Will There Be Good Cheer for Gamblers in the Kentucky Oaks?

Five years after his last triumph in the race, Brad Cox saddles the favorite in the Kentucky Oaks. on May 3. Good Cheer is 6/4 to win the race but there are plenty of other contenders who are determined to give her supporters anything but good cheer.

A win at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, will make it seven out of seven for Good Cheer. Her most recent win came in the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 22. After going off as a short-priced 2/5 favorite, she ran on well to beat Ahavah by three-and-a-half lengths. 

That was another wide-margin win for Good Cheer who has not seen a rival finish closer than two-and-a-half lengths behind her in six races. Her winning streak is one Miami Heat would be proud of. It includes a 17-length victory in an allowance race at Churchill Downs. 

Three of her wins have come on that track so it will be nothing new to her in May when the filly heads there for the Kentucky Oaks hoping to do as well as Thorpedo Anna did when winning this race last year.

Despite her dominance in races, there have been some critics keen on pointing out a not very significant improvement in speed now the filly is a three-year-old. Cox is not too worried about that and defended the favorite by saying Good Cheer has “beat who we’ve asked her to run against and she’s done it the right way.” His view is that the Kentucky Oaks favorite is “class” and “just very different, mentally.”

Second in the betting market is Quietside at 7/1. The John Alexander Ortiz runner failed to win any of her last three races as a two-year-old with just one success on debut at Saratoga. Her final race as a two-year-old saw her finish second, two-and-a-quarter lengths behind Good Cheer, 

Another place was achieved in her first race of 2025 but it’s gone much better since then. Quietside won the Grade 3 Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn Park in February. The following month saw her return to the track to win the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes. 

Bettors using digital horse betting racing platforms could get quite serious over Simply Joking who is third in the betting market at 10/1. After a winning debut, this filly was second to Quietside in the Fantasy Stakes but just three-quarters-of-a-length behind the winner. If there is more improvement to come from this lightly raced runner, she could at least run into a place and possibly reverse form with Quietside.

Bob Baffert has trained the winner of the Kentucky Oaks three times. The first of those wins came in 1999 and the most recent with Abel Tasman eight years ago. This year his big hope is Tenma who has won five of her six races.

The latest victory came in the Santa Anita Oaks run on April 5 finishing ahead of stablemate Silent Law by two-and-a-quarter lengths. Her only loss was in last October’s Oak Leaf Stakes  Baffert was impressed by the way Tenma settled in what was a speedy race and added: “She is becoming more professional as we go.”

Ballerina D’Oro is a 12/1 shot but didn’t win any of her first three races. Success finally came at the fourth time of asking when winning the Grade 3 Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct. The winning distance was only a nose though but the Chad C Brown trained runner could improve for that effort.

Five G needs to reverse form with Quietside after coming second to that runner in the Honeybee Stakes.  On that occasion though, Five G was giving the winner 5lbs. March 29 saw the George Weaver trained runner win the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks and is now 12/1 to win this race.

Some runners keep knocking on the door without being able to get in. Eventually though, they get it right and end up being a winner. Could that be the case with Easy On?  Her debut didn’t go well and the filly was six lengths behind Yougottahaveahope. Since that poor display, Easy On has been trained by Saffie A Joseph jr. 

Three more races have been run and still no win. The first two were lost by a combined margin of a length-and-a-half. Her most recent run produced a second behind Ballerina d’Oro at Aqueduct, losing out by just a nose. Could the Kentucky Oaks be the race when it all comes good? It’s 14/1 that Easy On wins.

The form certainly points to Good Cheer winning the 2025 Kentucky Oaks. Racing is full of surprises though and at such a short price, you may well want to look for some value in a runner such as Five G or Tenma.