Forget the small talk, Churchill Downs is officially rocking as we kick off Derby weekend with the 2026 Kentucky Oaks. The Lilies for the Fillies isn’t just a tradition; it’s a high-stakes, Grade 1 showdown.

This is the premier stage for three-year-old fillies. On this Friday, May 1, the energy in Louisville is electric, and the betting windows are already seeing massive volume.

With a loaded field, strong contenders and the spotlight shining bright in Louisville, this race gives bettors one more huge chance to cash before Derby Day takes over the weekend.

2026 KENTUCKY DERBY: POST POSITION DRAW, OPENING MORNING-LINE ODDS

Let’s stop talking and get to the betting window. Here are my picks and exotics for the 2026 Kentucky Oaks.

2026 Kentucky Oaks Day Betting Card 

• Race 8: $5 to Win on #2 French Fiction.
• Race 9: $5 to Win and Place on #8 Corporate Power ($10 total bet).
• Race 12: $5 to Win on #8 Lion Lake. $1 Exacta Box on 1,3,8 ($6 total bet).
• Race 13: $8 to Win on #9 Always a Runner. $1 Exacta Box on 1,4,9 ($6 total bet). $1 Trifecta Box on 1,4,9 ($6 total bet).

Race 8: Grade 2 Eight Belles, 4:30 p.m. ET post time 

Seven-furlong dirt track for 3-year-old fillies with a $700K purse. 

#2 French Fiction (6-1 on the morning-line) 

I’m “buying the dip” after she finished fourth by 15 lengths in the G1 Ashland her last time out. But French Fiction is turning back after running a one-and-one-sixteenth-mile race at the Ashland.

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She went off at a shorter price in all three starts (2-0-0) and her two wins at six furlongs had 81 and 84 speed figures. That said, I like the price and French Fiction at a shorter distance. 

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Race 9: Grade 2 Alysheba Belles, 5:12 p.m. ET post time 

One-and-one-sixteenth-mile dirt track for four-year-olds and upward with a $750K purse. 

#8 Corporate Power

Finished second his last time out in the Grade 2 New Orleans, but his 106 speed figure is the second-fastest in this race. Mounted by Jose Ortiz, “who was the hottest rider at CD [Churchill Downs] to begin this meet,” per the Daily Racing Form.

Corporate Power’s sire (Curlin) and dam (Road To Victory) both won graded stakes races on the Churchill Downs dirt. He is one of two closers in a race and could capitalize on a pace melt if the early speed horses burn out down the stretch. 

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Race 12: Grade 2 Edgewood Stakes, 7:40 p.m. ET post time 

One-and-one-eighth-mile turf track for 3-year-old fillies with a $600K purse. 

#1 Storm’s Wake (6-1)

She beat out two rivals in this field to win the Grade 2 Appalachian her last time out. Her 89 speed figure is the fastest in this race and she has won her only race at the Churchill Downs turn. Storm’s Wake is a horse for the course, winning her only race at Churchill last summer.

#8 Lion Lake (8-1)

She’s run faster in all six races (2-1-2). Lion Lake’s 88 speed figure in a blanket-finish third in the Grade 2 Appalachian her last time out is tied for the second-fastest figure in this race. Before that, she won the Grade 3 Here Comes The Bride at Gulfstream in February. 

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Race 13: Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, 8:40 p.m. ET post time 

One-and-one-eighth-mile dirt track for 3-year-old fillies with a $1.5 million purse. 

#1 Explora (6-1) 

This filly has finished first or second in her seven career starts. There is a lot of speed in this race, but Explora has the fastest “early speed”. Drawing the rail in the Oaks could help control the pace and get out to an early lead.

Explora’s jockey, Flavien Prat, is one of the best in the world, and she posted a career-best 88 speed figure in her win at the Grade 3 Honeybee her last time out. I like the #9 to eventually run her down, but I’m using Explora in my exotics and multi-race wagers.

#4 Counting Stars (8-1) 

She might not be a popular bet because her rivals have better connections and jockeys. But Counting Stars has “tactical speed,” meaning there isn’t much of a difference between her early and late speeds, so she could win the Oaks regardless of the pace (theoretically).

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Her 92 speed figure in a win at the Grade 2 Fantasy her last time out is the fastest speed in this field. Counting Stars has gone off as the favorite in three of her last four starts and outran her 11-1 odds in a second in the Grade 3 Honeybee. She won in her only visit to Churchill Downs.

#9 Always a Runner (10-1)

Experience, or lack thereof, is Always a Runner’s biggest question mark. Otherwise, she has the talent to win the Oaks. She ran an 89 speed figure in a win at the Grade 3 Gazelle at Aqueduct her last time out, which is the fourth-fastest race from any horse in this field.

Plus, we know she can handle the distance, as the Gazelle was also one-and-one-eighth miles. Lastly, Always a Runner has a better closing kick than any of her rivals in the Oaks, and if there is a “pace melt,” I like her chances of running past the field on the home stretch. 

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Follow me on X @Geoffery-Clark, and check out my OutKick Bets Podcast for more betting content and random rants.

While the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby kicks off horse racing’s Triple Crown on Saturday, this month’s Preakness Stakes will be special for multiple reasons.

First, the race will be held at Laurel Park due to Pimlico Race Course renovations. Second, this might be the last time the Preakness will be held on the third Saturday of May.

Sports Business Journal reported April 13 that the race could be moved back one week to allow for horses to recover fully from their Derby run, something that kept Sovereignty out of the Preakness last May and thus eliminating any Triple Crown talk before it even had a chance to begin.

The current format of three races in five weeks has been in place for over half a century.

“Basically etched in stone in 1969, and that was in an era when horses would run every two weeks with no issue,” said Barry Abrams, host of “The Far Turn” on the EQUUS TV Network. “But that’s not how it’s done any more. More time between races is absolutely what every trainer wants, and two weeks from the Derby to the Preakness is an anachronism. And the next media rights-holder is going to put an end to that.”

NBC has broadcast the race since 2002 and its contract ends this year. The network (which also airs the Derby) is still in the mix, as is FOX (which broadcasts the Belmont Stakes). But don’t discount ABC/ESPN, the network that aired the Preakness from 1977 to 2001.

The date isn’t the only wind of change surrounding the Preakness. Churchill Downs Incorporated said it has entered into an agreement to acquire the intellectual property for the Preakness Stakes and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. Churchill Downs Incorporated previously purchased Calder Race Course in Miami and Arlington International Racecourse in Illinois before shuttering both tracks.

Abrams told WTOP not to expect anything in the near future, but he wouldn’t be surprised if 20 years from now the Preakness is moved to a track Churchill Downs owns in, say, Richmond, Virginia.

But let’s refocus on this year’s races.

Renegade is the favorite this year at 5-1 odds (as of Thursday morning), but they’ll be starting from the No. 1 post position — a spot that hasn’t yielded a Derby winner since Ferdinand in 1986.

“It’s obviously not good. When you have a field of 20, which is the only race in North America that has a field that large, when you go from the rail, you really run the risk of being boxed in by the field up against the fence,” Abrams said. “If anybody can figure out a way to work a trip out for him it’s Irad Ortiz Jr., but he’s got to balance between using enough energy to make sure he doesn’t get swarmed but saving enough energy for the end of the race.”

Legendary trainer Bob Baffert has seen six of his horses take the Derby, including Triple Crown winners American Pharaoh in 2015 and Justify in 2018. This year he has two, and Potente has drawn significant attention at around 26-1 odds.

“I think this horse has a real chance to win. His numbers have gotten better every time, he’s won after being up near the early lead and he’s won while being not near the early lead,” Abrams said. “The problem is because he’s going from the 14 in so much traffic, he just may not get the right trip. He may get bounced around.”

Also getting Barry’s eye are the horses starting from the No. 8 and 9 posts, So Happy (6-1) and The Puma (7-1).

“The Puma has danced a lot of dances and is very consistent,” Abrams said. “He won the Tampa Bay Derby and was competitive in his other starts in Florida against really good horses like Commandment.”

Meanwhile, So Happy gives hope to those who subscribe to the “bounce” pattern of a thoroughbred.

“This horse won the Santa Anita Derby going away, while the race before that, he didn’t run well. And two starts before, he did,” Abrams said. “Has he gotten that bounce out of the way and therefore is sitting on a big race?”

Regardless of which horse finishes first, the winning pick remains a straw boater hat, madras jacket, white pants and blue Sperry shoes for men, and a fascinator for the women — plus plenty of sunscreen.

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The Kentucky Derby has been run since 1875, but the “Run for the Roses” part? That didn’t start until a few years later and in true Derby fashion; it began with a party when a New York City socialite decided the party needed some flowers for the ladies.  

In 1883, Evander Berry Wall showed up to a post-Derby gathering and handed red roses to all the ladies present.  

Wall was a well-known New York socialite, who would show up everywhere, and everyone knew him, and he knew everyone. He probably wasn’t thinking about the actual race, but his gesture of giving a red rose to every woman at the party caught the eye of Churchill Downs founder Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark.  

By 1884, Clark had declared the rose the official flower of the Kentucky Derby, according to Churchill Downs’ official history. But it still took a few years before that was officially reflected in the Winner’s Circle.  

The first recorded account of a Derby winner receiving the collar of roses was in 1896. Ben Brush was awarded a collar of pink and white roses that year, according to the Kentucky Derby media guide.  

Then a sportswriter got involved and it became history.  

Bill Corum, a World War I veteran and Purple Heart honoree, was covering the Derby for a New York newspaper by the mid-1920s, picked up on the rose theme. In May 1925, he watched the roses fill the Churchill Downs winner’s circle and wrote what became one of the most durable phrases in American sports: “Run for the Roses.” 

It stuck. And so did Corum.  

He kept calling it the Run for the Roses in his columns and when calling the Derby on the radio. In 1950, he actually became the president of Churchill Downs, succeeding his friend Col. Matt Winn.  

Remarkably, Corum never mentioned the phrase in his autobiography.  

The garland that is now draped over the winner, didn’t take its modern form until 1932, according to Churchill Downs. A Louisville florist named Grace Walker was commissioned to create something permanent for the 1932 race. She stitched more than 500 dark red roses onto a green satin cloth-backed blanket and draped all 40 pounds of it over that year’s winner, Burgoo King.  

Walker’s shop, Kingsley Walker Florist, became the keepers of the garland for more than 50 years. She took care to measure horses so that no thorn, stem or wire frame would poke a horse during the celebration. The most she charged Churchill Downs for her creations was for $3,600 for flowers, labor, delivery and vases for the winner’s circle.  

And then Kroger picked up the tradition in 1987.  

Today, those roses are still hand stitched onto a green satin backing. It now bears the seal of the Commonwealth of Kentucky on one end, and the famous Twin Spires of Churchill Downs on the other. Each stem has a hidden water vial to keep the roses fresh.  

Now, it’s part of the ceremony.  

Every first Saturday in May, the garland travels to Churchill Downs via police escort. It arrives at 10 a.m. local time and sits on public display before post time and is then draped over the winner in a tradition that has become synonymous with the Kentucky Derby.