Kentucky Oaks favorites offered value as future bets

Nine of the 15 starters in the Kentucky Oaks were listed as separate interests in the only Oaks futures pool offered earlier this year (March 2-4) by Churchill. By any gauge, that’s a pretty high percentage to actually make it to the starting gate, considering the list of 23 separate wagering interests was composed two months beforehand.

The best deals, vis-à-vis the futures odds versus the Churchill morning line, appear to be two of the favorites: Grace Hall was 8-1 in the futures and is 5-2 on the Oaks program, while On Fire Baby was 13-1 in the futures and is 4-1 on the program. Other potential bonanzas: Believe You Can (36-1 futures, 10-1 morning line), Amie’s Dini (42-1 futures, 10-1 morning line), and Karlovy Vary (92-1 futures, 20-1 morning line).

Possible so-so deals or outright underlays: Eden’s Moon (9-1 futures, 12-1 morning line), Summer Applause (16-1 futures, 15-1 morning line), And Why Not (19-1 futures, 15-1 morning line), and Yara (26-1 futures, 30-1 morning line).

The starters in the futures’ mutuel field (4-1) are Hard Not to Like, Broadway’s Alibi, Sacristy, Jemima’s Pearl, Colonial Empress, and the lone also-eligible, Oaks Lily.

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