Perfect weather helped spur wagering records for Kentucky Oaks Day May 5 as Pretty Mischievous won the 149th edition of the race.
Wagering from all-sources on the full Oaks Day race card reached an Oaks Day record of $74.9 million, up slightly compared to last year’s previous record of $74.6 million.
All-sources wagering on this year’s $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks (G1) race was $22.4 million, down 7.8% from last year’s record $24.3 million.
“Congratulations to the connections of Pretty Mischievous on today’s win,” said Churchill Downs president Mike Anderson. “The 149th Kentucky Oaks will be remembered as a memorable day of racing on a near-perfect Kentucky day. Today’s success should be attributed to our fans, sponsors, horsemen, horseplayers and all participants of this distinguished racing tradition.”
The crowd of 106,381 missed the record but grew 6% from 100,188 last year. Weather was sunny all day. The record set in 2016 is 124,589.
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In early wagering for the Kentucky Derby (G1) Friday, Forte was a 7-2 favorite compared to the 3-1 morning line, according to a Churchill Downs release. Next in the betting were Tapit Trice at 5-1; Angel of Empire at 6-1; Derma Sotogake at 8-1; and Two Phil’s at 9-1. All other horses were double-digit odds. The highest prices were Jace’s Road , Cyclone Mischief , and King Russell , each at 41-1.
TwinSpires.com as of 7:19 p.m. ET showed $2,094,828 in the win pool, $455,109 in the place pool, and $482,254 in the show pool, for a collective total of almost $2.9 million. That’s a small percentage of the money that will ultimately be in each of those pools.
Odds and Will Pays for #KyDerby. Interestingly, Angel of Empire is actually the shortest price of the Oaks-Derby Double Will Pays – he’s actually favored in this combination with #KyOaks winner Pretty Mischievous pic.twitter.com/TwcKnlqJPh
— Byron King (@BH_BKing) May 5, 2023
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