I have a system where with my selections, I bet for a win and also with the selection, I bet on an exacta, my selection second and the whole field first, or the other option twice as much on the place as on the win bet. every week, I have picked up some large exactas, but I have made some bad mistakes in the choice of my bets. If I bet on the exacta instead of the place bet and the selection comes third I miss out or if a short price favourite gets up with the exacta betting the return often is less than the outlay. Example this week , last sunday, race one Grafton , my selection comes second, pays $2.40 yet the exacta pays around around $650 with the rank outsider coming first. There were 12 runners so the exacta on a standout for one unit would have been 11 times $1 the cost $11 or if the $11 was put on the same horse for a place, the return would have been $26.40. On Wednesday this week, at the Murray Bridge , I made another mistake , my selection, paying $3.60 a place comes second the exacta pays $980 A unit in a 14 horse field so the exacta would have cost $13 or the $13 betted at $3.60 a place would have returned $46.80 as against the $980, because I swing between the win and place bet and the win bet and the exacta bet with field with my selection second, recently I have lost thousands of dollars worth of collects, from the exacta results.

egads man what a brilliant idea you have given ....a thousand thankyous

How about taking an exacta AND a place bet.

Take the field exacta for 50c and then bet the rest of the amount you would have spent on a place bet (as insurance in case the horse comes 3rd). In other words, if there are 12 other runners, take a 50c field exacta for $6 and bet $6 the place as well.