Oak Grove, KY – A $2,217.08 carryover in the $1.00 Pick-4 at Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel on Tuesday (April 14) attracted bettors in droves and helped them to cash in a profitable minus-pool opportunity that handily trumped the dollar parlay.
Gamblers piled $11,745.42 in new money into the Pick-4 sequence on Tuesday, which — given the wager already has a lowered 15 percent takeout for the 2026 meet — offered bettors more money to payout on the correct four-of-four combo with an effective takeout of nearly minus four percent since the carryover money negates the takeout. In the win pools, the sequence proved logical with a third choice (5/2 odds), a favorite (6/5), a third choice (5/2) and a favorite (6/5) finding the winner’s circle. The dollar parlay of those four races would return a meager $76.00 but because of the lowered takeout, and the larger pool vying for the carryover, the $1.00 Pick-4 paid $386.30, over five times more than the parlay.
Tony Centonze Photography.
The power of carryovers at Oak Grove also showed on the Monday (April 13) card with a $1,122.61 carryover into the Late Pick-5. A sequence that saw winners of 7-1, 4/5, 3/5, 14-1 and 1-5 paid $458.93 on a 20-cent ticket; the payoff was plumped by a big minus pool offered to the Oak Grove faithful.
Handle at Oak Grove heading into the fifth week of racing remains up 5.4 percent year over year compared to the first four weeks of the 2025 meet. Monday’s card particularly showed a strong boost in betting with handle up 8.7 percent year over year.
Marcus Miller led all drivers on the week with four wins while several drivers doubled: Marvin Luna, Wyatt Avenatti, Atlee Bender, Josert Fonseca, Ronnie Wrenn Jr., Devon Tharps and amateur driver Christina Grubich. On the training side, the Mississippi contingent flourished, accounting for eight wins from the 25 races held this week. Trainers Lawrence Cooper, the kingpin of Cooper Downs based in Terry, Mississippi, and Mann Hughes notched doubles on the week while Trent Stohler was the only trainer not based out of Mississippi to double. Other training wins from the Mississippi camp came from Jimmy Watson, Roshun Trigg, Danarius Dortch and Randy Crisler.
Ronnie Wrenn Jr. still holds the top spot on the driver’s standings at Oak Grove with 11 victories through the meet followed by Brandon Bates in second with 10 victories, Marcus Miller in third with nine wins and Atlee Bender in fourth with eight wins. Ron Burke and Randy Crisler currently sit tied atop the trainer’s standings at six wins apiece while Tony Dinges and Walter Haynes Jr. are tied for third with five wins each.
In other noteworthy happenings through the race week, Oak Grove welcomed 85-year-old Jean Pierre Dubois to the track. Dubois, a multi-hyphenate horseman across horse racing breeds, made his first start in the sulky since 2011 and scored a game victory out of post 9 in a conditioned trot on Tuesday behind the Chapter Seven gelding Chapel. Dubois last visited the winner’s circle in August of 2011 before his 15-year hiatus and scored his second training win since October of 2011.
Danarius Dortch also scored a memorable win on the Monday program in a conditioned pace. Dortch picked up the training duties on winning charge Major Pete, a 5-year-old stallion by Riggins, and found the winner’s circle in just the horse’s second start off of a two-year layoff.
Classy Wayne Oke pupil No Lou Zing, a local favorite since joining the Oak Grove circuit in 2023, has entered millionaire watch. With a 1:54.3 victory in the finale on Monday, the 9-year-old gelding by Sweet Lou, who has recently reunited with his original driver Josert Fonseca, sits less than $2,000 away from the seven-figure plateau.
The May schedule of racing at Oak Grove also received an adjustment. Oak Grove will host a special Sunday program of racing on Mother’s Day, May 10, followed by racing on Monday, May 11, shifting the racing schedule up one day. The Mother’s Day card leads a gangbuster week of action at Oak Grove culminating in the inaugural $500,000 Oak Grove Trotting Derby on a jam-packed day of stakes racing Saturday, May 16. Eliminations for the Oak Grove Trotting Derby will be held the week following the 2026 Kentucky Derby on Monday, May 4.
First-race post time every race day at Oak Grove is 1:10 p.m. (CDT). Find free past performances for every Oak Grove card, as well as tips and insights from track handicapper Ray Cotolo, on the Oak Grove website.