weekday vs weekend

[Fairmount1]

Among many other fascinating and entertaining topics, I had a terrific discussion Sunday with a serious gambler about Weekday results versus Weekend results with respect to your own gambling on the races.  

My friends and my dad have often thought for a few years now that weekday opportunities are far better than some of the cards \"loaded up\" for the weekend bettors ....ie, for those of us that aren\'t retired yet and can\'t make it during the week to get our money down.

This guy said his records suggested he was far better on the weekend than weekdays which was quite surprising to my friends and I.  What are others\' thoughts?  Is the game different during the week versus on the weekends?  What about the \"Big Days\" versus just an ordinary Saturday or Sunday let\'s Say? Have you seen a difference in your own gambling in this regard?  

Very curious to hear the learned response of the crowd here.

[TempletonPeck]

Derby day is the best day of the year because it has the largest proportion of square money in the pools.

My bet: big stakes day > any old Saturday > Sunday > Friday > all other days. Sunday vs. Friday maybe debatable in some locations.

[P-Dub]

The quality of races is better no doubt. I\'ve seen many weekend cards littered with chalk, and I\'ve had some of my biggest scores during the week. I\'ve also seen the big stakes cards come back chalky too.

It may sound nice, but for me I don\'t think the day of the week matters at all. There were some nice prices all over the place today, and that isn\'t an aberration.

[Airnate012]

Any day of the week that I win is considered good day, ha!

For some reason Fridays and Sundays are not my days...Thursday and Saturdays are decent though. Triple Crown and BC days offer the largest pools like Templeton said...so I prefer to go heavy on those days.

[TheBull]

I think it also depends on the track too. Boutique meets like Keeneland, or vacation spots like Del Mar and Saratoga tend to still have good weekday cards and solid opportunities. I have had some great Thursday\'s at Keeneland. Aqueduct Inner? Forget it. Field size and competitive fields are a big key here. Take a look at Santa Anita\'s card yesterday. Too many short fields with only two or three horses per race that have any chance. That\'s a terrible card. Race 4 was a five horse field 30k OCL with two maidens. You can\'t make any money there.  Oaklawn, however, has some great weekday opportunities. They tend to have larger fields and more competitive races, where it seems like six or seven horses per race have a chance.

Conversely, the \"Super Saturday\" cards also have been disappointments for me, results wise. With the exception of Triple Crown and BC days (which also are the toughest drug testing days oddly enough), I find the Super Saturday cards to be star studded, yet chalky. It feels like the same hot trainers/connections winning all the races at short prices (drug testing related?). How many Super Saturday cards at Gulfstream over the years has Pletcher won four or five all at short prices? The other thing I have noticed is trying to attract the game\'s biggest stars can be a double edged sword. You may get the best horse\'s in the world, or at least the grounds, but you may also scare off some perfectly legit horses from entering. Imagine a Super Saturday card at Santa Anita with Arrogate, Songbird, Unique Bella, and let\'s say Tepin as the headliners. Do you think any of those races will have decent field sizes or good betting opportunities? Doubtful. NYRA has this problem a lot in the Fall during their BC Showcase days. They have five or six graded stakes but get short fields for most of them. The track does not care who wins. They just want the most hype possible and as many people possible paying attention/wagering. I say, from a betting perspective, they\'d be better off with a couple of 10 horse allowance fields sprinkled in, as opposed to three grade 1 runaways by a 2/5 shots in five horse fields. Save one or two of those for their own day, another weekend.

To me, it all comes down to field size, competitive racing and opportunity. It varies by day and by track (and by drug testing), but that\'s the beauty of simulcasting. You can pick and choose your spots.

[Airnate012]

Did anyone catch Oaklawn\'s card yesterday? A $228 horse won the night cap and triggered huge payouts. The horse was a contender on the sheets, should\'ve never been 99/1. Of course it\'s so much easier to explain a race after the fact though. Oaklawn has been the track to find value this spring, at least from what I\'ve seen.