Oak Grove, KY – Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel exited the second week of the 2026 harness racing meet riding on strong momentum as gamblers churned through the betting windows to propel the southern Kentucky racetrack to more year-over-year gains.
Racing on Monday (March 30) and Tuesday (March 31) both bested betting numbers from the second week of the 2025 meet. Monday’s card finished with a 7.2 percent gain in betting from the same number of races run while Tuesday’s card had an 8.1 percent beat with just one more race contested. Together, the second week of the 2026 meet bested the second week of the 2025 meet by 7.7 percent. Strong betting in the second week has Oak Grove already ahead of overall handle heading into week three year over year by 3.1 percent.
With pools growing in 2026 at Oak Grove, bettors also continued to get rewarded by the new player-friendly $1 Pick-4, which had its takeout reduced to just 15 percent for the meet. The Pick-4 pool saw just over 30 percent more money bet on the Monday card year over year and 26.7 percent more money bet year over year on the Tuesday card. A formful sequence on the Monday card with winners of 4-5, 8-5, 2-1 and 2-1 odds returned $126.47, nearly 50 percent more than a dollar parlay. Tuesday’s sequence with winners of 7-2, 1-1, 1-1 and 7-1 odds paid a plump $697.44, over three times more than the dollar parlay.
Favorites took a walloping on Monday after a logical opening day with just four chalks finding the winner’s circle from 12 races. Another even performance by favorites on Tuesday helped bring the average win payoff through 25 races to about 4-1 compared to an average win payoff of 3-1 in opening week. The track also continued to show no positional advantages with speed types and closers winning at an even clip.
Top driving honors for the week at Oak Grove split four ways with Ronnie Wrenn Jr., Atlee Bender, Brandon Bates and Kyle Wilfong each winning three races during the week. Jay Hochstetler led all trainers with his hat trick on Tuesday that included a win in the $30,000 featured Open Handicap Trot with Ponda Jet. Ron Burke, Justin Lloyd, Randy Crisler and Stephan Halford II each doubled during the week.
Ronnie Wrenn Jr. still holds the lead atop the driver standings with nine victories through the meet from 24 drives. Brandon Bates sits second with seven wins followed by Atlee Bender and Kyle Wilfong with three wins each.
Ron Burke leads all trainers in wins heading into the third week of the meet with five visits to the winner’s circle followed by Randy Crisler, Walter Haynes Jr. and Jay Hochstetler with three wins each.
JK’s Shining Star became the first horse of the 2026 meet to win back-to-back weeks at Oak Grove. After romping in an amateur driving race on opening day, she overcame a wide draw to win another amateur driving race and also became the first horse of the meet to win out of post 9 now that the draw starts on the gate versus meets past where post 9 started from the second tier. Two other horses, Stephan Halford II trainee Dreaminofbnawnr and Richard Lindsay pupil Just Chasing Tails, also scored back-to-back wins in the first two weeks of the meet.
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 Oak Grove Trotting Derby, which will take place on Preakness Day Saturday, May 16 and will have eliminations the week following the 2026 Kentucky Derby on Monday, May 4. First-race post time at Oak Grove is 1:10 p.m. (CDT).