Greyhound handicapping isn’t easy. Even with a good system and experience, it still takes a lot of work to make the winners jump out at you. That’s why I pick the days that I handicap with a simple little rule. I don’t go to the track on weekends if I can possibly help it.

Why do I prefer weekdays? Well, I have a couple of reasons. For one thing, the crowd is smaller on weekdays and at my age, the less people I have to contend with on my trips to the window, the better. It’s quieter. The lines for everything including the snack bar are shorter and the weekday crowd is less obnoxious than the weekenders, I think.

But the biggest reason I try to time my track trips for Monday through Thursday is the difference between the makeup of the races. I know that the weekend races – from Friday night through the Sunday matinee – are much more liable to be “engineered”, shall we say. I’m not saying that there’s any rannygazoo or that the racing secretary sets them up to make certain dogs come in.

All I’m saying is that the races during the week look much more like they came together because of “the luck of the draw” that happens when they pull eight balls out of a bag to determine which dog gets which box. On weekends, the races are more likely to feature a flashy dog who will go off at 1-2 with a $6 quiniela. I can’t make money on that.

Maybe it’s me, but it seems as if the weekend races are much harder to handicap for whatever reason. Maybe it’s an attempt to draw a crowd by putting more of the classy dogs into races together. That makes sense if you’re trying to get people to come to watch the races, but it makes it much harder to handicap.

Nope, give me a Monday matinee with a couple of A races and the rest from M through B at Palm Beach or Wheeling Downs and I’m a happy handicapper. Of course, I’m sure there are people who feel that just the opposite is true, and who really enjoy handicapping the weekend program. If they can do it, good for them.

I’ll stick with what I know, which is how to handicap ordinary races. I like to watch stakes races and races where there are very good dogs, but I haven’t ever been able to make money off them consistently. I think that’s true for most punters, which is why I recommend that you go to the track during the week if you can.

One more thing – if you can go during the matinee, rather than the evening, you might find that you do better also. Of course, if you work during the day, this can be difficult, but if you can do it, try it for a while and see if you don’t find that you cash more tickets.