The Insurance bet horse racing Promotion Explained - (2026)

Updated: 12/04/2026

If you are looking to cover your horse racing bets with available methods offered by the online bookmakers then read on. 

What is an Insurance bet in Horse Racing?

[su_panel color=”#000000″ border=”5px solid #cc0000″ radius=”2″]Put simply the Insurance bet horse racing option means you take a slightly shorter price about a horse you place a win bet on – but in return if it places and doesn't win – instead of losing your stake you get your money back. [/su_panel]

The horse would have to place within the allowed placings payout of the race so it depends on how many horses run.

Have a look at the Spreadex bookmaker's Horse Racing markets as a further example:

In addition to Win-Only, Each-Way, Accumulators, Multiples, Forecast and Tricast betting, Spreadex's fixed odds horse racing betting service also includes Place Only, Insurance and Betting Without Named Horse markets.

[su_icon_text icon=”icon: info” icon_size=”40″ class=”font-size='10px'”]Find out more about how these horse racing betting markets work below.[/su_icon_text]

Place Only Horse Race betting

This is a straight single bet on the horse to place i.e. finish in the first two, three or four depending on the number of runners in the race.

• If it finishes in the first 2/3/4 your bet wins.
• If it doesn't your bet loses.

Insurance Bet Horse Racing explained

This is a bet on the horse to win but you get your stake back (rather than losing the bet) if it finishes second or third, depending on the number of runners in the race.

As a result you get a slightly shorter price than the usual ‘to win' price.

Betting without a named horse

This is a bet on your horse to win excluding a given other horse in the race (normally the favourite).

I.e. your bet will win if your horse either wins the race or finishes second behind the horse, otherwise it loses.

Which Bookies have Horse Racing betting Insurance

See which best horse racing betting sites offer the Insurance feature below.

Relevant news