When NBC Sports assigned Kenny Rice to report live from an empty Churchill Downs on May 2nd of last year, the broadcaster had prepared himself for the oddity of seeing deserted grandstands on the day when the 146th Kentucky Derby should have been run.
It was not until NBC sent Rice and his iPhone to shoot some pictures of the Churchill Downs barns that the Lexington resident felt the full emotional impact of the coronavirus pandemic postponing the Derby.
“There were no horses on the grounds,” Rice says. “Not just there were no Derby horses. There were no horses. That kinda got me. It was surreal.”
With the 147th Kentucky Derby scheduled to go off as originally planned this week, the good news is that there will be a very different scene at Churchill Downs this year on the first Saturday in May.
It is hard not to see the return of the Run for the Roses to its traditional date as the passing of a mile marker in the state of Kentucky’s trip through COVID-19 and back toward normalcy.
“I would call this ‘The Transition Derby’ as we work back toward the normal Derby experience,” says Karl Schmitt, president and CEO of the Louisville Sports Commission.
Terry Meiners, the WHAS-AM 840 afternoon host, says the pre-Derby buzz “is a lot flatter than it usually is. And I think that is just because we are taking baby steps to get society back (to normal).”
Last year, when the Bob Baffert-trained Authentic upset favored Tiz the Law in a September renewal of the Kentucky Derby, only close connections of the participating horses were allowed at Churchill Downs to cheer.
This year, the track has announced that the Derby will feature a crowd capacity of “40 to 50 percent” in the reserved seats.
Due to the pandemic, 2021 Kentucky Derby tickets are “all-inclusive,” meaning they come with food, beverages and parking included. The idea is to limit the amount of coronavirus exposure patrons would face from standing in lines.
Along with the traditional silk hats and loud neckties, the hot Kentucky Derby fashion accessory for 2021 will be face masks.
According to Churchill Downs, “all attendees will be required to follow (COVID-19) safety protocols (which includes the wearing of masks at the track when not eating or drinking) regardless of vaccine status.”
THROWING OUT THE PLAYBOOK
In Louisville, “the Kentucky Derby” is a weeks-long community celebration, not just a one-day, horse race.
After the coronavirus severely curtailed the 2020 Kentucky Derby Festival, organizers have been creative this year in finding ways to bring beloved events back.
“We’ve used the word ‘pivot’ a lot. We’ve done a lot of pivoting,” says Aimee Boyd, the vice president for communications for the Kentucky Derby Festival. “We have done our events one way for a lot of years. This year, we had to throw out our playbook and really start from scratch.”
In a normal year, the Pegasus Parade runs 2 miles down Broadway. This year, a reduced version of the parade covered roughly 60 miles and was held over two days in 35 different neighborhoods.
In a normal year, the “Thunder Over Louisville” fireworks extravaganza draws a massive throng downtown to watch. This year, it became a “made-for-TV” event in which the fireworks were dispersed to various spots around the city.
In a normal year, the Kentucky Derby Marathon and Mini-Marathon are one-day races held on the streets of Louisville. This year, the races were spread over four days to enhance social distancing with a new course designed to minimize traffic disruptions.
“Because we’re still in this pandemic, we knew crowds could not come to our events like they usually do,” Boyd says. “So we had to figure out a way to take our events to people.”
BIG ECONOMIC HIT
The Kentucky Derby disruption of the past two years has come with a steep economic cost.
Churchill Downs, Inc., the parent company of the racetrack, reported a $121.8 million decrease from “the loss of ticket revenue, fewer sponsorships and lower wagering” during the 2020 Kentucky Derby week.
The economic fallout is “not only for the company, Churchill Downs,” says Schmitt, the Louisville Sports Commission executive. “For hotels and restaurants and, heck, the people parking cars in their yards (near the track), the ripple effect is dramatic.”
According to figures provided by Rosanne Mastin of Louisville Tourism, the combined economic impact in 2019 of the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks — with a two-day attendance of some 271,323 — was an estimated $356 million.
Last year, when the events moved to September and were run without fans, that figure fell to just $1.4 million.
INCHING TOWARD ‘NORMAL’
While far below the 150,729 who attended the 2019 Derby, a crowd in excess of 45,000 for this year’s Run for the Roses would yield one of the highest attendance numbers for an American sports event since the pandemic reached critical status last March.
Just this month, Alabama admitted a crowd of 47,218 to see the Crimson Tide’s spring football game. Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers drew 38,238 to their season opener.
Next month, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has announced plans to host some 135,000 fans for the Indy 500. (The cavernous IMS has 250,000 grandstand seats and can accommodate another 150,000 fans in other areas).
“I think what this year’s Derby symbolizes is that we are coming out of COVID,” says Schmitt. “We’re not back to normal, but we are getting there.”
This year, when Rice shows up at Churchill Downs for NBC on the first Saturday in May, there will be a Derby to broadcast, fans on hand to to see it — and the barns will have real-live horses inside.
Says Rice: “I think this all adds to the hope that we are getting closer to normal — whatever normal is.”
KENTUCKY DERBY
When: May 1, 6:57 p.m.
Where: Churchill Downs
Purse: $3 million
