What is the Kentucky Oaks?
By Zoe West
While it doesn’t have the national clout of the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks has its own special place on the racing stage.
Like about 99 percent of professional sports, horse racing is often divided by gender. In this case, because the more important athletes are the horses, that is where the gender line is drawn. While these rules ban colts (young, un-neutered male horses) from competing in the Oaks and similar races, they do not ban fillies (or young female horses) from competing in the Derby or other “open” age group races.
While fillies are allowed to compete in the Derby and the other Triple Crown races, relatively few do so. Rather, many of them compete in the Kentucky Oaks.
The Kentucky Oaks is essentially the Derby’s little sister. The Oaks began in the same year as the Derby (1875) and was actually founded by the same people. It takes place on the Friday before the Derby, and in some ways is the opening of Derby weekend festivities.
One of the key differences between the Derby and the Oaks (in terms of the actual races) is distance. The Kentucky Derby is held at the so-called “classic” distance of 1 1/4 miles. At this point it is the distance for the biggest races (the Derby and Breeders Cup) and a fairly common one for so-called “handicap” races that most horses begin competing in during the summer of their three-year-old year (unless they retire first).
The Oaks, on the other hand, is run over 1 1/8 miles. This is the same length as many of the prep races for the Derby (such as the Santa Anita and Arkansas Derbies) but still the longest race most of these fillies have run so far in their lives. One and 1/8 miles is the same length as most of the major races for fillies and mares, such as the Breeders Cup Distaff.
The Oaks is also not a part of the Filly Triple Crown, or the Triple Tiara. Those three races are all held over the summer, so they are not exact equivalents of the Triple Crown. Instead it is just another stakes race, albeit one that gets more media attention than many others, because of its “big brother.”
The Kentucky Oaks will be run on May 4 at approximately 6:12 p.m. ET.
Next: 20 short stories about the 2018 Kentucky Derby horses
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