The Kentucky Derby has always been the most exciting two minutes in sports, but with betting on the action now easier than ever, that’s even truer in 2026. Whether you’re simply trying to pick a winner at Churchill Downs or you’re feeling lucky and rolling the dice on a trifecta or superfecta, nothing beats sweating out the race and hoping that your horse (or horses) pull through in the final straightaway. And when the dust settles, the only thing you want to know is what the betting payout is for your winning wager.
Betting at Churchill Downs is nothing new, but the options to bet on the Derby have only grown in recent years, leaving us with more bets than ever being placed on the most famous race in the sport. That’s why we’re here to help. Below are the full Kentucky Derby betting payouts for the 152nd edition at Churchill Downs, as Renegade entered as the favorite to win this year’s Run for the Roses.
Kentucky Derby betting payouts for trifecta, superfecta and more
In an incredible turn of events, Golden Tempo, a massive 23-1 underdog, wound up winning the Kentucky Derby, led by Cherie DeVaux, the first female trainer to win this historic race.
|
Bet type |
Results |
Betting payout |
|---|---|---|
|
Exacta |
19-1 |
$278.86 |
|
Trifecta |
19-1-22 |
$22,501.56 |
|
Superfecta |
19-1-22-12 |
$197,402.40 |
It’s always tough to cash in on these, and the payouts show you why that is. It was surprising enough to see Golden Tempo, such a massive underdog, come back and win the Kentucky Derby, but that was only half the battle for the Exacta. You had to guess that Golden Tempo would win and the horse in the No. 1 position, Renegade, would finish in second place. Doing that is not easy, and those who did walked away with $278.86 on a $2 bet.
To hit the trifecta, you would’ve needed to not only hit the exacta but also bet on Ocelli, a horse with 70-1 odds, to finish in third place. Ocelli faced much longer odds than Golden Tempo, and factoring in that plus the extra leg explains the $22,501.56 payout on a $2 bet. If you bet $2 on a superfecta, you’d walk away with nearly $200,000. Yeah, life-changing money was at stake here. To show how insane these payouts were, the fifth-place finisher in the derby only netted $150,000.
If you were to have bet on Golden Tempo to win the Kentucky Derby, you’d walk away with a whopping $48.60, showing just how much of a long shot he was.
What is an exacta, trifecta and superfecta?
Here’s a breakdown of what people bet in horse racing and what needs to happen for said bets to win.
- Exacta: An exacta bet is a two-leg bet in which the wager needs to correctly predict the first and second place finishers in the correct order for it to win.
- Trifecta: A trifecta bet is the same concept but a three-leg wager. To win, you must correctly predict the first, second and third-place finishers in the right finishing order.
- Superfecta: The superfecta bet is the white wale for horse racing, which means correctly predicting the first, second, third and fourth-place finishers in the Kentucky Derby.
Much like betting on a parlay in other sports, the more things that you need to happen for your bet to hit, the harder it is for said bet to cash. An exacta is tough to hit, but you only need two legs to hit. A superfecta requires predicting the top four exactly, which is nearly impossible.
More Kentucky Derby news and analysis:
Add us as a preferred source on Google
