Exacta vs Quinella

Exacta vs quinella: the core difference

Both bets are about the same thing: the first two home. The difference is whether the order matters. A quinella wins if your two selections finish first and second in any order, so 4-6 and 6-4 are the same ticket. An exacta wins only if they finish in the order you named, so 4-6 and 6-4 are two different tickets, and only one of them can win¹.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club's rulebook puts it plainly. A "Quinella" is a bet in which you select the 1st and 2nd horses regardless of the finishing order, while a "Forecast" is a bet in which you select the 1st and 2nd horses in the correct finishing order¹. Tokyo City Keiba's racecard lists the two side by side the same way⁶:

Japanese boat racing uses the same pair of bets on six-boat fields, and its English guide describes them in almost the same words: the quinella is a bet on any combination of the top two winners, the exacta a bet on the exact combination of the top two, in order².

Because the exacta is harder to hit, it pays more when it does come in, and because the quinella covers both orders with one ticket, it costs half as much to cover the same pair. Everything else on this page follows from that one trade-off.

Exacta: picking the first two in exact order

The exacta is the stricter of the two bets. Japan Racing's English betting guide for local tracks states the rule directly: when you bet two horses for the "Exacta", you win if you pick the first and second finishers by horse-number in exact order⁷. Boat racing's how-to guide says the same for boats: pick the two boats that finish first and second in exact order⁸.

A worked example makes it clear:

• You take the exacta 3-6.
• The race finishes 3rd gate first and 6th gate second: you win.
• The race finishes 6 first and 3 second: you lose, even though you named the right two boats.
• The quinella player who took 3-6 wins either way.

Japan also runs a bracket version of the same idea. In bracket betting, horses that share an owner or entry are coupled into one bracket number, and the "Bracket Exacta" pays if you pick the first and second finishers by bracket-number in exact order, for example 3→1⁷. The bracket exacta is only sold when nine or more horses start, and the number of possible combinations is much smaller than the horse-number version: 60 combinations with 12 starters, down to 57 with 9⁹.

The horse-number exacta, called umatan in Japan, is sold whenever three or more horses start, and the number of possible combinations grows quickly with field size⁹:

One convenience exists for exacta players in Japan: marking "ウラ" (Either Order) on your ticket bets both orders of your two horses at once, and this option is only available with the Exacta¹⁰. It is, in effect, a built-in way to box the bet, and it is the closest thing to a quinella inside the exacta pool.

Quinella: picking the first two in any order

The quinella drops the order requirement. Japan Racing's guide: when you bet two horses for the "Quinella", you win if you pick the first and second finishers by horse-number in either order⁷. Sonoda and Himeji's Chinese-language betting card says the same: select the 1st and 2nd horses by horse number, with no order needed on the combination¹¹.

The JRA's beginner's book describes the quinella place, the wide bet, as picking a combination of two horses that finish within the first three places¹². Boat racing offers the same bet: pick the two boats that finish within the first two places, in any order¹³.

A related bet in the same family is the expanded quinella, sold in Japan as "拡連複": you win by picking any two of the top three finishers, in any order. It differs from a quinella in that third place can complete your ticket⁸.

Hong Kong adds a further variation, the Quinella Place, in which you select any two of the first three placed horses regardless of order¹. Japan's boat racing has the identical product, called Quinella-Place: pick any combination of two of the top three winners, without regard for the order, and you win if your two boats finish first and second, second and third, or first and third⁸.

For a bracket example of how order-free payouts read: at a local track, if horses in brackets 8 and 6 finish first and second, the winning bracket quinella ticket is written 6-8, because first and second are not distinguished, and a JPY 100 stake paid JPY 3,090 at 30.9 times¹⁴.

Hit rates and odds: how much harder is the exacta?

The operators publish the theoretical hit rates, and they show the exacta is exactly twice as hard as the quinella on the same field. Japanese boat racing's English guide lists the quinella at 1/15 and the exacta at 1/30². The same figures appear in the boat race betting tables: quinella 1/15, exacta 1/30¹³.

Korean cycle racing, keirin, shows the same doubling on bigger fields. The Korean guide lists the quinella-style bet (복승식), picking the 1st and 2nd place riders in any order, at a hit probability of 1/21, and the exacta-style bet (쌍승식), picking them in exact order, at 1/42, noting that the exacta is harder but higher dividends are expected¹⁵.

The reason is simple arithmetic. On a six-boat field there are 15 possible pairs but 30 possible ordered pairs, so naming the order halves your chances. The pattern holds at every field size, which is why the exacta's dividends run higher: fewer tickets share the pool when the right order comes in.

For context, the boat race guide also lists the trifecta, the first three in order, at 1/120, and the simple place bet at 1/3¹³. So the two-horse bets sit in the middle of the difficulty range: harder than win and place, much easier than the three-horse bets.

Payouts: what each pool pays

Both bets are pari-mutuel: the money bet forms a pool, the operator takes a set percentage, and the rest is divided among winning tickets. The percentages differ by operator and by bet type.

At the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the Win, Place, Quinella, Quinella Place and Double pools pay out 82.5% of the pool as dividend, while the Forecast pool pays out 80.5%³. So the quinella player keeps a slightly larger share of the pool than the forecast player in Hong Kong, though the forecast is the harder bet to win.

Japanese racing sets payout rates by bet type. The JRA's published rate for the quinella (馬複) is 75%¹⁶. At Kasamatsu, a local track, the quinella payout rate is 70.0%¹⁷. The JRA's rate for the order-dependent two-horse bet, the umatan, is 75% as well, so within JRA the two bets give back the same share of the pool and the difference is purely in the dividends¹⁶.

What that means in cash:

• At Kasamatsu, a winning quinella on the combination 3-6 paid 21.4 times the stake, so a JPY 100 ticket returned JPY 2,140¹⁴.
• JRA's English guide gives bracket quinella examples in the same style: on the combination 1-2, a bet of JPY 100 paid out JPY 1,600¹⁸.

How the dividend is calculated: the Hong Kong Jockey Club divides the net pool by the number of unit bets on the winning combination, plus an amount equivalent to the unit bet stake and its share of any applicable jackpot amount¹⁹. In a dead heat, the net pool is subdivided into as many parts as there are backed winning combinations, and each part is paid to its own holders¹⁹. You can read more about how ties are settled on our dead heats in horse racing page.

Cost and coverage: what a quinella buys you for the price of a boxed exacta

Because a quinella covers both orders with one ticket, a quinella on the pair 4-6 costs the same as half of a two-horse exacta box. If the exacta minimum is $1 per combination, a $2 quinella and a $1 exacta box (two $1 combinations, 4-6 and 6-4) cover exactly the same result. The difference is which pool your money sits in, and therefore which dividend you collect.

In Japan, the "ウラ" (Either Order) mark on an exacta ticket does this in one step: it bets both orders of your two horses, and it is only available with the Exacta¹⁰. Japan's off-track betting terminals and the SMAPPY app both let you box the Exacta, along with the Quinella, Bracket Quinella, Quinella Place, Trio and Trifecta²⁰.

Minimum stakes are low everywhere:

Our minimum bets on horse racing page collects these in one table.

Where to find the two bets: Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and India

In Japan, the JRA's nine bet types include both the quinella and the order-dependent version, alongside win, place, bracket quinella, wide, trio, trifecta and WIN5²¹. The A-PAT internet betting service carries the same list: win, place, bracket quinella, quinella, wide, quinella exacta, trio, tierce and WIN5²². Local tracks sell them too: off-track outlets at Sonoda and Himeji list win, place, bracket quinella, quinella, exacta, wide, trio and trifecta, all in units of JPY 100²³, and Hokkaido racing sells win, place, bracket quinella, quinella, wide and the three-horse bets²⁴.

In Hong Kong, the Jockey Club sells the Quinella (連贏) with a betting unit of ten dollars, and the Forecast (二重彩) as its order-dependent partner²⁵. Both are single-race pools alongside the Quinella Place (位置Q)²⁵.

In Korea, horse racing's legal betting methods are eight: win, quinella, exacta, place, quinella place, tierce, trifecta and special betting²⁶, and the Asian racing federation lists the principal bet types as win, place, quinella and exacta²⁷. Korean boat racing publishes its own voiding rules for the same bets, which we cover below.

In India and the Philippines, the order-dependent bet is sold under the Forecast name. Philippine guidance lists the Forecast (FC) at a P 5.00 minimum, alongside the Daily Quinella (DQ) at P 2.00, which asks for the first two in any order in both races of a double⁴. Singapore's rules define the same products: the Forecast for the 1st and 2nd horses in the correct finishing order, with a $2 minimum⁵.

For the wider picture of every pool on offer, see our horse racing bet types page.

Pool rules: minimums, starters and dead heats

The pools only run if enough horses start. The thresholds differ by operator and bet:

At the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the Quinella pool closes and all bets are refunded if fewer than 3 starters are declared, and the Quinella Place pool needs at least 7 starters²⁵. The Chinese-language rulebook states the same thresholds: the Quinella pool is terminated if fewer than three horses start, the Quinella Exacta if fewer than four, and the Quinella Place if fewer than seven²⁵.

Japan draws the line by bet type as well: the horse-number exacta is sold when 3 or more horses start, while the bracket exacta needs 9 or more, with a special case that keeps bracket betting open even if scratchings drop the field to 8 or fewer, provided two horses still share one bracket⁹.

Singapore requires at least four starters before win or place betting is offered on a race²⁸. Korean boat racing has the most detailed voiding table: with two starters, the quinella, exacta and trifecta-type bets are void; with 5 or more starters, if only one boat finishes the quinella and exacta-type bets are void, and if no boat finishes all bet types are void²⁹.

Dead heats are handled by splitting the pool. The Hong Kong Jockey Club's rule is that in the event of a dead heat the net pool is subdivided into as many parts as there are backed winning combinations, and each part is then divided among the holders of that combination¹⁹. Japanese boat racing simply states that cash dividends are paid out when predictions are correct, with the pool mathematics doing the rest².

If your horse is scratched rather than the field shrinking, refunds work differently again; see our page on scratched horses and refunds.