A singles bet is a bet on one selection in one event, for instance if you think that Kauto Star will win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, then a bet on this will be a singles bet. If the horse wins, then you will get a return. The amount of the return will depend on the odds at which the bet is placed.
Say the odds offered by a Bookmaker on Master Minded winning the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival are 6/4; in fact Master Minded is the ante-post favourite to win this championship race. (Ante-post refers to bets on the horse at least one day before the race is run.)
If you place a singles bet of £5.00 on Master Minded and the horse wins, you will receive a payback of (£5.00 x 6/4) + £5.00 = £12.50 which is the sum of your winnings at odds of 6/4 plus the return of your original stake.
On the other hand you might fancy a bet on an outsider, or at least on a horse at longer odds (longer odds means that the odds are higher). Golden Silver is also running in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and some bookmakers are offering odds of 25/1 on him. Although this horse has had an occasional mishap, when he is running well he is a good horse; who knows, a bet on him for this race could be a good investment.
Say you placed a singles bet of £5.00 and Golden Silver won. You would receive back (£5.00 x 25) + 5.00 = £130, which would be a very nice prize.
The beauty of singles bets is their simplicity. It is easy to work out exactly what you will receive if you win.