Exacta Calculator

Combinations times your base unit. A straight ticket (one horse to win, one specific horse to run second) is always one combination. A box of n horses covers every ordered pair among them, n times (n minus 1) combinations, because any of them could win and any of the rest could run second. A key ticket pairs one horse, who must win, against however many others you name for second, one combination per other horse. A key-box ticket pairs that horse against the same others both ways, on top or underneath, twice as many combinations as a plain key. The base unit itself varies by track, commonly $1, sometimes $0.50 or $2, so check the track's own minimum rather than assuming ours.

Because the pool is open until wagering closes, the same reason a win, place or show estimate is only ever an estimate. Every figure here prices the pool exactly as you entered it, at this instant, and it moves as more money arrives on every combination right up to post time. It is also conditional in a second way an exacta payout is not: it is what your ticket pays only if the specific combination you priced actually finishes first and second in that order. A box or key ticket covers several combinations, and only one of them can win.

At most tracks it simply is, and it is worth knowing before you bet rather than after. New York Racing Association tracks (Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga) publish 18.5% takeout on exactas, quinellas and daily doubles, against 16% on win, place and show, and 24% on trifectas, superfectas, Grand Slam, Pick 3 and Pick 4, retrieved 2026-09-20 from NYRA's own published wagering information, re-verified 2026-10-07. NYRA prices its other multi-race pools differently: Pick 5 and Pick 6 are a separate 15% line, rising to 24% only on Pick 6 carryover days, so "multi-race" is not one flat rate there either. Rates differ by track and state, so treat that as one real, sourced example of the pattern rather than a national figure: check the specific track's own published rate before assuming ours.

No. Nothing can, and a tool that implied otherwise on a pool that has not closed would be printing a confident number where the honest answer is that it cannot be known yet. This page prices a combination you already hold or are considering, from pool figures you supply. It does not rank horses, does not compute a probability of any given combination winning, and does not read a live tote board.

Not built here. They are the same idea with more finishing positions and far worse combinatorics: a trifecta needs three finishers in order and a superfecta needs four, and the number of possible combinations grows fast enough that one honest tool for the simpler bet is worth more than several that gesture at all of it. Win, place and show are covered on our pari-mutuel payout calculator instead.

A part-wheel uses more than one horse on top, each paired with several horses underneath, rather than the single key horse this page models. It is a genuinely different combination count from a key or key-box ticket, not a bigger version of either, so covering it honestly would need its own construction rather than stretching this one. If you are building a part-wheel, add up its combinations as separate key tickets, one per horse on top.