Kentucky Oaks 2026: Betting handle soars to record $29.2 million
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Total wagering handle on the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs in Louisville on Friday night surged to a record $29.2 million, up 29.1 percent from 2025. Betting was up significantly in the straight wagering pools and in the pools for bets that linked the Oaks with races earlier on the card, according to charts.
The Oaks this year had a post time of 8:40 p.m., the latest it has ever been run, a time slot that undoubtedly helped the race attract bets from casual players wagering into the straight pools through their sports betting apps. But betting on the race was also aided by a strong card leading up to the Oaks and a wide-open edition of the race itself, which helped reverse massive drops in the linked bets leading to the Oaks last year.
Total win, place, and show betting on the Oaks was $10.96 million, up 28.7 percent, or $2.45 million, over the WPS pool last year, according to charts. Both this year’s race and last year’s race had 13 horses in the field. The exacta pool was up 10.9 percent to $4.76 million.
Handle on the linked wagers ending in the Oaks this year surged dramatically, with the pick three ending in the Oaks up 273 percent to $1.35 million, up from $362,000 last year. In the pick four, betting was up 30.96 percent to $1.83 million. In the pick five, handle was up 63.95 percent to $3.09 million.
Last year, the Oaks was won by Good Cheer, who was 7-5 and a strong single for the last leg of the linked bets. This year, no horse in the Oaks went off lower than 5-1, and the race was won by the third choice, Always a Runner, who went off at 5.52-1.
The pick five and the pick six last year also suffered from short fields with heavy favorites in the early legs of the bets. In addition, a strong storm last year changed the track from fast to sloppy between the ninth and 10th races.
For the entire 13-race card, Churchill said handle was a record $89 million, a 20.4 percent jump over last year’s total of $73.9 million and an 18 percent increase over the record handle of $75.3 million set in 2024.
A total of 120 horses raced on the 13-race card this year, compared to 108 horses on the 13-race card last year. Churchill reported that attendance on Friday at the Oaks was 103,290, a slight increase over the reported attendance of 100,910 last year.
Several new bet types offered this year on the Oaks drew relatively small amounts of interest. A bet on the Oaks requiring bettors to select either odd-numbered or even-numbered horses had handle of $13,057, or 0.04 percent of the total betting on the race, while a head-to-head bet matching Zany against Meaning drew $6,804 in wagers, or 0.02 percent of the total betting. Meaning finished second, while Zany finished sixth.
A jackpot bet that was first offered during the Turfway Park meet earlier this year requiring bettors to select the first eight horses in order in the Oaks drew $194,075 in new bets. The bet, which only pays out the full pool on a single winning ticket, will have a carryover of $273,214 going into the Derby.
Officials for Churchill, which owns Turfway, have said that they introduced the bet in the hopes of having a large carryover on Derby Day to create the potential for a lottery-sized payout on the race.
The late pick six on Saturday will have a mandatory payout. There is a $110,100 carryover going into Saturday, and the minimum wager is 20 cents.
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