Gambling terms, explained straight

Racing & Pari-Mutuel

Quinella horse racing

A quinella is a bet on two horses to finish first and second in any order. If both selected horses occupy the top two places, the ticket wins.

Also called
Quiniela; sometimes described as a boxed exacta or boxed perfecta in North America 14
Bet type
Parimutuel pool; payout depends on the total pool and number of winning tickets, not a fixed price 15

Key points

  • The bettor picks two horses; the order of the first two finishers does not matter 13.
  • A quinella differs from an exacta (which requires the correct finishing order) and from an each-way bet (which has a win part and a place part) 12.
  • The wager is most common in parimutuel horse racing but can also appear in other ranked-finish sports 12.

Where this term is used

Not the same as

  • Horse racing betting — the overall activity of wagering on races; a quinella is one specific bet type within that activity
Racing Handicap horse racing A race where horses carry different weights to equalise their chances. Racing Going horse racing The condition of the racing surface, such as firm or soft. Racing Form horse racing A horse's recent performance record, used to assess its chances. Racing Furlong horse racing A unit of distance equal to one-eighth of a mile, used in racing. Racing Overround horse racing The bookmaker's built-in profit margin reflected in the odds. Racing Horse racing tote The totalisator system that pools bets and pays dividends based on the final odds.

Sources

  1. Parimutuel betting en.wikipedia.org Defines the quinella wager and its parimutuel nature.
  2. Betting on horse racing en.wikipedia.org Places quinella within the broader context of horse racing betting.
  3. Glossary of Australian and New Zealand punting en.wikipedia.org Confirms the 'any order' condition and the alternative name quiniela.
  4. Glossary of bets offered by UK bookmakers en.wikipedia.org Provides the UK glossary context for the term.
  5. Are Final Market Prices Sufficient for Information Aggregation? ... arxiv.org Supports the description of parimutuel payout calculation.

Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.

Written and maintained by Ellis Warrender, writer and maintainer.

Last updated 28 July 2026. Spotted an error? Tell me and it gets fixed and logged on the corrections page.