Louisville, KY: Churchill Downs Spring Meet (6/7)

Two Saturdays ago we headed down to Louisville to check out Churchill Downs' Spring Meet. There are races all throughout the spring, but we wanted to head to this one because it was on the same day as the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel in the Triple Crown.


The last time I was at the Downs was when I was a small child, and I don't remember any of that trip :)


CD is famous for its twin spires, which you can see from outside the track. We couldn't see them from our seats since we were sitting under them, but if you were out in the infield you would probably be able to.


CD also has a walking pasture where the jockeys mount before heading to the track.





We had some pretty cool seats. Since Eric recruited a few of the other people in his department to go with us, we wound up reserving a whole box. The seats were $10 each and also included the program. (General admission adult tickets are $3 and you'll have to buy the program separately.)



We had a great view! (Thanks, Eric!) We were right past the finish line, so we got to see quite a bit of the race and every finish.


The Downs felt different than Keeneland (not as intimate or as beautiful), noticeably with how much of the race we could see. Even at Keeneland we could see the whole race, even on the other side, but here we actually needed to watch the video board to see what was going on a lot of the time. (PS. See our trip to Keeneland here; we went to their Fall Meet.)




It was still a lot of fun and we had a gorgeous day for horse racing. Luckily our box was under the shade so we didn't get overheated! Also, food and drink prices haven't been completely gouged at horse racing tracks yet, so we could enjoy lunch and some drinks throughout the afternoon.


We stayed at the track for the Belmont Stakes as well, which was the point of going on this day, and it was actually really exciting! They showed the race on all the TVs and giant video board and we could make bets at Churchill Downs for the race at the Belmont. I have some habits when picking numbers -- I'll always pick number 8 and 11 if they are options, which are two of the horses I bet on at the Belmont...and those are the two who placed first and second! So I won a little bit of money (enough to get me back to about breaking even) and it was pretty great.


It's worth checking out the iconic racetrack if you've never been. We liked Keeneland better experience-wise, but I had wanted to go to Churchill Downs for years and am very glad we got to go. (Churchill Downs is an hour closer to us than Keeneland, which was nice too.) You can see what Eric had to say about it too.
Louisville, KY: Churchill Downs Spring Meet (6/7) Louisville, KY: Churchill Downs Spring Meet (6/7) Reviewed by Maria on 3:00:00 PM Rating: 5

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