lead-up race to the Caulfield Guineas is the Prelude, which has seen 7 horses win the Guineas after coming through the Prelude since the turn of the century.
Standard Caulfield Guineas Bets
Most betting online on the Caulfield Guineas is on each-way, place, and win bets because they’re the easiest to understand:
- Each-Way
This bet actually consists of two bets of equal size on the same horse. One is for the horse to win, the other for it to come 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.
- Place
This is a bet on a single horse to either come 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in the race.
- Win
This is a bet on which horse will win the Caulfield Guineas.
Exotic Caulfield Guineas Bets
Many bettors feel that standard betting is safer than exotic betting. While this may be true in some cases, the reward for standard bets is significantly lower than that of exotic bets. Exotic bets will feature the same Caulfield Guineas odds, certainly, but they can still be of better value.
- Exacta
An exacta is a bet on which 2 horses will finish in 1st and 2nd place in exact order. For instance, in the 2022 Caulfield Guineas, if you had an exacta bet with Golden Mile in 2nd place and Elliptical in 1st, then you would have lost. If you had had the reverse order, you would have seen a return.
- Quinella
Quinellas are bets on which 2 horses will finish in 1st and 2nd place in any order. For example, it wouldn’t matter what order you had Militarize and Steparty in the 2023 Caulfield Guineas, as long as both finished in the money.
If there are 2 runners at comparable odds, then it may be worthwhile to consider a quinella. This is especially true if the 2 runners have won over one another in similar previous races.
- Trifecta
Trifectas are bets on which horses will place 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, in that order. For example, if you had placed a trifecta on the 2022 Caulfield Guineas race as Golden Mile in 1st place, Elliptical in 2nd, and Osipenko in third, you would have collected a return.
The horses need to be chosen in the precise order of their finishing. If you had placed Elliptical 3rd and Osipenko 2nd, your trifecta money would have been forfeited. Choosing trifecta bets for the Caulfield Guineas can be tricky, but pay attention to indicator races like the Prelude, which is only a little bit shorter.