Patent vs Trixie: Which Three-Selection Multi Should You Bet?

Patent and Trixie are the two main three-selection multi bets in UK and Irish horse racing. They're cousins — both built from the same three picks — but with very different risk profiles. The Patent has singles, the Trixie doesn't. That single change makes a much bigger difference to how the bet plays than most punters realise. This guide breaks down the maths and tells you when each one is the right call.

Calculate either: Patent Calculator · Trixie Calculator

What Is a Patent?

A Patent is 7 bets from 3 selections:

• 3 singles (one on each)
• 3 doubles (every pair)
• 1 treble (all three) A £1 Patent costs £7. The singles mean even one winner produces a return.

What Is a Trixie?

A Trixie is 4 bets from 3 selections:

• 3 doubles (every pair)
• 1 treble (all three) No singles. A £1 Trixie costs £4. You need at least two of your three selections to win for the bet to return anything.

The Critical Difference

The Patent costs £7 for 7 lines. The Trixie costs £4 for 4 lines. The £3 difference is the cost of the three singles. That £3 buys you:

• Insurance against getting just one winner. If one wins and two lose, the Patent pays the single. The Trixie pays nothing.
• Smaller maximum wins. Three singles aren't compounding — they pay a flat single-bet return. The Trixie's lines are all multiples, which scale with odds.

Worked Examples

Same three selections at 4/1, 5/1, and 6/1. Three scenarios.

Scenario 1: Just one winner (the 5/1)

Patent (£7 stake):

• 5/1 single = £6 return
• All doubles and the treble lose
• Return: £6 (loss of £1) Trixie (£4 stake):
• All four lines need 2+ winners
• Return: £0 (loss of £4) The Patent saved you on a near-blank result. If you regularly land one winner from three, the Patent's singles matter.

Scenario 2: Two winners (the 4/1 and 6/1)

Patent (£7 stake):

• 2 singles win: £5 + £7 = £12
• 1 double wins (4/1 × 6/1): £35
• Return: £47 (profit of £40) Trixie (£4 stake):
• 1 double wins: £35
• Return: £35 (profit of £31) Patent profits more in absolute terms (+£40 vs +£31), but the Trixie has a higher return-on-stake ratio (£35 from £4 = 8.75x vs £47 from £7 = 6.7x). The Trixie wins on efficiency.

Scenario 3: All three winners

Patent (£7 stake):

• 3 singles: £5 + £6 + £7 = £18
• 3 doubles: £30 + £35 + £42 = £107
• 1 treble: 5 × 6 × 7 = £210
• Return: £335 Trixie (£4 stake):
• 3 doubles + 1 treble: £107 + £210 = £317
• Return: £317 Almost identical when all three win — the Patent only adds the £18 of singles. The Trixie returns 79× stake; the Patent returns 48× stake. The Trixie wins decisively in efficiency.

Patent or Trixie? The Decision

Pick a Patent if:

• Your hit rate is around 1 from 3. You back enough mid-priced horses that one wins, two lose. The singles in the Patent will keep you closer to break-even over time.
• Your selections are short-priced. At 6/4, 5/2 and 3/1, the maths on the multiples don't scale the way they do at 4/1+. The singles carry the weight.
• You want a safety net. If three losses really hurt, the Patent's singles soften the blow. The Trixie can blow up your stake fast.

Pick a Trixie if:

• You're confident in 2 of the 3 selections. If two genuinely look like winners and the third is more speculative, the Trixie's doubles capture the upside without paying for singles you don't need.
• Your selections are mid-priced (4/1 to 10/1). This is where the multiples really pay. The Trixie's lines compound and a 3-from-3 result can return 50-100x stake.
• You're stake-efficient. £4 vs £7 is a meaningful difference if you're placing 10+ bets a month. Over a year that's £360 saved on stake.

Common Mistakes

Treating a Patent as a "safer Trixie"

It's not safer — it just has a different shape. The Patent makes you LESS likely to get a win-versus-stake profit when only one wins (you still lose £1 on a 5/1 winner from a £7 stake). It just makes the loss smaller. You're still losing.

Not understanding the breakeven

A Patent at three selections all priced at evens (1/1) needs at least two winners to break even on the doubles alone, and the singles won't save you. Always check the math against the price of your selections.

Each-way Patent on short-priced favourites

Each-way Patent doubles the stake to £14 for £1 unit. If your selections are 6/4 favourites, the place return is tiny and the maths rarely justifies it. Each-way Patents make sense at 8/1+ in big-field handicaps, not on hot favourites.

Each-Way Variants

Both bets can be placed each-way, doubling the stake:

• £1 each-way Patent = £14 (7 win lines + 7 place lines)
• £1 each-way Trixie = £8 (4 win lines + 4 place lines) Each line has a win and place component settled independently. Each-way perms are powerful in big handicaps with 5+ places paid — they just aren't always cheap.

Stepping Up: From 3 to 4 Selections

If you've got four selections instead of three, the equivalents are:

• Patent (3 sel.) → Lucky 15 (4 sel.) — both include singles. See our Lucky 15 explained guide.
• Trixie (3 sel.) → Yankee (4 sel.) — both exclude singles. See our Yankee bet explained guide. Same family of bets, more selections, more lines, bigger stakes.

Summary

The Patent is the safety-net bet. Seven lines including three singles, £7 unit stake. Use it when your selections are short-priced or your hit rate is closer to one winner from three. The Trixie is the efficient bet. Four lines, all multiples, £4 unit stake. Use it when you're confident in two from three at decent odds. Different bets for different situations. The choice should match how confident you are and what odds you're betting. Use our Patent Calculator or Trixie Calculator to model the exact return on your selections before placing.