'Punt-Smart' with Quadrellas

Quadrella betting provides the opportunity for a big collect for a modest outlay, but as with all exotics, an intelligent strategy is required to succeed. Anything less and your bankroll will quickly disappear.

Quadrella Basics

To collect a Quadrella you must correctly select the winner in each of the 4 races nominated by the relevant TAB. At this stage only VIC and NSW TAB's offer a Quadrella bet, but it can be taken on just about any meeting across the country that day.

The cost of a Quadrella bet is calculated by multiplying the number of runners taken in each leg. For example, 2 horses in each leg would cost 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = $16 for a $1 unit.

As with any exotic bet type, the dividend is determined by pooling all of the money invested, removing the TAB's percentage take (about 20%) and dividing the remaining amount by the number of winning tickets. For this reason the actual dividend can often differ significantly to what you might expect given the price of the winners (both higher and lower). It all comes down to the number of punters that had the winning combination. A good way to judge the value of a Quadrella dividend is to compare it to what you would have collected if each winner were backed on an all-up basis. For example, if the winners were priced at $2, $10, $6 and $7 an all-up bet would have returned $840. Anything above this could be considered a value Quadrella dividend.

Poor Betting Strategies

Taking one horse in each leg of a Quadrella will cost you $1, but you also have next to no chance of collecting. Consider that if your average strike rate for top rated runners is 25%, your chance of getting the Quadrella is 0.25 x 0.25 x 0.25 x 0.25 = 0.39%.

At the other end of the scale, if you take 6 horses in each leg you could get the Quadrella 45% of the time, but each bet would cost you $1,296. The average dividend needed just to break even is around $2,880. You could get lucky and strike a big dividend, but chances are you would lose money, quickly! 

Then of course there are hybrid strategies where the number of runners taken in each leg is mixed. Perhaps the most common one adopted by punters is to take a couple of horses in each of the first 3 legs and then go wider in the last leg, taking many more runners and possibly even the entire 'field'. The punters logic is if they are lucky enough to get the first 3 winners, they don't want to risk missing the last leg. This strategy is so common that a long priced winner in the first or second leg will almost certainly guarantee a bigger dividend than if that same winner comes in the last leg. 

Haphazard methods of Quadrella betting like this will only result in significant losses.

Intelligent Betting Strategies

To win with Quadrellas you need a strategy that achieves a good balance between outlays relative to your bank, the number of times you can expect to collect and the opportunity for one of those collects to be a massive one.

The nature of Quadrella betting means that even with a well considered strategy, your strike rate might only be 10%-20% at best. It's important to understand the implications of this. You will go many meetings without a collect and your bankroll as well as psychological make-up must be able to withstand this. The other, more positive side of the coin though is that when you do get it right, the dividend can be in the thousands of dollars, as you will see soon. 

Following are two of my preferred basic strategies for taking a Quadrella:

Aim to find the winner of 3 legs in the top 2 rated horses and allow the winner of the other leg to come from the top 6 rated horses. Constructing this bet properly requires 4 individual Quadrella bets:

 

	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4
Ticket 1	1,2	1,2	1,2	1,2,3,4,5,6
Ticket 2	1,2	1,2	3,4,5,6	1,2
Ticket 3	1,2	3,4,5,6	1,2	1,2
Ticket 4	3,4,5,6	1,2	1,2	1,2

 

For a $1 unit the cost is $144. The NSW TAB offers Flex-betting so you could make this bet for 20% of the winning dividend at a cost of $28.80.

Can't make sense of how these combinations work?

This strategy means that you have to be 'right' in 3 legs and get the winner in the top 2. Outside of that you have one insurance leg where you only need to find the winner in the top 6 rated horses.

In race 1, if one of the top 2 horses wins, then tickets 1,2,3 are still alive. Ticket 4 has already lost. Most importantly you still have your insurance leg to carry through to the remaining 3 races.

However if the winner in race 1 comes from horses rated 3-6, then you have already used your insurance leg. Ticket 4 is still alive, but as you can see you must find the next 3 winners in the top 2 horses.

If you find the winner in the top 2 for the first 3 races, then you still have your insurance leg coming into the final race (ticket 1). You can afford to have any of the top 6 horses win and still collect.

Dividends from this strategy with Pace Advantage Ratings

Using the Pace Advantage ratings with this particular strategy has resulted in the following Quadrella dividends (up to 16th October 2004):

16th October 2004 - NSW TAB Quadrella (races 4,5,6,7):

Carlita Miss (6th rated)    - $11.10

Hard to Catch (2nd rated)   - $9.70

Never Sad (top rated)       - $7.00

Stormcat Academy (2nd rated)- $8.60

Paid: $18,751.20

16th October 2004 - VIC TAB Quadrella (races 4,5,6,7):

Hard to Catch (2nd rated)   - $9.70

Never Sad (top rated)       - $7.00

Stormcat Academy (2nd rated)- $8.60

Prince of Ashes (4th rated) - $8.80

Paid: $8,945.10

9th October 2004 - NSW TAB Quadrella (races 6,7,8,9):

Red Oog (top rated)         - $2.10

Kosta Nothin (top rated)    - $4.00

Lord of the Land (top rated)- $3.50

Racers Success (5th rated)  - $20.60

Paid: $1,370.20

25th September 2004 - NSW TAB Quadrella (races 4,5,6,7):

Winsome Dancer(5th rated)   - $5.00

Concitare (2nd rated)       - $4.50

Moving (2nd rated)          - $4.20

Hell for Leather (top rated)- $5.10

Paid: $1,165.50

11th September 2004 - NSW TAB Quadrella (races 4,5,6,7):

Abu Simbel (4th rated)      - $5.00

Renouf (top rated)          - $8.10

Air of Grace (2nd rated)    - $6.50

Uncle Shamos (eq top rated) - $7.80

Paid: $4,139.90

11th September 2004  - VIC TAB Quadrella (races 5,6,7,8)

Renouf (top rated)          - $8.10

Air of Grace (2nd rated)    - $6.50

Uncle Shamos (eq top rated) - $7.80

Hudson Jack (2nd rated)     - $12.80

Paid: $10,771.60

As you can see, with a good set of ratings like Pace Advantage and an effective betting strategy, it is possible to land some very big dividends.

Aim for one winner on top and the remaining winners to come from the top 4 rated horses.

 

	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4
Ticket 1	1	1,2,3,4	1,2,3,4	1,2,3,4
Ticket 2	2,3,4	1	1,2,3,4	1,2,3,4
Ticket 3	2,3,4	2,3,4	1	1,2,3,4
Ticket 4	2,3,4	2,3,4	2,3,4	1

 

The cost of this bet is $175 for a $1 unit or $35 for a 20% flexi-bet. Out of these two strategies, one is not necessarily better than the other. On many occasions they will both land the same Quadrella, but there will also be times that one provides a collect the other wouldn't have.

There are numerous variations you could apply to these approaches that would be equally as effective. The aim is to give yourself the chance of collecting every 5-10 bets, but also enough scope in your combinations to capture a longer priced winner in at least one of the legs, which often pushes the dividend to into the thousands. Once you are comfortable and experienced with Quadrella betting you can begin to modify your strategy on a week-to-week basis, according to the races chosen by the TAB and how you view the chances in those races.

Remember that the nature of Quadrella betting means you will miss many more times than you hit and annual profits will typically come from a small number of big collects each year. You need to be prepared for this from both a bankroll and psychological perspective. If you are prepared, the examples above show that the rewards can be substantial and are certainly worthwhile pursuing.

Remember, always punt smart!

Daniel O'Sullivan
The Form-Pro