Why do race fans hate Friday?

If you want to draw the ire of horse racing fans then move a big race to Friday.

Forget pick six scandals that cost horseplayers thousands of dollars per bet or 30% takeout or trainers in possession of cobra venom or an archaic tote system or signal wars or any of the number of fundamental issues that prevent this game from improving. If you really want to piss people off, then staging marquee races on Friday is the way to do it--especially if the race involves females.

Changing the names of races also really gets people going, but that's a topic for another time.

Oaklawn Park has moved the Apple Blossom Invitational Stakes to Friday, April 9 from its original date of Saturday, April 3 to accommodate Jess Jackson's concerns that his filly, Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, would not be ready for a peak performance on three weeks' rest following her four-year-old debut off a 6.5-month layoff.

The extra week was certainly Jackson's idea, but the Friday engagement versus Saturday was likely Oaklawn owner Charles Cella's call.

See, Saturday is already a big day for Oaklawn. It's Arkansas Derby day, which attracts 50,000+ fans on a continuous basis. Certainly an Apple Blossom that day featuring Horse of the Year finalists Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta could have bumped that figure to 60,000, but considering reserved seat sales the difference is fairly negligible when you consider the boost the Apple Blossom will now give the Friday card, which normally only features one stake race--the $150,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap.

Instead of the 21,000 Oaklawn had on "Count Fleet day" in 2009, it'll likely have at least 50,000 this year for total attendance over the two days of at least 100,000. So, having the Apple Blossom on Friday instead of Saturday results in about a 25% increase in attendance over the two days versus a 14% increase, and if those 20,000 each account for $5 in revenue to the track, then that's an extra $100,000 for Oaklawn not to mention the economic impact of having tens of thousands of people spending two days in Hot Springs versus one.

The above also has the chance to have a positive impact on other racetracks as well since the increase to Friday's business will be exponentially more than the increase that would have occurred on Saturday since that's the busiest day anyway.

From a national sports media perspective, April 9 is better than April 3. The earlier date would have included the Final Four and been the day before the Yankees-Red Sox opened the Major League Baseball Season. The new date will be up against the second round of the Masters, which could be big if Tiger Woods is in it, but if he's not then racing is in a sweet spot since neither the NBA nor NHL playoffs will have heated up yet and the new and shiny feel to the baseball season will have worn off.

I do think the Friday post time means you'll get fewer casual fans, but given all the positives I listed above AND the fact that it was April 9 or not at all, I'm willing to accept that mitigating factor. The likely post time for the Apple Blossom lines up perfectly for doing a happy hour at a track. Bring your friends. I can't imagine a better atmosphere to try to get someone interested in the game.

I love playing the races on Saturday afternoon, and I'm sure more than half my annual total handle comes on that one day each week, but for a fan base that complains so much about the sport not being willing to change, the collective din about racing on Friday seems hypocritical to me.

Given the choice between racing on April 9 or not at all, I'm glad the connections of all parties involved chose the former option, and I hope it doesn't stop fans from enjoying the race or telling their friends about it.