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!
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.
Never televised in prime time and hardly known outside racing circles, the 4-year-old is favored for a grand opening, and grand finale, in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup....
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.
