If you’re 60 years old or older you might faintly recall the long-ago days when racetracks offered just nine races a day – with no simulcasting – with only win, place and show wagering and perhaps a daily double to start the card.

These days, there’s no shortage of races to bet on from tracks around the world and an abundance of different ways to wager on them.

One of the wagers an increasing number of tracks is introducing is the Super High 5, which takes the superfecta one step further. Instead of having to pick the first four finishers, as required in the superfecta, the object of the Super High 5 is to select the first five horses across the wire.

There’s a very nice reward for success, but, of course, it’s a rather difficult wager to hit because of the many possible winning combinations.

If you are intrigued by it, there are a few different ways to play it, depending on your bankroll.

You can take the lottery approach and play your zip code or birthday and hope it’s your lucky day.

If you want to handicap it and attack it as you would an exacta or Pick 3, the size of the minimum wager will no doubt impact what you decide to do.

For example, if you decide to simply box five horses there’s 120 combinations, which puts the cost of a $1 ticket at $120. Yet if you bet only 10 cents, the cost drops to a more reasonable $12.

That bet, however, leaves you no margin for error, since you have to hit the top five finishers. If one of those horses finishes sixth, rip up the ticket.

Overall, boxing is an expensive way to attack the bet. If you box six horses, giving you the flexibility of missing out on one horse, then the combinations jump to 720, adding up to $720 for $1 tickets and $72 for 10-cent tickets.

A more cost-effective game plan involves keying on a few horses.

Using a nine-horse field, you can bet just your top selection in the win spot. Then bet three horses in the second through fifth spots and use all of the remaining five horses in fourth and fifth spots. What this means is you need to pick the winner, then if two of your three second tier horses finish second and third, you’ll have a winning ticket in your pocket because you’ll have every horse covered in the fourth and fifth spots.

What’s the cost of that wager? There are just 180 combinations so it costs $180 for a $1 minimum bet and just $18 for 10-cent bets.

Another idea would be to turn an exacta box into a Super High 5. You start by using just two horses in the first two spots. Then you use two horses in the third through fifth spots and everyone else in the fourth and fifth. Here you’re basically trying to hit an exacta box and hoping one of two horses finishes third. It’s risky but instead of hitting a trifecta for correctly picking the top three finishers, you’ll cash a Super High 5.

The cost of that ticket is $120 for $1 tickets and $12 for 10-cent wagers.

There are certainly many other ways to put together a ticket, and if the price of the wager is right for you, there could be a ritzy reward.

It could also be too challenging for you, yet that’s one great advantages of today over yesterday at the betting windows. Whenever you visit the races, there’s surely no shortage of wagering action.

As the old Carly Simon song said, these are the good old days.