The Wynn Las Vegas is one of the first sportsbooks in the world to post futures odds on major horse racing events. They’ve been taking action on the 2016 Kentucky Derby since last Fall and are currently accepting wagers on the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Distaff. They’ve also posted futures betting odds for the 2016 Triple Crown along with a couple of proposition bets.
Currently, the Kentucky Derby favorite Nyquist is also an 11/1 favorite to win the Triple Crown. He’s a 4/1 choice to win next Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. He opened a lot of eyes with his win in the Florida Derby–he opened at 40/1 to win the Triple Crown so the 11/1 current price represents a significant drop. Next up on the Triple Crown futures odds board is Nyquist’s old rival Mohaymen. The horse he beat in the Florida Derby (Mohaymen finished fourth) was the presumptive Kentucky Derby favorite before this final prep race. Mohaymen opened as a 12/1 favorite to win the Triple Crown but he’s now 25/1.
The rest of the top ten:
Mor Spirit (35/1)
Exaggerator (40/1)
Cupid (50/1)
Gun Runner (60/1)
Brody’s Cause (60/1)
Outwork (65/1)
My Man Sam (75/1)
Mo Tom (85/1).
The Wynn has also posted two interesting proposition wagers, one concerning the Triple Crown and one focused on Kentucky Derby qualification. The Kentucky Derby qualification prop is an ‘Over/Under’ wager on how many points will be needed to make the field:
OVER 20.5 POINTS -150
UNDER 20.5 POINTS +130
The ‘Over’ is well poised to be a winning wager as the #20 horse in the qualification standings has 32 points (Mo Tom). For the ‘Under’ to cash in this prop bet eight horses would have to be withdrawn from consideration for the Kentucky Derby. While you can expect a few defections in the coming week eight would be an unusually large number of dropouts. The first horse with fewer than 20 points on the Derby qualification standings is Discreetness with 10 qualification points at #28. Note that this reflects the withdrawal of Cupid from Derby consideration earlier this month.
There’s also a prop asking will *any* horse win the Triple Crown in 2016:
YES +650
NO -900
At first glance, this sure looks overly optimistic–perhaps due to the recency of American Pharoah’s Triple Crown win last year. Keep in mind that only twelve horses in history have managed to win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in the same year.