Off & Running to Louisville

If you’ve got a last minute itch to head off to Louisville Kentucky for the 134th Run for the Roses this Saturday, chances are slim that you’ll score tickets at this late date. Tickets for the next year go on sale on Monday, and all 55,000 seats are usually gone by September and cost from $50 to $600.

And get this: you must write to Churchill Downs for tickets and mail it in the postal mail, the snail mail. Tickets are not sold on-line or over the phone. How’s that for tradition?

Your best chance for getting into the Derby this year is to show up at Churchill Downs in the wee hours Saturday morning and wait for approximately 30,000 tickets to go on sale. These tickets don’t include a seat, just standing room in the infield and paddock area. It’s been described as a place where spring break meets Mardi Gras. As one Derby goer observed, “you see a lot in the infield, but not a lot of horses.”

But all of that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t head for Louisville anyway. There’s more to enjoy in Louisville than mint juleps and big hats. More than 70 events in the weeks leading up to the Derby, including North America’s largest fireworks display, which was actually held on April 12, brings more than 1.5 million people to the city to celebrate. Come for the steamboat race, the parade, the marathon or the balloon festival, along with dozens of luncheons, dances and social hoopla.

Of course, throughout the year, you can visit Churchill Downs and pay $1 to sit in the grandstand and watch horses work out. Or pay $10 to visit the museum that documents the life of a Kentucky Derby winner from the day of birth to old age. The $10 admission fee is well-worth it just for the introductory film that brings some visitors to tears with the singing of “My Old Kentucky Home,” a tradition to be sung on race day.

You can also climb up on horses in the starting gate or race against a friend on plastic store-front style horses on an interactive track. Or get up close and personal with the real thing on a “Barn and Backside Tour” offered March through November, with the exception of a few race weeks. And plan for lunch at the Derby Café where mint juleps are sold year round, unlike at most other restaurants and bars in the city.

But if you are planning to head out this weekend and wager a bet at the track, remember to take cash, and plenty of it. Bets are made in cash only from $2 to, well, just how lucky are you feeling?

To answer any question other than that, visit www.gotolouisville.com.

–Diana Lambdin Meyer, RED Travel Writer