The question comes up every few weeks. If I'm backing a horse to win and the same horse to place, why not just have it each way and save the bother. The answer is that each way is a bet somebody else designed, and the two bets I have are ones I designed.
Each way in the shop ties the place bet to the win bet. Same stake on each, place terms fixed by the bookie, a fifth or a quarter of the win price depending on the race. You can't have a point to win and a quarter to place. You can't take the place at the exchange price, which is often better than a fifth of the odds and sometimes a lot better. And you can't have the place bet without the win bet, which some days is exactly what I want.
On the exchange the win market and the place market are separate. Separate prices, separate stakes, separate decisions. So on a horse I like a lot in a race where the place is cheap, I'll have a point to win and nothing to place, because 1.15 to place on a half point is barely worth the commission. On a horse I like a bit, in a race with a big field and a decent place price, it might be a half point to win and a half to place. On a short favourite in a race I can't quite trust, it might be a place bet only.
That flexibility is worth a lot over a year. The each way punter has one shape of bet. I've got four or five, and the shape follows the race rather than the bookmaker's terms.
There's a second reason, which is that each way was invented to make the win half of your bet feel safer than it is. The place return on a 3/1 shot each way is tiny, and it's there to stop you noticing the win half lost. I'd rather notice. The place bet in my book is a bet in its own right, on its own merits, and it lives or dies by its own price. That's how every bet on the members' card is written, win market and place market, each at its own price.
So, two singles. Win market, place market, each at the exchange price, each at the stake the race deserves. It's a bit more typing. It's a lot more honest about what you're actually backing.
Lee
PS: the same goes for doubles, trebles and the rest. One horse, one race, one price. Everything else is the bookie's arithmetic.
See exactly what I do for two weeks.
For only £5.
Every bet I make, by email each racing morning, with the stake and my line on why. Pay £5 today, then £49 on day 15 for the winter pass to 31 March.
If your first month on the £49 loses, I refund it. Nothing renews after 31 March. Full details.
More from the notebook: Aintree, and the race I leave alone · Cheltenham, the honest week