Try The Triple Trick Attack

In Australian horse racing, backing three horses in a race dramatically shortens the odds you are really betting — the board price is not your price. Philip Roy answered a reader who wanted to do exactly that, in Practical Punting in April 2004: yes, he said — "provided you look upon a two-horse bet as ONE bet". Then he priced up his own examples, and a 6/4 favourite backed alongside two others turns out to be 4/1 ON.

• Why two horses in a race is ONE bet, not two — back a 2/1 and a 4/1 chance for a unit each and the 2/1 winner hands back 3 units for the 2 you staked, which is 2/1 ON; the 4/1 winner hands back 5 for the same 2, which is 6/4
• What betting every race costs before you start: in theory, about 14 per cent of total investment a year, maybe more — his figure, and every hedge he put on it kept
• The four rules of the reader's Triple Treat Plan, and how the stake moves with the price of the shortest-priced of the three — one unit on each at 9/4 or better, a double stake on it from 6/4 to 2/1, three units on it below 6/4 — plus where Roy would actually use it: the major races on a card rather than willy-nilly on every race, and never a field of more than 12 runners
• The warning under all of it, worked through: three horses at 6/4, 5/1 and 11/2 for a total of 4 units, the 6/4 favourite wins, and "in effect" you have taken 4/1 ON. His own verdict — "Isn’t it amazing how skinny the actual odds are when you look at the bet in this way?" refunded you in full - note it can take you bank serval days to process before they show it on your statement.