How Covid-19 put an unheard-of Oklahoma track at the centre of the racing world

Andrew Beyer, the guru of racing form and figures in the US, sums up the attitude of most people when asked about Will Rogers Downs.

“It’s as foreign to us as it is to you,” he says. “It’s a track that would not have been on the radar screen of most American racing fans.”

Yet, for the past two months until its meeting concluded this week, Will Rogers Downs has been the cornerstone of racing coverage and betting across at least two continents, after the coronavirus pandemic plucked a provincial racecourse tucked away in the north-east corner of Oklahoma and placed it at the centre of the horseracing universe in America and Europe.