NOW THRIVING BIG TIME

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Oak Grove, KY – Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel wrapped its sixth year hosting live harness racing this past week, which proved to be the greatest season yet for the southwest Kentucky track with continued handle gains year over year as well as a successful foray onto the Grand Circuit with the inaugural running of the $500,000 Oak Grove Trotting Derby as well as the $300,000 Oak Grove Trotting Oaks.

The introduction of the Oak Grove Trotting Derby and Oaks, which were held alongside a rich day of racing on Preakness Saturday (May 16), added buzz and anticipation for racing at Oak Grove coming into 2026, which had already been building as more and more owners, horsepeople and gamblers have been drawn to the ever-improving harness racing product out of southwest Kentucky. These marquee races for Oak Grove — the latest stepping stones toward harness racing’s classic events, the Hambletonian and Hambletonian Oaks — provided year-defining performances by Oaks winner Jailbird Jog and Derby winner Spencer Hanover as well as Derby runner-up Endurance, and their performances have bolstered their champion profiles to add depth to the body of the sport’s top trotting prospects on the approach to the career-defining races in the Hambletonian and Hambletonian Oaks.


Coming to the finish line at Oak Grove. Tony Centonze Photography.
With the quality of racing both in overnights and stakes improving at Oak Grove year over year, the bettors have also responded with their dollars to help the track once again grow in wagering handle. Gamblers pushed nearly $13 million through the windows on Oak Grove action in 2026, a 13-percent increase from 2025’s gross handle. And for the third year in a row, Oak Grove broke its single-day handle record on the Monday following the Kentucky Derby, but because bettors showed such high interest in Oak Grove racing on that day, the track responded by building a robust card that included the eliminations for the inaugural Oak Grove Trotting Derby and Oaks. The bettors responded to the loaded card of stakes racing with the sports’ best horses, drivers and trainers in competition by pushing a record $873,180 through the windows, crushing the previous single-day handle record by 50 percent. Oak Grove’s growth in the harness racing sphere has remained constant, with handle increasing at the track every year since its opening in 2020.

Adding to the record-breaking season, Oak Grove literally broke records on the track with a total of 12 track records set through the 2026 season. Track records started to fall on the Monday, May 4, card of racing when Naked And Famous scorched the track to win her elimination of the Oak Grove Trotting Oaks in 1:51.2, besting a nearly two-year-old track record for sophomore trotting fillies. From there, 11 other track records were either equaled or lowered on the revamped Oak Grove surface, including the all-age marks on the pace and trot with Whiskey Wow trotting the fastest mile ever over the track with a 1:50.3 win in a Kentucky Sire Stakes event on May 25 and Sea Bistro Hanover pacing a 1:48 mile on closing day to win his Kentucky Sire Stakes final for 3-year-old males as well as to match the record set by Admiral Hill as a 4-year-old in 2024.

Oak Grove will carry this momentum into 2027 with the second edition of the Oak Grove Trotting Derby and Oaks, and with every season will provide a high-quality racing product for gamblers as well as owners, breeders and trainers to help create lucrative opportunities for industry participants competing inside of the horse racing capital of the world, Kentucky.

[White Rabbit]

Everyone’s moving there

[G]

If you know what you're doing the business is thriving! Only these fucking losers that don't know anything claim it's all doom and gloom. Yonkers and Kentucky rule harness racing

[ScrapeThePaint]

If you know what you're doing the business is thriving! Only these fucking losers that don't know anything claim it's all doom and gloom. Yonkers and Kentucky rule harness racing

EXACTLY! The only MORONS who don't recognize this is thriving are either the Keyboard Warriors who don't put up the money to own horses or the damn fools who don't know what the F they are doing!!!!!!

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Hamburg, NY – “It was a nice year of racing,” Buffalo Raceway General Manager Jon Cramer said as he reflected back on the just completed 2026 live racing season.

“We had some new faces here this season along with regular horsepeople and they ran for some great purse money,” Cramer added. “The fans and horsemen enjoyed the season making it a successful meet.”

[rainman2]

If you know what you're doing the business is thriving! Only these fucking losers that don't know anything claim it's all doom and gloom. Yonkers and Kentucky rule harness racing

Isn’t oak grove out in bfe??

Great purses, “D” track drivers and trainers.

Yonkers-big purse money.
You need post and firepower!  Easy to be Bartlett when you have the best horses and they will not challenge him.
Gets the best nyss drives and does the same thing!

1 major accident will stop racing for the evening.

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If you know what you're doing the business is thriving! Only these fucking losers that don't know anything claim it's all doom and gloom. Yonkers and Kentucky rule harness racing

       

[Lockedin with Pace]

Hamburg, NY – “It was a nice year of racing,” Buffalo Raceway General Manager Jon Cramer said as he reflected back on the just completed 2026 live racing season.

“We had some new faces here this season along with regular horsepeople and they ran for some great purse money,” Cramer added. “The fans and horsemen enjoyed the season making it a successful meet.”

Surprised you haven't mentioned Bangor Raceway's handle which was up 50% from last year to an average of $151,000 compared to $100,000 last year.

[JL52]

Yonkers thriving ?! Yes, great purses, but anemic handle given its position in such a huge metro area. Only the casino keeps it going. Lose that, and you are back to the $4000 minimum purse they used to offer ( even less in the distant past).

[rainman2]

Yonkers thriving ?! Yes, great purses, but anemic handle given its position in such a huge metro area. Only the casino keeps it going. Lose that, and you are back to the $4000 minimum purse they used to offer ( even less in the distant past).

I believe 5k claimers too before VLT’S!

[Pacer 2]

Yonkers thriving ?! Yes, great purses, but anemic handle given its position in such a huge metro area. Only the casino keeps it going. Lose that, and you are back to the $4000 minimum purse they used to offer ( even less in the distant past).

  The purses are whats distributed to the horses connections.