Forecast (Exacta) Calculator

This calculator works out the return on a forecast bet — the US exacta — where you back two horses to finish first and second, in order, using their American odds to find the combined price and dollar payout.

What Is a Forecast (Exacta) Bet?

A forecast asks you to name the first two finishers of a race in the correct order — the same wager American bettors call an exacta. Nail the order and a straight forecast pays. Get the two horses right but the order backward, and it loses outright, even though your read on the race was close to perfect.

Because a straight forecast demands precision on top of the correct pair, the payout is far bigger than a single win bet — but far harder to hit. A reverse forecast, sometimes called a combination forecast, solves the order problem by covering both possible finishing sequences. It costs two stakes instead of one, but pays out if either horse crosses the line first with the other second.

This calculator handles both versions. Enter the odds for the two runners, choose straight or reverse, and enter your stake in dollars. It multiplies the two prices for the combined odds, then works out what the forecast returns on your stake, plus the profit on top.

How a Forecast Payout Is Calculated

The combined price of a forecast is the two runners’ odds multiplied together. To multiply American odds, the calculator first converts each price to decimal. For a runner priced at plus-money, like +200, you divide by 100 and add 1, turning +200 into a decimal price of 3.00. The same math on +400 gives 5.00. Multiply those two decimal prices — 3.00 times 5.00 — and you get the combined forecast price of 15.00.

A straight forecast is a single bet placed at that combined price. If the pair finishes in the exact order you named, the return is stake x combined odds. Because the combined price already accounts for both selections, the multiplication prices both horses in one step.

A reverse forecast is really two straight forecasts on one ticket, one covering each order of the same two horses. That doubles the cost, but it means you collect the same combined odds no matter which horse finishes first and which second. The trade-off: a straight forecast is cheaper but only one order can win it; a reverse pays on either order at the cost of a second stake. The calculator applies this automatically once you choose straight or reverse and enter your stake.

What the Calculator Shows You

Once you enter both runners’ odds, your stake, and whether you want a straight or reverse forecast, the calculator returns a short set of figures. The combined odds show the multiplied price of the two selections together — the number a straight forecast pays at. The straight forecast return shows what your stake collects if the pair lands in the exact order you chose, and the profit figure strips out your original stake. If you select a reverse forecast, it also shows the total cost of covering both orders, plus the return and profit for whichever order comes in.

Worked Example

Take a $10 straight forecast on two runners priced +200 and +400. Runner A is backed to finish first at +200, which converts to a decimal price of 3.00. Runner B is backed to finish second at +400, which converts to 5.00.

To find the combined forecast price, multiply the two decimal prices together: 3.00 x 5.00 = 15.00. That 15.00 is the price the whole forecast pays if Runner A wins and Runner B finishes second, in that exact order.

With a $10 stake on a straight forecast, the payout is the stake multiplied by the combined odds: $10 x 15.00 = $150.00. Subtract the original $10 stake and the profit is $140.00.

Now compare a reverse forecast on the same two runners. A reverse covers both possible orders — Runner A first and Runner B second, or Runner B first and Runner A second — so it requires two stakes. At $10 a side, the reverse forecast costs $20 in total. Whichever order comes in, it pays the same combined odds of 15.00, so the return is again $150.00. Because the outlay was $20 rather than $10, the profit on the reverse forecast is $130.00 instead of $140.00.

The two bets show the core trade-off of forecast betting: the straight forecast risks less ($10) for a larger profit ($140.00) but only wins if you called the exact order correctly, while the reverse risks more ($20) for a smaller profit ($130.00) but removes the need to guess which of your two fancied runners beats the other.

Forecast Return on a $10 Stake by the Two Prices

The table below shows how the combined price, and the payout, moves as the two runners’ odds change, using a $10 unit stake. Longer prices on both legs push the combined price up quickly, which is why +300 & +500 returns far more than +100 & +200. The straight and reverse columns match here because both are read from the same combined price; the real difference between the two bet types is what each costs to place, not what it pays.

Straight vs. Reverse Forecast

This table lays out the practical difference between the two ways of placing a forecast on the same $10 unit. A straight forecast is one bet covering one specific order, so it costs a single $10 stake and only wins if that order comes in. A reverse forecast is two bets covering both orders of the same pair, costing $20 in total, but it wins regardless of which selection finishes first.

Parimutuel Payouts, Dead Heats and Non-Runners

The multiplied combined price this calculator uses is a tote-style model, useful for comparing bets and estimating returns. At a real track, the exacta pool instead pays out on parimutuel odds, set by how the betting public distributes its money across every finishing combination, not by multiplying two win prices. So the actual dividend posted after a race can come in higher or lower than the multiplied figure suggests. The core trade-off still holds: a straight forecast is cheaper but demands the exact order, while a reverse doubles the cost to cover both sequences.

Pricing also shapes how forecasts pay in practice. An exacta built from two heavily backed favorites tends to pay little, because the combined price of two short-priced runners is itself short. A pairing of two longshots can pay a large amount, but a longshot-longshot finish is rarer, so those big payouts land far less often. Two other situations are worth knowing. A dead heat for the placing your forecast depends on typically splits the payout rather than paying it in full. And if one of your two selections is declared a non-runner before the race, the forecast is usually voided altogether, since it can no longer be settled on the pair you chose. None of this changes what the bet tests: a strong read on which of two fancied runners beats the other, not just that both run well.

When a Forecast Bet Makes Sense

A forecast bet fits best when you have a genuine opinion on how a small group of runners will finish relative to each other, not just which one might win. If two horses look clearly the strongest in the field but you are unsure which prevails, a reverse forecast lets you back that view without picking a single winner — you get paid as long as those two finish first and second, in whichever order they land.

A straight forecast makes more sense when you have a specific, high-confidence view of the running order itself — for instance, if one horse’s early speed makes it the likely leader while a closer of similar quality is the most probable to catch every rival but not that one. Because it needs only a single stake, a straight forecast is the cheaper route into a big combined price when your read on order is strong.

Bankroll discipline matters more with forecasts than with straight win bets, since a reverse always costs double a straight one for the same pair, and both are lower-probability bets than backing a single horse to win. Treat forecast stakes as a smaller, higher-variance slice of a betting bankroll. When you are not confident about the order, or the pair you like includes a shorter-priced favorite offering little combined value, a single win bet on your top selection is usually the more sensible, lower-risk alternative.

Common Mistakes

Backing a straight forecast when you are genuinely unsure of the order throws away money that a reverse would have kept in play. Expecting the multiplied combined price to exactly match a track’s real parimutuel dividend is a mistake, since the pool pays on the actual weight of money bet, not multiplication alone. Paying for a reverse when you are confident in the order wastes half your stake on a sequence you don’t expect. And it’s easy to forget that a non-runner usually voids the forecast entirely.

Forecast vs. a Straight Win Bet

A forecast asks far more of you than a win bet, and pays accordingly. A win bet only needs your horse to finish first; a straight forecast needs two specific horses to finish first and second in exact order, which is why the difficulty and the payout both step up sharply.