The Friday night prime-time broadcast of the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs in Louisville averaged 2.4 million viewers, according to Churchill’s broadcast partner, NBC Sports. That's a record for the race, and is nearly eight times the average viewership for the race in the prior three years. The Oaks was held this year at 8:40 p.m. after being run between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern throughout its modern history. The 2.4 million average viewership number was four times the previous Oaks record, set in 1997 on ESPN, and far above the 304,000 average viewership numbers on USA Network for the past three years, NBC said. The decision to move the Oaks to an open broadcast window on NBC in prime time was made last year by Churchill and NBC to raise the race's profile and cross-market the Derby broadcast on NBC the following day. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Betting on the Oaks itself on Friday set a record at $29.2 million, a 29 percent gain over the previous year. Handle on the entire 13-race Oaks card, which started at 12:31 p.m. Eastern on Friday, was $89 million, a 20.4 percent jump over last year, when the card started at 11:01 a.m. While handle on the Kentucky Derby and its supporting card fell marginally on Saturday, the broadcast of the race on NBC had a record average audience of 19.6 million viewers, NBC said, an 11 percent increase over last year and the largest audience since 1989. Viewership during the broadcast, which ran from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. Eastern, peaked during the running of the Derby itself at 24.4 million viewers, NBC said. NBC said that the viewership numbers made the Derby the highest-rated Saturday broadcast on the network since the Winter Olympics earlier this year. NBC has the exclusive broadcast rights to the Derby and Oaks through 2032. The network’s rights agreement for the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, expires after this year. The rights to the third leg, the Belmont Stakes, are held by Fox through 2030. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.