Too much of a good thing - Horse Racing Forum - PaceAdvantage.Com

classhandicapper · 10-06-2023, 11:55 AM

I love high quality racing, but the number of Graded Stakes around the country today, Saturday, and Sunday is even a bit much for me. I'm not going to have time to handicap all of them, let alone bet all of them. These super cards can be fun at times, but multiple tracks having multiple major race cards at the same time can be a bit much. I'd rather see some of these races run on weekdays and give me something to do on an otherwise uninteresting day. I think we are taking super cards too far right now.

cj · 10-06-2023, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

I love high quality racing, but the number of Graded Stakes around the country today, Saturday, and Sunday is even a bit much for me. I'm not going to have time to handicap all of them, let alone bet all of them. These super cards can be fun at times, but multiple tracks having multiple major race cards at the same time can be a bit much. I'd rather see some of these races run on weekdays and give me something to do on an otherwise uninteresting day. I think we are taking super cards too far right now.

I'm sure it is a business decision. Running Graded Stakes on a Saturday brings way more handle than doing so on a Thursday or Friday I would guess.

VeryOldMan · 10-06-2023, 12:05 PM

My sarcasm detector is out for repair - are we being serious here?

With the Breeders Cup arriving in 4 weeks, this is possibly the last feasible weekend for prep races. Isn't it that simple?

Inner Dirt · 10-06-2023, 12:06 PM

I must be an outlier, racing quality never mattered much to me, what mattered if my methods gave me an edge, and I could get a decent price on who I liked. I used to love the Pomona Fair in Southern California before OTBs. They carded these starter allowance races for cheap claimers at 1-9/16 miles. By the time they hit the top of the stretch I could damn near out run them to the wire. I seemed to have a knack for picking who would stagger home on top.

So I take you don't like the races where the horses are so bad they put down a ZERO for their Beyer fig instead of a negative number?

PalaceOfFortLarned · 10-06-2023, 01:06 PM

More fired up that Keeneland is back!

Should be some nice prices today and this weekend.

Inner Dirt · 10-06-2023, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PalaceOfFortLarned

More fired up that Keeneland is back!

Should be some nice prices today and this weekend.

Isn't Keeneland an artificial track?

rastajenk · 10-06-2023, 01:36 PM

No, it's real. I've been there; may have some pictures to prove it.

Inner Dirt · 10-06-2023, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rastajenk

No, it's real. I've been there; may have some pictures to prove it.

Could it have been artificial a while back?

PalaceOfFortLarned · 10-06-2023, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

Could it have been artificial a while back?

It was from like 2006 to 2014 I believe.

They went back to dirt in 2014 so they could host the Breeder's Cup in 2015.

Inner Dirt · 10-06-2023, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PalaceOfFortLarned

It was from like 2006 to 2014 I believe.

They went back to dirt in 2014 so they could host the Breeder's Cup in 2015.

Thanks for the info!

classhandicapper · 10-07-2023, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cj

I'm sure it is a business decision. Running Graded Stakes on a Saturday brings way more handle than doing so on a Thursday or Friday I would guess.

All I know is they are getting less handle from me. I don't have the time to handicap over 30 Graded stakes and look at miscellaneous other races I might be interested in on those same cards. IMO, a race card really only needs 2, maybe 3 important stakes on it to generate interest in the entire card. If you run 2 or 6 I'm playing your card, but if you run 6 instead of say 3-3 or 2-2-2, there are cards of yours I'm going to skip that I might have played. When it's multiple tracks doing the same thing on the same days, there are a bunch of races no one is even going to look at, let alone bet the entire card.

classhandicapper · 10-07-2023, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VeryOldMan

With the Breeders Cup arriving in 4 weeks, this is possibly the last feasible weekend for prep races. Isn't it that simple?

The current spacing of races and timing to the Breeder's are a big reason for it this weekend, but imo it's creating an UNWELCOMED side effect is that there are a bunch of very good races being run that a lot of people are not even going to look at because it's "too much of a good thing". What we have now is super cards and shit cards. I'd way rather have a lot more very good cards.

Horsery · 10-07-2023, 11:34 AM

I see your point. It's like "Water, water, everywhere but not a drop to drink. " Like it's SO many "good things," at once you don't know where to start.

Spalding No! · 10-07-2023, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

The current spacing of races and timing to the Breeder's are a big reason for it this weekend, but imo it's creating an UNWELCOMED side effect is that there are a bunch of very good races being run that a lot of people are not even going to look at because it's "too much of a good thing". What we have now is super cards and shit cards. I'd way rather have a lot more very good cards.

Gone are the days when Leo O'Brien could run Fourstars Allstars in the Laurel Dash & come back the following week to run in the Budweiser International.

Gone are the days when D Wayne Lukas could run Althea in the Del Mar Debutante or Hollywood Starlet & come back a week later to run against males in the Del Mar Futurity or Hollywood Futurity.

Because those races are now all run on the same day or weekend.

Plus there's no more Hollywood Park & Budweiser doesn't sponsor any races anymore.

Robert Fischer · 10-07-2023, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

I love high quality racing, but the number of Graded Stakes around the country today, Saturday, and Sunday is even a bit much for me. I'm not going to have time to handicap all of them, let alone bet all of them. These super cards can be fun at times, but multiple tracks having multiple major race cards at the same time can be a bit much. I'd rather see some of these races run on weekdays and give me something to do on an otherwise uninteresting day. I think we are taking super cards too far right now.

I respect your opinion and process.

This stuff doesn't happen to enter into the way I play. Most of my stuff is opinion-based from previous races, and then these opinions have to be entered as a highly significant thing in today's races (eg a false fav, a darkened price, or maybe multiple opinions on horses within the same field, etc...).

From those occasional good ones (and there are times where there is 1 or 0 plays in a day), I'll at least look/glance at branching sequences (and handicapping those additional races).

After that I start to look for any other races with mostly field size, and then after that, if a Big/interesting stake only has like 8 horses, I'll still handicap it if interested.

I still put in the work to do the fundamentals on all of the significant meet races and some of the lesser tracks in certain race types. That's how those opinions happen.

but I can somebody reading my shit and being turned off or confused or disagreeing. It's a good thing that we all have different processes and there is room to speak up and share processes and opinions.