When I visited Monmouth Park last week on a trip with family, the eight-race card on Friday felt underwhelming until I remembered that Haskell Day was coming. Then it all made sense.
The 14-race Haskell Day card is one of the greatest days on the American racing calendar every year, featuring massive fields, competitive racing at multiple levels and the Haskell Stakes, one of the premier races in the three-year-old division. Some of the earlier races in the day are also the hardest to bet on, washing many bettors out before they can even get to the glitzy feature races later on. As if day-to-day handicapping at Saratoga wasn’t hard enough, Monmouth’s big day represents a handicapping marathon designed to flummox bettors. Let’s get into it.