FRANKLIN, KY – The Vicki Oliver-trained Core Values, fresh off beating boys in Ellis Park’s prep for the Dueling Grounds Derby, goes back in against fillies while putting her 3-race win streak on the line in Sunday’s co-featured $500,000 Exacta Systems Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs.
The race distance is 1 5/16 miles, one lap around Kentucky Downs’ undulating, kidney-shaped course.
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Adventuring was third by a total of a 1/2-length as the favorite in Ellis Park’s Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Dueling Grounds Oaks, won by Core Value’s stablemate Flippant in a stakes sweep for Oliver. The winner of Turfway Park’s Bourbonette Oaks, Adventuring worked a 1/2-mile in a sparkling 47 2/5 seconds on Monday – the fastest of the morning — in company with Dueling Grounds Derby contender Royal Prince.
Also back from Ellis Park’s Preview Dueling Grounds Oaks is fourth-place finisher Oliviaofthedesert. Trainer Kenny McPeek has enjoyed a lot of success in the Dueling Grounds Oaks, winning in 2019 with Princesa Carolina and in 2017 with Daddys Lil Darlin and coming in second in 2018 with Princess Warrior.
Mark Casse, voted into racing’s Hall of Fame last year and formally inducted this year after a COVID delay, sends out the entry of Woodbine allowance winner Inthewinnerscircle and Earth Strike in the Dueling Grounds Oaks among his seven horses in on Sunday.
A total of 145 horses are on the program for Sunday’s 11-race card, with an extra race added because of the strong demand. There are 124 horses in the body of the races, with another 21 needing defections in order to run. Seven races attracted at least 12 entries. The Dueling Grounds Oaks’ field of nine is the smallest field, with an 11-horse field and a pair of 10-horse fields rounding out the card.
