The Kentucky Derby, the most famous horse race in the United States, which draws 150,000 spectators to the venerable Churchill Downs track, will be held this year with fans in the stands, officials said Thursday.
“The Run for the Roses,” which is normally held on the first Saturday in May, had to be delayed until September 5 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Churchill Downs President Kevin Flanery said Thursday that he had been in Check with the Governor of Kentucky. Andy Beshear and state health officials on the decision to take viewers to the track that day.
“We are going to conduct Derby Week with the fans,” Flanery told reporters at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. “It will be a different experience. This is a different year.”
Flanery did not give a specific number when asked how many fans would be allowed to enter Churchill Downs that day, when the world’s best 3-year-old horses galloped 1 1/4 miles in a race called “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports.” . “
I would just say there will be “reduced capacities throughout the facility.”
The race typically draws about 150,000 spectators, about 60,000 of them in permanent and reserved seats, and the rest in general admission.
Race officials hope to reduce general admission by more than 60 percent and reduce the number of reserved seats by up to 50 percent.
The 60,000 reserved seats have already been purchased and the track hopes to get enough voluntary returns to achieve its goal.
“We are in the process of contacting each of the seat holders to discuss their interest in attending: Do they still want the seats?” Churchill Downs spokesman Darren Rogers told NBC News on Thursday.
General admission holders on September 5 will remain at the Churchill Downs campus. In normal years, a GA ticket could also give a fan access to much of the facility’s first floor.
The entire Churchill Downs facility is 1.6 million square feet, and Flanery said he believes fans can safely attend. But he added that plans for September 5 are still being developed.
“We will continue to be agile,” he said. “We will stick to the facts as they are at the moment. But we have to make plans.”
Kentucky is among those states that have met the World Health Organization recommended test positivity rate of 5 percent or less to continue their businesses. Kentucky seven-day rolling rate was 3.82 percent as of Thursday morning.
The state is also in the bottom half in terms of deaths and infections per capita.
Representatives for Gov. Andy Beshear and Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Other changes fans will see at Churchill Downs that day, authorities said, will include:
- Buffets are being removed from the “chef’s table” and points will be distributed from other food sales.
- All tickets will be mobile, to limit contact between fans and employees.
- The lines in the betting windows will have markers to keep fans at a distance and Internet access will be strengthened to make it easier for attendees to place bets via cell phones.
- All employees will wear masks and some will put on gloves, while fans will also be asked to cover their faces.
But Flanery failed to make the masks mandatory for fans.
“We are going to encourage everyone to wear the mask,” he said. “We will work with people. We will encourage them to do so. We will gently remind people.”
The Kentucky Derby is usually the first of three races in the Triple Crown of horse racing, followed by the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
This year, Belmont’s bets were placed first. Tiz the Law won last Saturday, in front of empty stands at Belmont Park in Queens, New York.
The Preakness, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, has been rescheduled for October 3.
