Kentucky Derby

During Derby weekend, there are winners off the track

[This is a slightly different version of a story we prepared first for NBC News; photo courtesy Louisville Tourism)

The Kentucky Derby, long known as “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” may be on its way to becoming some of the most expensive two minutes in sports.

Ticket prices for the iconic horse race have more than tripled over the past decade, from an average of $378 in 2014 to $1,254 this year on the resale market as of April 22, according to booking platfrom TicketSmarter.

That could reflect strong demand for the race’s 150th anniversary, but it’s also partly because Louisville’s Churchill Downs Racetrack has worked to lure spendier customers through its gates. The facility has shaken up its seating and poured $200 million into a renovation that debuts at this year’s Derby and upgrades such as “a new luxury equine-focused dining experience.”

“We’ve had pushback from locals about being priced out,” said Thomas Lambert, an economist who studies the equine industry at the University of Louisville’s College of Business, but he added that catering to high rollers tends to be good business across the gaming and hospitality industry.Not only are wealthier attendees more likely to gamble “a decent amount,” Lambert said, but “just to say that they have been to the Derby, they will pay extreme prices because of their disposable personal income.”

While the Downs sells one-day general admission infield tickets starting at $275, reserved seating can climb to four figures, with the most exclusive private suites going for $295,000 for multi-year bookings. Much of the reserved seating is now sold only as part of two-day all-inclusive passes for both the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks, the sister race held the day before.

Benefits for businesses, at the track and off

So far, the premium push looks to be paying off. “Ticket sales, including throughout our new seating areas, have exceeded our expectations,” Churchill Downs CEO William Carstanjen told investors last week.

Outside the Downs, the annual flurry of business activity is chasing a less high-end Derby dollar that has been stretched by inflation.

(Courtesy Plehn’s Bakery)

Prices at Plehn’s Bakery, which turns 100 this year, are up about 5% since 2023, said co-owner Jennifer Brownlee, but there’s no premium charged during Derby Week, when business usually doubles.

“Our costs have gone up more than that, but we worry about taking too big of a jump because we’re not a necessity,” she said.

In addition to supplying the buns used by many local caterers, Plehn’s sells a slew of Derby-themed desserts — from cookies shaped like horse heads to cakes topped with little plastic horses.

In the central region of the South that includes Kentucky, inflation hit an annual rate of 4% in March, hotter than the 3.5% national average.

Wiltshire Pantry owner Susan Hershberg said price pressures in Louisville have been “brutal,” but she suspects the Downs’ expanded all-inclusive offerings have weighed on her business, too.While she used to field 400 to 500 boxed lunch orders each day during Derby Week, “this year I only have orders for several hundred boxes, and some people are taking them to Derby parties, not to the track,” she said.

Prices are staying put all the same. “The people who buy the boxed lunches are my regular customers,” Hershberg said, “and right now we’re eating the difference, because there’s only so much sticker-price shock people can handle.”

(Courtesy Pix Shoes Louisville)

Carol Hampton, who owns Pix Shoes Louisville, said her costs are up as well. She added that rival milliners buy her hats, fascinators and other accessories and sell them at a markup, but moving large volumes helps her keep prices down.

“People pick and choose what they want to do with their money,” Hampton said. “They want to look nice, they want to shine, and I help them do that. I just don’t rob them.”

She estimated 150 customers visited the 50-year-old downtown shop on Thursday alone and expects to sell over 8,000 pieces of fancy headgear by the end of the weekend.

The Derby is forecast to deliver a more than $405 million boost to the local economy, a Louisville Tourism spokesperson said. While that would be a jump from around $402 million in 2023, attendance at the race itself is still on a post-pandemic climb back toward its record of 170,000 in 2015, when that year’s eventual Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah, was running.More than 150,000 people are expected at the Downs this year, after a dozen horeses died following injuries around the 2023 Derby.

While investigators didn’t identify a single cause, the Louisville racetrack has stepped up its safety protocols amid heightened scrutiny of the sport’s practices.

Attendance at the other two legs of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore and the Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York, also have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels (though Belmont Park lowered its capacity cap in 2022).Lambert, the economist, chalked up some of the Derby’s resilience to its distinctive fanfare: “The equestrian lifestyle, the Southern charms, the hats, the mint juleps, etc. — it’s all turned on dramatically to get the tourists here.”

And tourists need places to park. Like many of his neighbors who live down the street from the track, 39-year-old Daniel Harvey is offering parking on his property during Derby weekend.“It’s my fourth year doing this,” said Harvey, who’s been charging $40 on Friday and Saturday “It’s fairly easy work and an opportunity to make money.” He can fit about 11 cars on his property, which he advertised on Facebook Marketplace, with discounts for booking a spot early.

Aileen Nova Jackson, who will turn 89 in a few weeks and has lived in the neighborhood for 55 years, has been at it much longer than Harvey. She has room for about 15 cars and people who come back each year. She takes reservations and cash, but no credit cards or checks.

These days Jackson lets her son do the parking while she sits in a chair collecting money and chatting with guests. She is charging $80 for cars, $100 for SUVs and $300 for buses and RVs, adding that her prices have risen this year, citing inflation.“When I started it was $2 a car,” Jackson said.

After all these years, though, she’s never been to a Derby.

Travel Tidbits heading into the weekend

Louisville Airport welcomes Kentucky Derby fans

The Kentucky Derby will take place on schedule this year on Saturday, May 1 and Louisville Muhammad International Airport (SDF) is decked out and ready to welcome Derby guests with lots of fresh roses.

PHX has COVID-19 shots

Airports everywhere are continuing their “keep clean things clean” campaigns. Touchless tech helps, and we see Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) just added touchess/wave-to-call elevator buttons.

Places We’d Go… Cleveland

Cleveland is hosting the NFL Draft, with lots of bonus activities.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has a new exhibit celebrating the Super Bowl Halftime Show music and performers.

The Biggest Show on Turf: 55 Years of Halftime Shows will be on exhibit through September 21 and includes performance outfits, instruments, and set pieces, including Prince’s turquoise suit worn during his unforgettable purple-rained 2007 performance, where he asked production managers “Can you make it rain harder?” and Katy Perry’s beach-ball inspired costume and “Left Shark” that ignited a pop culture phenomenon after her 2015 performance.



What’s up at Kentucky’s Louisville Int’l Airport?


To celebrate Minth Julep Month – and the Kentucky Derby, where the Mint Julep is the official cocktail – the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport has created a living wall with more than 700 fresh mint plants.

Here’s a video of the installation.

This week the airport also hosted a party, with this great cake. The occasion: a celebration of the inaugural American Airlines flight from SDF to Los Angeles International Airport.

Here’s are some of the other reasons we’re celebrating SDF airport this week:

They have a mascot named Skye. They just opened a new room for nursing mothers. And the post-security Distillery District Marketplace enables travelers to buy Kentucky-distilled spirits to take home.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo at O’Hare; Kentucky Derby at CVG and Louisville

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-3418-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Courtesy New York Public Library, via Flickr Commons

Travelers passing through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport get to celebrate Cinco de Mayo a day early.

Today, Thursday, starting at 3:30 between the H and K concourses near Tortas Frontera, there will be a live mariachi band, a flair bartender giving margarita demos and tastings, giveaways and a musical dance performance. All courtesy HMSHost.

And from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), the folks from Seven Oaks Farm will be bringing by their miniature-therapy horses decked out in Derby attire, because this weekend is the 143rd Kentucky Derby.  Can’t wait to see what they’ll be wearing!

 

 

And to celebrate the Kentucky Derby, on Thursday and Friday at Louisville International Airport arriving passengers will be welcomed by live music and greeters offering complimentary Woodford Reserve Bourbon Balls in the terminal’s airside rotunda.

A bugler’s “Call to the Post,” which usually signals the arrival of horses on the racetrack for their race, announces the arrival of bags at baggage claim carousel.

And, for those who may be leaving Louisville with souvenir bottles of bourbon and Derby glasses in their checked luggage, the airport ambassadors will have complimentary bubble-wrap packing stations set up near  the airline ticket counters on Sunday, May 7, beginning at 4 a.m.

 

Souvenir Sunday at Louisville International Airport

If you’re a horse racing fan you know by now that I’ll Have Another, at 15-1 odds, won the 138th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

Whether you bet right or not, if you’re heading home through Louisville International Airport you can pick up some fun Derby-related souvenirs.

Airport officials tell me that, at the Churchill Downs specialty shop, a favorite souvenir is an authentic horseshoe from Churchill Downs, especially those that still have some dirt from the racetrack.

Other souvenirs include official mint julep glasses, Derby-themed aprons decorated with brightly colored jockey silks and treats made from Kentucky’s signature bourbons, including Woodford Reserve bourbon balls, Mint Julep taffy and bourbon bark.

For those heading out from the airport on Sunday, May 6, Robert Joyner, artist of this year’s Kentucky Derby print, will be at the Churchill Downs shop from 10 to 11 a.m. to sign prints. And, for kids of any age, there will be a chance to meet Churchill Charlie (the mascot of Churchill Downs) between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.