Giving credit to Oak Grove for handle gains

by Brett Sturman

There has been much warranted attention on Oak Grove Racing in recent weeks, as it wraps up what should be considered an historic month of May for the relatively young track.

Thoroughbred synergies between ownership group Churchill Downs Incorporated and the May 2 Kentucky Derby located less than 200 miles from the southwestern Kentucky harness track first kickstarted the Grand Circuit month. From there, sire stakes and Grand Circuit stakes along with their alternate gaming-fueled purses has bolstered stakes opportunities, and it was highlighted by last Saturday’s “Festival of Racing” concept that saw the 3-year-old trotting races the Oak Grove Trotting Derby and the Oak Grove Trotting Oaks go for $500,000 and $300,000, respectively.

But for purposes of this column, success has been the record-breaking handle. It’s one thing for tracks to be the beneficiary of inherited purses and develop a stakes program, but at the same time, Oak Grove has also increased the amount of money wagered on its product in a meaningful way.

Two days after the Kentucky Derby, Oak Grove absolutely crushed its former best race day handle. Handle for the Monday (May 4) card was over $873,000, where the record prior to that in the track’s six-year history was just $582,000. In the context of the track’s history, the $873,000 number was massive. That, of course, led to an overall record-breaking week, and that momentum continued.

Speaking earlier this week with track announcer Peter Kleinhans, who also shared track broadcasting responsibilities with Ray Cotolo, he highlighted some of the success seen this month.

“Today is actually the perfect time to talk about it because yesterday [May 19] was an amazing day for us,” Kleinhans said on Wednesday. “Tuesdays are usually much worse than Mondays, but yesterday was our third or fourth highest handle ever and similar to Monday. It really has been a few great weeks since the Derby. And I think a lot of it this week had to do with the carryover in the Pick-4, which ended up working out great.”

The Pick-4 referenced by Kleinhans turned out to be incredibly successful. Though, funny enough, not the way it was planned. For last Saturday’s Pick-4 that included the two big stakes races on the Festival of Racing card, the track issued a $20,000 pool guarantee. But only $13,463 was bet into it, falling short of the guarantee.

As things played out, however, the Pick-4 kicked off with a bomb when Aperfect Annie upset the heavily-favored Dan Patch winner Yo Tillie to pay $119. From there, a carryover was almost a certainty, and that was finalized in the last race when Breeders Crown champion Spencer Hanover was let go at odds of 4-1 and beat Endurance, which forced an unplanned and unlikely carryover into the Monday card.
On Monday, between the carryover and an upped guarantee to $50,000, the Pick-4 handle produced a total pool of $83,060 – the highest record wagering pool ever for the track.

As purses have continued to soar, so has the quality of racing.

“The racing has been competitive,” Kleinhans said. “We still have too many big favorites, but I’d say it’s still better than some other places. Again, it is speed favoring but you can still come from other parts of the track, and I think people have enjoyed the action. There’s kind of been two sets of horses. There are the really good horses in the sire stakes which at some points can almost fill an entire card with all the different divisions, and then there’s the overnight horses that people have become familiar with.

“I also think there’s a really great flavor to the racing here. It’s great that we have the contingent from Mississippi here – I love that entire group. I see this track as one of the few places where you can see relations between all these different groups of people coming together.”

What I’ve enjoyed personally with the Oak Grove product which I think does a nice job filling the late afternoon void in the racing schedule, is its simulcast broadcast. The fact alone that the track sees it important enough to include live, race-by-race commentary between Kleinhans and Cotolo as part of its broadcast shows some element of caring about the racing product.

As for whether the broadcast has had a role in increasing handle, Kleinhans said, “I’m not sure, exactly. Obviously, I’d like to think it has something to do with our show and what we’re doing and the people tuning in, but certainly people are watching us more than last year. I know we heard from some people at The Meadows where they almost didn’t even get our signal this year, but we heard from them and were able to work that.

“I also have to say that I just find Ray so much fun. I never know what he’s going to do next, it’s not like we have anything scripted or anything. We start the show, and he’s in Pennsylvania – and when he came down for the big day Saturday that was actually the first time he’s been here. But when we start the show, I never know what his first routine is going to be. He does stand up comedy too, so he’s got a mind for trying to come up with some outrageous stuff. It’s very fun. And when I’m laughing when he says something it’s genuine – we’re all trying to have fun with it too.”

For all the success this season, Kleinhans would have been remiss to not attribute a degree of it to the track’s senior sales and racing operations manager.

“The broadcast does show that we care – and you know – Cara [Collins] deserves so much credit overall,” said Kleinhans. “I’ve never had a better boss to work for and she’s just so into it. It’s so great Churchill found her because she’s just so enthusiastic and you know that for once if possible, she would love for the track’s racing to be able to make money on its own standing. Her passion makes you want to work harder for it and she’s just everywhere all over the track – it really has been inspiring.”