In just the third week of the 2026 harness racing meet at Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel, a typical 12-race card of overnight races for the southern Kentucky oval generated the third-highest betting handle in the track's six-year history.
The Monday, April 6 races ended on the cusp of a half-million dollars bet with just over $450,000 USD churning through the windows. The Monday handle figure is only bested by the 2024 handle record at Oak Grove of $522,941 USD and the current record of $582,666 USD set last year on the Monday following the Kentucky Derby. Year over year, Monday's card showed handle gains of 21.3 per cent, and those gains continued into the following race day with Tuesday's card out-handling the previous year by 4.2 per cent. Heading into the fourth week of racing, overall handle at Oak Grove remains up year over year by 6.7 per cent with over $2 million USD bet so far this season.
The win percentage of favourites continues to fall at Oak Grove after back-to-back days this week in which five or fewer public choices reached the winner's circle. Several longshots surprised over the two days with Copper Teen stunning in the lone amateur driving race of the week and paying $77.78 to win. Roshun Trigg trainee Aprils Big Guy also pulled off yet another stunner at Oak Grove when winning the penultimate race on Monday and paying $85.74 to win — two years, almost to the day, after he landed a 26-1 upset over the track.
The penultimate race on Monday also had record payouts in the triactor and superfecta pools. With the top four finishers sent off at odds of 41-1, 9-2, 48-1 and 11-1, respectively, the 50-cent triactor returned $8,344.72 while the 10-cent superfecta paid $6,006.40.
Tuesday's card also had a pair of double-digit winners with Mike Murphy trainee Heknowsallthetrix paying $55.76 in the third race and Fox Valley Compass returning $30.30 two races later. The return on win bets averaged around 6-1 odds for the third week of racing, up from the 4-1 average in the second week.
Top driving honours this were week split between brothers-in-law Marcus Miller and Atlee Bender, who won three apiece through 25 races. Tony Dinges led all trainers on the week with three victories, two of which he piloted to make him among the six drivers who scored doubles this week. Austin Hanners, Geremy Bobbitt, Joey Putnam, Brandon Bates and Tyler Miller all doubled on the driving side while Randy Crisler, Todd Luther, Jamaica Patton, Rob Laffoon and Kevin Miller had training doubles.
Action in the drivers' standings tightened with Ronnie Wrenn Jr. away from the Tuesday card to qualify star pacing filly Loua Dipa at The Meadows. Wrenn sits tied atop the leaderboard with Brandon Bates at nine wins, while Atlee Bender sits in third with six victories, Marcus Miller is in fourth with five and Joey Putnam is fifth with four. The top of the trainers' standings has a three-way tie between Ron Burke, Randy Crisler and Tony Dinges at five wins each. Walter Haynes Jr. sits fourth with four wins, followed by a four-way tie for fifth.
Several horses scored long-awaited Oak Grove wins in the third week of the meet. Admiral Hill, who won the $41,667 Open Pace on Monday, collected his first Oak Grove victory since he smashed the track record for a pacing mile with his 1:48 clocking in the 2024 Kentucky Sire Stakes final for four-year-olds. War Of Will, who won the penultimate race on the Tuesday card, made his first visit to the Oak Grove winner's circle since 2024. And E Modes Desire, often a runner-up when last campaigned at Oak Grove in 2024, finally got his picture taken with a win in the third race on Monday.
The 2026 season of harness racing at Oak Grove continues on a Monday-Tuesday rotation through July 14 with a single exception for the inaugural running of the $500,000 USD Oak Grove Trotting Derby. The race will take place on Preakness Day, Saturday, May 16 and will have eliminations on Monday, May 4. First-race post time at Oak Grove is 1:10 p.m. (CDT).
(Oak Grove)