Days of the week?

[Mr. Blonde]

Does anyone know of any studies done that show higher or lower avg. mutuals by day of the week?

I would hate to use the term "dumb money" :rolleyes: , but what I'm thinking is that track handles increase on the weekends, and that as handles increase, and more "non-regular" players attend on the weekends, that there would be more folks playing their favorite names, favorite colors, etc., hence less efficiency in the pools, and greater mutuals.

What I'm asking seems intuitive enough to me, that everything else being equal, i.e win%, I.V.'s , etc., that weekends would show the highest average payoff. Is there some factor that I'm not seeing?

[Handle]

I have to make a study of this someday to satisfy my curiosity.
Until then, I'll just pontificate with some devil's advocate.

What if weekend, non-regular players opted to bet the favorites more often? Since the favorites win more than the typical horse bet because "oh, he's such a pretty pony", this would drive down the price of the average winning favorite mutuel. The price for non-favorites would go up, but non-favorites don't win as often as favorites. Since we are talking about averages here, this could prove crucial.

It brings up the question -- do favorites typically offer more value on weekends or weekdays?

-Handle

[GR1@HTR]

I have run the numbers before and failed to find anything significant. But will look at it again....The only difference I could find on days of the week: More competitive (tuffer) races are run on the weekends vs weekdays.

[gillenr]

My perception(no facts) is that favs at Mon paid more on weekends - this was 20 yrs ago when I would spend the summer at the shore.

[GR1@HTR]

Here is a small sample: All LS races run in 2001 and 2002:

Weekdays Weekend
#Hits Win% ROI #Hits Win% ROI

Odds<=2 699 36.19% -20.44 495 30.71% -31.27
Odds>=8 4930 3.14% -38.57 2832 3.74% -30.28


Odds=Off odds according to equibase charts.


Don't know what to make of this. Probably too small of a sample to make any sense. Plus LS is kinda of a quirky track....

[GR1@HTR]

Now the same race sample, using computer generated ratings. Perhaps a more "objective" look without the betting publics influence:

Weekday Weekend
#Hits Win% ROI #Hits Win% ROI

Top Ranked 880 30.80% -13.97 528 30.68% -13.33


Top Ranked=HTR top ranked "K" horse.

Looks like there is no significant difference.

[Dave Mark]

Hi,
I will not say this is as true today as 10 years ago, but I certainly remember Phila Park used to have the lowest win prices on Tuesdays.

I also do not have reliable credible sources to verify this, however when I use to physically go to the turf clubs, many players agreed that this was the case.

Because of the low win prices, I for one stopped playing on Tuesdays at Phila Park.

Important to note:
Just because the prices were low, did not mean all were favorites, although, when you have 1-1 shots and 7-5 horses, that is not my cup of tea.

[GameTheory]

Although I won't argue that certain days could be "dumber" than others, I don't think you can count on anybody (for practical purposes) betting colors, favorite numbers, names, etc. anymore. Those players are GONE -- they play the lottery or slots now.

[Derek2U]

Just my observation: I use to think that NY bettors were very
sophisticated, and maybe they are, but I notice 2 things,
(1) BAD FAVS and (2) OVER-LAY FAVS. I have no facts to support
these notions but I'm really surprised so often.

[Tom]

Favorites seem to fall into two general catagories....those that win and those I bet <G>

[tdthomas]

I never did much betting during the week so I never really noticed whether payout varied by which day of the week it was. I did notice that the payouts were better for certain races regardless of what day it was. In the 80's I was at BM every Fri/Sat/Sun. The 7th thru the final race always paid better than the earlier races. I usually got to the track for the 8th which was the feature and admission was free after the 7th. Back then I wanted as little overhead as possible and getting in free, picking up a form and a program left behind by some losers meant starting off even instead of in the hole before even betting a race. Anyways, I didn't like being there early because favorites tended to come in more often then, plus the races were just not as good.

[GameTheory]

Favorites "coming in more" at the end of the day is probably an illusion, although a database check could tell us. Favorites do pay more at the end of the day, however, becauase people are chasing the money they lost in the earlier races by betting more longshots.

[tdthomas]

Game Theory,
NO. I was saying that favorites came in more often earlier in the day. More longshots and longer favorites later on. They had more maiden races and more 6 furlong races early. More Turf and route races later. It may be different races at different tracks but they pretty much followed a formula the way the races were laid out.

There is no doubt that people sometimes are chasing lost cash. Though, lots of times I see them try to get even by overbetting the favorites.

[ranchwest]

The racing secretary sets the races and very likely matches the horses on the grounds to the patrons at the track. Pure type races early in the day, non-winners in the last 14 years for the last race. People have a chance to make money early and then they get to go for the gusto the last race.