Oak Grove, KY – The seventh week of the 2026 harness racing season at Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel proved to be an all-time best week in the track’s six-year history after crushing its single-card handle record on Monday (May 4) and carrying strong wagering growth into Tuesday (May 5), making it the best week of handle ever at the Southwest Kentucky track.
Monday’s record-breaking card saw a 50 percent bump in year-over-year wagering and that momentum held into Tuesday’s 14-race card with handle up 20 percent year over year. Combined, the week following the Kentucky Derby saw a 37.8 percent gain in handle year over year. Consistent gains in wagering through the 2026 Oak Grove meeting has gross handle up 14.3 percent year over year heading into the eighth week, which will feature a $1.5 million day of racing on Preakness Saturday (May 16) headlined by the $500,000 Oak Grove Trotting Derby and $300,000 Oak Grove Trotting Oaks.
Bettors were rewarded with great value in multi-race wagers this week. Monday’s card featured a pair of guaranteed pools with the $12,500 guaranteed Late Pick-5 attracting $16,632.75 in new money and the $10,000 guaranteed Pick-4 drawing $17,578.02 in new money; both bets also offer a takeout of just 15 percent. The Late Pick-5 returned just over two times the dollar parlay at $102.60 for a buck in a sequence with winners at odds of 2-5, 14-1, 1-9, 2-5 and 3-5, while the Pick-4 also returned nearly twice of the dollar parlay with winners at odds of 2-5, 5-1, 3-1 and 1-2.
Tuesday’s card also saw improved payouts in multi-race wagers. The Late Pick-5 on Tuesday, on the 20-cent minimum, essentially beat the dollar parlay by a multiple of five with a payoff of $354.45 from winners at odds of 5-2, 7-2, 4-5, 7-2 and 1-2. The Pick-4 paid nearly double the dollar parlay, returning $308.19 for a buck from winners at odds of 1-2, 6-1, 6-5 and 9-2.
Even with the major names on the Grand Circuit in competition at Oak Grove on Monday, local driver Atlee Bender emerged as the week’s star to lead all drivers with seven wins, all taken on the Tuesday card. The monster outing by Bender, who took the driver’s title at Oak Grove in 2023 and 2024, propelled him to the top of the driver’s standings with 23 wins on the meet followed by Ronnie Wrenn Jr., who won three races on the week, in second with 19 victories. Marcus Miller, scoring a hat trick on Tuesday, sits third with 15 wins and Brandon Bates is currently fourth in the standings with 11 wins. Todd McCarthy, who held the previous record for most driving wins on a single card at Oak Grove with a six-victory day last year, also landed a hat trick on the week.
Ron Burke holds the top spot on the training standings after winning three races on the week. He tied for the week’s training honors with Wayne Oke, who’s currently tied for second in the standings alongside Tony Dinges with nine wins. Oke doubled on the Tuesday card but also sent the top two finishers in the $30,000 Open Handicap Pace on Monday with Muskateer Hanover returning to his old stomping grounds a winner at the top class over stablemate Hazardos. Five other trainers doubled on the week: Cassidy Whitton, Randall Jerrell, Erv Miller, Chris Beaver and Andrew Harris.
Racing at Oak Grove resumes on a Sunday-Monday rotation this week with corgi races running alongside harness racing action on Sunday (May 10). Oak Grove then returns for its big day on Preakness Saturday (May 16), the culminating day of the $2.75 million Festival of Racing which will wrap with a concert from country music star Jake Owen. Post time for that Saturday card is 12:45 p.m. (CDT).
First-race post time on Sunday at Oak Grove is 1:10 p.m. (CDT). For more information on racing at Oak Grove, including free past performance pages and race-by-race analysis from Ray Cotolo, visit oakgrovegaming.com. And to book your VIP experience for Oak Grove Derby Day, visit oakgrovederby.com.