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 156th running of the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the 2024 Triple Crown, will take place on Saturday afternoon in Saratoga Springs, NY.
The race will certainly feel a little different this year in Saratoga rather than Belmont Park, as the race has temporarily moved due to a $455 million renovation to the Belmont track.
Saturday's race will have a different feel not only in location, but in distance. Since the race will take place at Saratoga Race Course, it will be a much shorter running than the usual 1.5 mile sprint.
Instead of being the longest race of the Triple Crown, it will be 1.25 miles this year, which is the same distance as the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
Now that we got the background of this year's unique Belmont Stakes out of the way, here's some additional pertinent information about Saturday's race itself.
This year's Belmont will feature both the winner of the Kentucky Derby, Mystik Dan, as well as the winner of the Preakness Stakes, Seize The Grey.
However, the morning line favorite at the Belmont Stakes is neither of the two previous Triple Crown race winners. Instead, it's Sierra Leone, who is a 9-5 betting favorite.
Below is a list of all the horses competing in the 2024 Belmont Stakes, along with their morning line odds, courtesy of the Belmont Stakes' official website.
Seize The Grey: 8-1
Resilience: 10-1
Mystik Dan: 5-1
The Wine Steward: 15-1
Antiquarian: 12-1
Dornoch: 15-1
Protective: 20-1
Honor Marie: 12-1
Sierra Leone: 9-5
Mindframe: 7-2
Saturday's post time for the 156th Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course is at 6:41 p.m. ET.
The 2024 Belmont Stakes will be nationally televised live on Fox.
Sports Illustrated Studios, a division of Authentic Studios, in partnership with Spyglass Media Group, will produce an exclusive documentary on the life of renowned female horse jockey Julie Krone, the entertainment company announced on Thursday.
The documentary will highlight the numerous accomplishments of Krone, who is the only female jockey to win a Triple Crown race when she rode Colonial Affair to victory in the 1993 Belmont Stakes. Disaster would strike shortly thereafter however, as Krone was thrown from her horse and trampled during a race later that year, leaving her with devastating injuries and a fight for her life.
Krone returned to the saddle in 1994 after months of rehabilitation and healing, and went on to ride competitively for another decade. She bookended her career by becoming the first woman to win a Breeders' Cup race in 2003. She concluded her illustrious tenure with 3,704 professional wins and was the first woman inducted into the Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York.
"We are thrilled to bring Julie's incredible story to audiences across the world," Colin Smeeton, the president of Authentic Studios said in the press release. "Her resilience, skill, and passion have left an indelible mark on the sport of horse racing and serve as an inspiration to athletes everywhere."
The release date of the documentary has yet to be announced.
Sports Illustrated Cover Horse Racing: Closeup portrait of jockey Julie Krone (7) at Aqueduct Race Track. Jamaica, NY 4/18/1989 CREDIT: Heinz Kluetmeier (Photo by Heinz Kluetmeier /Sports Illustrated) (Set Number: X38124 TK5 ) / Sports Illustrated Cover
On Wednesday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency issued a news release that raised eyebrows and revived suspicions in thoroughbred racing. In the first four months of 2024, the CBP’s Port of Cincinnati office intercepted eight shipments of venom from snakes, scorpions and spiders, plus other substances used as performance enhancers in horses.
The venoms have been used at racetracks as numbing agents for horses, allowing them to run through injuries. The shipments were coming from Mexico, according to the release, and some were headed to people “with nexus to racing or other horse performance venues.”
With the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, this drug bust was another periodic reminder of the drug cloud and attendant equine safety issues that hover over horse racing. So was the recent New York Times documentary, “Broken Horses,” which examined the spates of equine deaths that rocked the sport last year—including 12 at Churchill Downs in the weeks before and after the Derby, which led to an unprecedented shutdown and relocation of the track’s spring meet. And there was the news from Oaklawn Park in Arkansas about two horses under the care of trainer Tim Martin who died suddenly this week.
There are many people attempting to clean up the sport, and progress has been made. The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) is making strides as a regulatory body, though resistance persists in some corners. In general, racetrack equine deaths have declined over time (though there was a slight rise last year, up from 1.25 per 1,000 starts in 2022 to 1.32 in ’23). It’s harder now to sweep aside horse deaths without some measure of accountability.
But controversies past and present are always close at hand. Take a glance at the entries for the Derby, and a couple of names provide context for the inner conflicts of racing.
One is trainer Saffie Joseph, who will saddle Catalytic in the Run for the Roses. Last year at this time, Joseph was sent packing from Churchill after two of his horses died suddenly, Parents Pride and Chasing Artie. Joseph was suspended and his Derby colt, Lord Miles, was not allowed to run. “I was a scapegoat,” Joseph said at the time, inferring that the track had to find someone to punish amid a cluster of pre-Derby horse deaths.
By the end of June, Joseph had been reinstated at Churchill after a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission investigation. "We remain deeply concerned about the condition of Parents Pride and Chasing Artie that led to their sudden death,” said Bill Mudd, president and chief operating officer of Churchill Downs, Inc. “However, given the details available to us as a result of the KHRC investigation, there is no basis to continue Joseph's suspension.”
Joseph, who said he has never spoken to Churchill CEO Bill Carstanjen, is wondering where he needs to go to have his reputation restored after necropsies of the horses did not conclude anything nefarious.
“It crushes you,” he says. “I’m glad everything worked out and the truth was revealed. One of the horses had rat poison in it—they said that the level wasn’t enough to cause it, but they’re not going to say that. But if you look at the report, it says that. Did that cause it? We don’t know.
“I knew we didn’t do anything. It destroys you.”
Kentucky Derby horse Track Phantom is co-owned by Brewster and trained by Steve Asmussen.
Matt Stone/The Courier Journal / USA
Another name: Clark Brewster, part owner of Derby runner Track Phantom. He’s better known in racing as Bob Baffert’s voluble, caustic and contentious lawyer.
Baffert is the biggest trainer in the sport and also a current pariah at Churchill. He won a record-breaking seven Kentucky Derbys but had to give the last one back, the 2021 triumph by Medina Spirit, which was stripped after the horse tested positive for a prohibited race-day medication. That has spurred an endless feud between Baffert and Carstanjen.
Baffert initially was assessed a two-year ban from competition at Churchill, knocking him out of the 2022 and ’23 Derbys. Baffert sued Churchill in March ’22, but the case was dismissed last year. Then last July, the suspension was extended another year, with a Churchill release saying that "Mr. Baffert continues to peddle a false narrative concerning the failed drug test of Medina Spirit … A trainer who is unwilling to accept responsibility for multiple drug test failures in our highest-profile races cannot be trusted to avoid future misconduct."
That showdown added another chapter this spring when Amr Zedan, owner of the Baffert-trained standout Muth, attempted to sue his way into this Derby. That suit, which cited “Carstanjen egomania” in arguing that Baffert was being unfairly punished, also was unsuccessful. But Muth looms as a potential Preakness favorite and Triple Crown spoiler two weeks after the Derby.
On the slight chance that long-shot Track Phantom wins the Derby, keep the cameras rolling on Brewster. If he encounters Carstanjen in the winner’s circle it could be spicy.
Churchill Downs has gone to massive lengths to gussy itself up for the 150th Derby, sinking $200 million into remodeling its paddock area. The result is a three-level masterpiece of modern architecture that dramatically modernizes the place. It is primarily targeted for use one weekend a year by the rich, of course, but will also be enjoyed and appreciated by everyday racegoers for years to come.
There is change on the other side of the grandstand as well, less glamorous but more closely aligned to the survival of horse racing: The dirt racing surface has been redone. It’s darker and, some trainers said in recent days, deeper than it had been. A new fleet of tractors harrow the dirt between races and during morning training hours, and new methods of testing the track have been implemented. The horses are wearing biofeedback sensors that can help spot issues with stride and potentially flag developing injuries. A safety management committee composed of trainers, jockeys and other track workers meets once a week.
How much will all that help? It remains to be seen. But the changes are a tacit acknowledgment that the one thing that can kill horse racing is the killing of horses.
