The 2024 Kentucky Derby has finally arrived, and it is a big one. Saturday’s race will mark the 150th to take place at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY. There will undoubtedly be some additional fanfare to celebrate the sesquicentennial race, but you can also expect the usual Derby fare — outrageous outfits, Mint Juleps, and an exciting race.
There will also be the usual assortment of famous and wealthy individuals in attendance. The Derby, among all its other qualities, is a gathering place for many highly successful individuals, from Tom Brady to Jack Harlow. Even the Queen of England attended back in 2007. Whenever the camera pans ove the crowd during the Derby the audience is almost assured to spot someone rich, famous, or both.
Those people don’t have any trouble attending the Derby, what with their endless bank accounts and all. But what are ticket prices like for the general population?
An Infield General Admission ticket, which gets you in the door, costs $130. This is as basic as basic admission gets for the Derby. You get to go in through the gates to Churchill Downs, receive a program, enjoy what must be an overpriced specialty cocktail, and set up your own lawn chair to watch the Derby itself on the big board.
The next level of GA is listed as an Infield Final Turn General Admission ticket. The price point starts at $275, and it is as advertised. A standing room only ticket that lets you set up shop on the lawn right by the final turn. An exciting place to be, no matter how close the race is, and a fairly reasonable price upgrade compared to the Infield GA ticket.
A higher-level entry price comes in the form of a Frontside Plaza Walkaround ticket, which are already sold out. The starting price listed on the Derby website for such a ticket is $693. Sold as a two-day package for the Kentucky Oaks as well as the Derby, it’s advertised as enjoying “a reimagined view of the Paddock with standing room access and frontside amenities.” Regardless, that’s a pretty penny, to be sure.
After that is when the real money starts rolling. The hospitality suites are all very expensive; the Silks Balcony & Loge, for example, charges $3,650 for entry. The Turf Club Balcony & Terrace costs $3,525 to get in. There are some more semi-reasonable options, such as the Champions Balcony & Loge ($1,775) or the Plaza Balcony & Loge ($1,775).
The nicest listed options appear to be the Woodford Reserve Paddock Club & Enclosure and the Spires Terrace & Suites. Neither has a price listed; interested parties must contact the Derby. As with many sporting events, the “cheap” options aren’t very cheap and the nicest options can run up to thousands of dollars.
That’s just about all you need to know about how much it costs to attend the Kentucky Derby in 2024. Enjoy!
The Kentucky Derby is one of the hardest horse races to bet because it’s unknown territory for the equine competitors. They’ve never run this far and never been part of a field this size. With 20 3-year-olds going 1¼ miles, things can get wild and weird.
But that won’t stop the betting public from trying. It might be a fool’s errand trying to hit the Derby, but it’s also a badge of honor. You have to take a swing, if only for the bragging rights if you somehow get it right.
Accordingly, this is how I would bet $100 in the 150th Run for the Roses on Saturday at Churchill Downs. (Disclaimer: If you unwisely choose to follow my sketchy strategy, that’s a you problem and not a me problem.)
Fierceness is the deserving favorite, and in early wagering, he was bet down from 5–2 to 2–1 as of Thursday afternoon. As is often the case in the gossipy racetrack world, there has been a lot of whispering about whether Fierceness has lost his fastball this week. I’m not buying it.
He’s not physically imposing and isn’t a dazzling morning galloper, but when asked to race, his best is far better than any of his competition. He could, to use a racing term, “bounce” (regress) off his massive Florida Derby effort and still win. Fierceness has the raw speed to get away from early traffic problems as long as he breaks well.
I look for him to be on or near an honest pace before taking command of the race with about five furlongs to go. If the first half mile is run faster than 46 seconds, that will tax the front-runners; if it’s 46 or slower, they’re in good shape. John Velazquez, Fierceness’s excellent jockey, could dictate the early fractions if he gets to the lead without serious pressure.
The win bet: $40 on Fierceness.
Most of the other $60 will go into exotics in search of a bigger payday. I’ll play a $5, three-horse exacta box with Fierceness, Sierra Leone (5–1 as of Thursday afternoon) and Just A Touch (a juicy 14–1). That bet—which calls for two of those three to finish 1-2, in any order—will cost $30.
I’ll also take a swing at a $1 trifecta part wheel, trying to hit the top three finishers. I’ll play Fierceness and Sierra Leone in first with those two, Just A Touch, Catching Freedom (8–1) and Forever Young (8–1) in both the second and third spots. That’s a $24 bet.
I’ll play a $2 Oaks-Derby double, which is picking the winners of both the Kentucky Oaks on Friday and the Derby on Saturday. The wager there will be on Thorpedo Anna in the Oaks and Fierceness in the Derby.
The last four dollars are simply to avoid actively hating myself. I’ll place a $2 win bet on the horse that’s looked good every morning on the track but I don’t have covered otherwise (Santa Anita Derby winner Stronghold at 34–1) and $2 to win on the longest shot on the board (currently Society Man at 59–1). The latter hedge bet is in deference to the Rich Strike fluke-burger win in 2022.
Good luck to everyone. We can all complain about how bad our wagers turn out Saturday night.
Walking by the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle after the biggest victory of his life, trainer Kenny McPeek held the hand of his daughter, Annie. McPeek looked at her and, with his other hand, held his index finger and thumb about three inches apart. That was his assessment of the margin of victory in one of the most dramatic Derbies in the 150-year history of the race.
A three-horse photo finish, the first in the Derby since 1947, turned the 1 1/4-mile race into a withering battle of inches in the final strides. Nobody knew in real time who won—Mystik Dan on the inside, or the hard-charging duo of Sierra Leone and Forever Young in the middle of the track. When the official order of finish was posted it evoked gasps and roars from the Churchill Downs crowd of 156,710, with Mystik Dan declared the winner by a nose over Sierra Leone in second and Forever Young third.
Mystik Dan’s win was a significant upset at odds of 18-1, but the first career Derby win for McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez nearly got away from them at the last second. Hernandez had gotten Mystik Dan clear in the stretch and was seemingly home free, driving for the finish line. Hernandez had no idea what was coming for him.
“Three jumps before the wire,” he said, “I didn’t see them at all.”
Then the pursuers loomed alongside. Sierra Leone and Forever Young waged their own battle and evoked memories of the 1933 “Fighting Finish” Derby, in which the jockeys of Brokers Tip and Head Play engaged in literal hand-to-hand combat in the stretch. Sierra Leone jockey Tyler Gafflione reached out with his left hand to seemingly grab the saddle or reins of Forever Young as they dueled. In the end, they both came up agonizingly short.
Past the wire, Hernandez thought he won but wasn’t sure as Mystik Dan galloped out around the turn. The jockey asked an outrider if the result was official yet, but it wasn’t.
“That was the longest two minutes in sports,” Hernandez said. “From the fastest two minutes (as the Derby is known) to the longest two minutes.”
After that brief eternity, the outrider got the news and relayed it to Hernandez: “You just won the Kentucky Derby.”
That moment capped an epic 25 hours for McPeek and Hernandez, who teamed up to win the Kentucky Oaks Friday with monster filly Thorpedo Anna. McPeek became the first trainer since 1952 to win that double, and Hernandez was the first jockey to do so since 2009. Neither man operates at the highest echelon of horse racing, but they stand astride the sport today.
In the days leading up to those races, McPeek radiated an almost outrageous confidence. “It wouldn’t surprise me if I won both,” he said two weeks ago.
The Oaks unfolded largely as expected Friday, with 4-1 Thorpedo Anna (“a grizzly,” McPeek says) dominating. Then came the harder part Saturday.
McPeek arrived at his Churchill barn at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, opened the back of his Mercedes SUV to let out his dog, and greeted reporters with this line: “Let’s do it again tonight.”
And then they did, with Hernandez delivering a ride that was both smart and daring.
The 38-year-old Louisiana native, who rides regularly at Churchill, got Mystik Dan out of the gate cleanly and steered him from the No. 3 post quickly to the rail for a ground-saving trip. Hernandez kept Mystik Dan tucked into a pocket of clear ground, never farther back than eighth place, settling the colt into an easy stride. “He was just cruising along so nicely and so comfortable,” Hernandez said.
From there, Hernandez drafted behind Track Phantom through the far turn. When Track Phantom drifted just a touch off the rail, Hernandez pounced. He urged Mystik Dan into the hole like a running back finding a sliver of daylight.
Joel Rosario appeared to try to swerve Track Phantom back over to cut him off. The two horses bumped hips but Mystik Dan was undeterred—he’s a smaller horse but still powered through along the rail and cut the corner into the stretch, drawing clear.
“Brian gave us a huge opportunity because we saved ground, saved ground, saved ground,” McPeek said. “And when you look at that photo finish, I think we needed all of it to hold off the two second- and third-place horses.”
It takes incredible nerve to urge a horse into a tight spot at high speed. But the Derby was on the line. It was a now-or-never moment and a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Mystik Dan, far, ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr won the 150th Kentucky Derby.
Matt Stone//Courier Journal / USA TODAY
“We might have took out a little bit of the inside fence, but that's okay,” Hernandez joked.
Hernandez had spent many years at Churchill learning from the master of the inside move, Calvin Borel, who won Derbies aboard Mine That Bird and Super Saver by hugging the rail. The shortest way around the track is as close to the rail as possible.
“As a young kid out of Louisiana, I got the privilege of sitting in the same corner (in the jockeys room) as Calvin Borel,” Hernandez said. “So I got to watch him ride those Derbies all those years. And today, with Mystik Dan being in the three‑hole, I watched a couple of his rides there between Super Saver and Mine That Bird. I said, ‘You know what? We're going to roll the dice.’”
Hernandez rolled sevens, Meanwhile, favored Fierceness rolled snake eyes—getting a favorable trip and pace but fading badly in the stretch to finish 15th. Second choice Sierra Leone came running late, as expected, but couldn’t collar Mystik Dan.
Sierra Leone was a $2.3 million yearling purchase, regally bred and seemingly destined for this moment. Mystik Dan was a homebred owned by Arkansas businessman Lance Gasaway, a former standout small-college wide receiver for the Arkansas-Monticello Boll Weevils who had never gotten a horse to the Derby before.
Asked what he was going to do Saturday night to celebrate, Gasaway said, “Probably drink a lot of alcohol.”
Gasaway got into racing through his father, who died a year ago Saturday. His stable isn’t lavish, but the decision—informed by input from McPeek—to breed their mare, Ma’am, to former Derby runner Goldencents proved to be the master stroke that produced Mystik Dan.
“This isn’t some zillion-dollar operation,” McPeek said. “We didn’t throw money at this. We thoughtfully went through it all, and it’s amazing.”
The 61-year-old McPeek has been around the sport for a long time, rising to within reach of winning a Derby in the 1990s. He finished second in 1995 with Tejano Run and had the 2001 favorite, Harlan’s Holiday, who finished seventh. Meanwhile, the Lexington, Ky., product and University of Kentucky graduate dabbled in things like developing an app (Horse Races Now) for videos of races. He’s always been a racing wonk who loves to talk about the inner workings of the sport.
“My grandfather took me to the races at Keeneland when I was boy,” he said. “Learned how to read a pedigree. Used to go to the Keeneland library and read about good horses. Went to [Kentucky] and found the [agriculture] library—in the basement of the agriculture library, I read every thoroughbred and blood horse record ever printed when I was in college.”
He’s won some big races—the 2002 Belmont, the 2020 Preakness, the Kentucky Oaks on Friday—but the Derby had remained elusive. For a Kentuckian, that was tough. Now, he’s reached the pinnacle.
By a matter of inches. The margin between making history and suffering a staggering defeat was that tiny. The three-horse photo finish in the 150th Kentucky Derby will be talked about in the sport for the next 150 years.
The 150th Kentucky Derby will be run on Saturday, May 4, at the famous Churchill Downs racecourse. The sesquicentennial celebration is shaping up to be a good one, with a loaded field of competitors backed by the always-high energy surrounding the Louisville race track. It should be a memorable race.
As post time approaches, it is important to take stock of the horses the audience will see on the racetrack and the odds each has to win. Part of what makes the Derby so popular is that there are very few regular competitors. The audience is annually introduced to a new grouping of horses and jockeys. There is comfort in the familiar, true, but there's always something special about the Derby and the horse that gets to capture lightning in the bottle yearly.
Here's what this year's crop looks like.
Kentucky Derby Horses 2024
Below is a full list of the 20 horses (and their morning line odds to win, as of time of publication) participating in this year's Kentucky Derby, as per the event's official website.
Fierceness: 5-2 Sierra Leone: 3-1 Catching Freedom: 8-1 Forever Young: 10-1 Just A Touch: 10-1 Dornoch: 20-1 Honor Marie: 20-1 Just Steel: 20-1 Track Phantom: 20-1 Stronghold: 20-1 Reilience: 20-1 Mystik Dan: 20-1 Catalyic: 30-1 T O Password: 30-1 Endlessly: 30-1 Domestic Product: 30-1 Epic Ride: 30-1 Grand Mo The First: 50-1 Society Man: 50-1 West Saratoga: 50-1
Each year, 20 horses are permitted to run in the Kentucky Derby. It was not always this way, however. The first Kentucky Derby, held 150 years ago, had 15 horses in the field and the number fluctuated from year to year until 1974. That year's Derby featured 23 horses, which prompted criticism from assembled media and the jockeys themselves. From 1974 on, the Derby was capped at 20 horses to ensure the field was competitive without putting too many bodies on the racetrack.
It's also part of what makes the Derby unique. Other major horse races, such as the Preakness and Belmot Stakes, have a maximum of 14 horses participating every year. When the question was raised a few years ago of why the Derby stuck with 20 instead of whittling down the field to match other events of its ilk, the length and popularity of the race was cited by Churchill Downs' senior director of communications, per the Courier-Journal.
In short, the Derby's 1 1/4-mile distance permits there to be more horses on the track, and as the capstone event of the year it can be afforded a larger field.
How Does a Horse Qualify For the Kentucky Derby?
To qualify for the 2024 Kentucky Derby, each horse in the field had to run in a series of designated races, titled The Road to the Kentucky Derby. These races, which number in the dozens, take place all over the world between each Derby. The top five horses in each race are awarded a certain number of points.
At the end of the racing season, the top 20 horses in terms of points totaled throughout the year are awarded a post at the Kentucky Derby.
Now you're primed and ready to engage in the horse racing discourse for this year's Kentucky Derby. Enjoy the race.
