Oak Grove, KY — The third week of the 2025 harness racing meet at Oak Grove Racing & Gaming features fresh and formidable horsepower as Meadowlands invader Saulsbrook Victor heads a field of seven in Monday’s (April 7) featured $30,000 Open Pace and Kentucky Sire Stakes standout Railee Something is slated to make her 5-year-old debut against nine rivals in Tuesday’s (April 8) $30,000 Open Trot.
Saulsbrook Victor makes his local debut in Monday’s Open Pace, carded as the 10th race on a 12-race card, after a narrow 1:50 win over Mad Max Hanover and Mac’s Delight in a winners-over pace at the Meadowlands. A 30-time winner with $491,188 in the bank and a 1:48.1 lifetime mark taken at Woodbine Mohawk Park, the 7-year-old Source Of Pride-Atlanta Girl gelding has drawn post five in the seven-horse Open and will be driven by owner Brett MacDonald as the 2-1 morning-line favorite.
Among his six rivals are Later Dudes (post seven, Trace Tetrick, 5-2), who held off fellow Ron Burke trainee Tip Top Cat (post six, Brandon Bates, 9-2) to win last week’s Open in 1:51.1; and Muskateer Hanover (post three, Peter Wrenn, 7-2), who makes the second start of his 5-year-old season after failing to threaten as the 9-5 favorite last week.
The Monday program also features the $22,000 final of Mini-Series 1, for $10,000 claiming pacers. Shark Solicitor, who was claimed out of both preliminary legs, looks to build off a second-place finish in round one and a 1:55.3 win in round two for new trainer Roni Vandervort, and Marcus Miller will drive the 5-2 early favorite from post five in the nine-horse field.
Hurrikane Chuck also amassed a win and a second-place finish in preliminary action and will start from post six as the 7-2 second choice for driver Pat Curtin and trainer Nikki Kosciolek.
Tuesday’s Open Trot will see Railee Something, an eight-time winner from 17 starts as a 4-year-old, make her first purse start of 2025. The daughter of International Moni-Railee Priti ended last season with a clean sweep of the Kentucky Sire Stakes at Cumberland Run and enters off an 8-1/4 length qualifying win over Oak Grove on March 31. Brandon Bates drives Railee Something, who has been installed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite, from post eight for trainer Roger Cullipher.
To her immediate inside is Oh Look Magic (post seven, Trace Tetrick, 4-1), a Burke trainee who invades Kentucky following a 2-1/2 length win in an Open Handicap Trot at MGM Northfield Park on March 9.
On the simulcast front, fans at Oak Grove can wager on premier Thoroughbred action from Keeneland, in Lexington, Ky., on both Monday and Tuesday, including the $1.25 million Blue Grass Stakes, which is carded as the 10th race on Tuesday’s Keeneland program.
Live harness racing at Oak Grove will kick off at 1:45 p.m. (CDT) on both Monday and Tuesday. For more information on racing at Oak Grove, including free past performances and race-day analysis from Ray Cotolo, visit oakgrovegaming.com.