Oak Grove, KY – Under a decade since stone laid to dirt with the construction of Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel, the small track in Southwest Kentucky has found remarkable growth in betting dollars and eyeballs but has especially experienced a profound boost in racing quality as seen by one graduate of the racetrack rewriting the global harness racing record books at the start of the week.
On Sunday (May 31) at Solvalla Racecourse in Sweden, North America’s darling Allegiant shook the harness racing world with a sensational mile to win the Elitloppet, known as the “Elite Sprint Race” in Europe. The Dan Patch Award winner as a 3-year-old, who was exported into the barn of trainer Daniel Redén after being purchased from auction for $925,000, had her shoes pulled for the first time in her career and ripped a scintillating mile under a stout hold by driver Örjan Kihlström to stop the clock in 1:48, stamping herself as the fastest horse to ever trot a mile in harness racing history.
And while her effort to win that day exceeds remarkable, the 5-year-old daughter of Tactical Landing flashed glimmers of that brilliance from the first moments she raced in North America. The Oak Grove faithful luckily had the opportunity to watch the then Vernon Beachy trainee make the first starts of her career at the Southwest Kentucky track, and after a 6-1/4-length win in her debut Vernon Beachy handed the lines on the filly to David Miller, who let her roll to an 11-1/2-length win in the $100,000 Kentucky Sire Stakes final for 2-year-old fillies in a track-record time of 1:53.2 – eclipsing the previous mark by nearly two seconds and still standing as the track record today. She followed that pair of Oak Grove wins with an enviable career that includes third-place finishes in the Mohawk Million and Hambletonian Oaks as well as a Breeders Crown title at 3 that sealed her as the Dan Patch Award winner in her division, all while earning over $1 million before shipping overseas.
Interestingly enough, the other competitor in the Elitloppet final for trainer Daniel Redén, 2021 Elitloppet winner Don Fanucci Zet, has roots tying back to Oak Grove as well. His sister, the broodmare Miss Don Fanucci S, is the dam of Jailbird Jog, who uncorked a vicious rally to win the inaugural edition of the $300,000 Oak Grove Trotting Oaks this year. Jailbird Jog has made Oak Grove a solid stomping grounds, beginning her career there with a pair of wins before bullheadedly breaking stride in the $100,000 Kentucky Sire Stakes final last year. Her win in the Oak Grove Trotting Oaks, which propelled her to nearly $300,000 in earnings, has stamped her as one of the early favorites for the 2026 Hambletonian Oaks.
On the wings of that exciting start to the racing week, Oak Grove continued showing steady gains in handle year-over-year with the Monday (June 1) and Tuesday (June 2) cards. Handle year-over-year on the Monday card was up 5.5 percent and up 26.3 percent on the Tuesday card. Through 11 weeks of racing, handle at Oak Grove remains up 26.4 percent year over year and up 20 percent when exempting the extra day of racing for the inaugural Oak Grove Trotting Derby.
Geremy Bobbit, Ronnie Wrenn Jr. and Joey Putnam led all drivers this week with three wins over the two days while Todd McCarthy, Andy McCarthy and Atlee Bender notched doubles. Atlee Bender holds the top spot on the driver’s standings with 34 wins on the meet followed by a tie for second between Marcus Miller and Ronnie Wrenn Jr. at 24 wins. Brandon Bates is next on the leaderboard with 18 wins followed by Joey Putnam at 16 wins.
Ron Burke and Tony Dinges took this week’s training honors with three wins apiece. The training hat trick on Monday by Burke in Kentucky Sire Stakes action shot him back to the top of the training standings with 20 wins so far on the meet. Erv Miller sits second in the rankings with 18 wins followed by Tony Dinges in third with 15 wins. Wayne Oke sits fourth with 14 wins followed by Joe Putnam in fifth with 10 wins.
Oak Grove’s on-air talent also had an exceptional week. Handicapper Ray Cotolo, who had 16 of the week’s 27 winners picked on top, gave viewers winning combinations in both Pick-4 sequences on Monday and Tuesday, with Monday’s winners all being top-pick selections and three of the four Tuesday winners also being top selections. Those who followed Cotolo’s handicapping only laid down $42 across the two sequences to cash a total of $280.27, which paid nearly double of the dollar parlay on the two sequences combined. Cotolo’s co-host and track announcer Peter Kleinhans found success in the race bike when he hit the track on Monday in the amateur driving race and scorched from off the speed for a 1:53.4 victory behind Roshun Trigg trainee April’s Big Guy.
Another exciting win wrapped the week at Oak Grove. Trainer-driver Stephen White returned to the Oak Grove winner’s circle with his 12-year-old Unite Ace gelding Ideal Ace, who has not won in over two years, with a confident first-over grind to score at odds of 6-1 in a $10,000 conditioned pace to close Tuesday’s card. The win pushed the veteran pacer closer to $300,000 in career earnings and was his first visit to the winner’s circle since posting a 1:55.4 victory at Oak Grove back in June of 2024.
Oak Grove hosts live harness racing on Mondays and Tuesdays with first-race post time at 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.