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How much do tickets to the Kentucky Derby cost?

By Shea Corrigan

LOUISVILLE, KY - APRIL 28: Flameaway (left), trained by Mark Casse, exercises in preparation for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on April 28, 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Scott Serio/Eclipse Sportswire/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KY - APRIL 28: Flameaway (left), trained by Mark Casse, exercises in preparation for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on April 28, 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Scott Serio/Eclipse Sportswire/Getty Images) /
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Kentucky Derby ticket prices range from $80 to $15,000, depending on whether you splurge for the elite treatment or take your chances in the infield.

If you plan on making an appearance at Churchill Downs for the run for the roses, you better be prepared to pay up. General admission tickets — which essentially only provide access to the infield and no guaranteed view of the race — go for $80 day-of. Reserved seats — only available on resale for 2018 — start at $453 and range all the way to $3,530. Reserved seats with hospitality (all-inclusive food and drink) tickets start at $816 and range all the way to $36,000 when you start buying whole tables. According to VividSeats, who recently released an in-depth report on changes in Kentucky Derby ticket prices, a seat on Millionaire’s Row costs on $6,780.

General admission tickets start at $60, if you buy them between Nov. 17 and December 31. Then, Jan. 1 to April 22, Derby tickets are $70. The increase incrementally — to $75 — for those final two weeks before settling at $80 for day-off tickets. These are all, of course, starting price points for general admission — before fees and not reflecting the resale market.

A GA ticket gets you in the gate and to the betting windows, but not much else. You have access to the infield, but the infield of the Kentucky Derby is generally regarded to be a disaster with certainly no guaranteed view of the races.

Should you decided to splurge you very quickly hit triple digits and it is but a hop, skip and a jump into four-figures for the suite life.

Technically, the tiers are GA, reserved outdoor seating ($340-500), outdoor seating with hospitality, which means “all-inclusive food and beverage” (in the Angry Orchard Club, the Courtyard, the Vineyard Vines Club or the Plaza Balcony — prices ranging $816 per person to $6,300 per table), all-inclusive dining, which is hospitality in an indoor dining room ($2,750 per person or $36,000 per table), then corporate hospitality and private suites, for which prices are not even listed online.

Next: 20 short stories about the 2018 Kentucky Derby horses

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