Run for the Roses Now a Run for (Big) Money

This year’s Kentucky Derby will be worth $2 million, twice as much as before -- but it will also cost owners more to run in the race.

In announcing Tuesday that the Derby, which will be run May 7, has become a $2-million race, Churchill Downs officials also said that entry and starting fees would be $50,000 a horse, an increase of $20,000.

“We just felt it was time to give a commitment to what the Derby truly is,” said Steve Sexton, president of Churchill Downs.

According to a Daily Racing Form survey, the Derby was only the 55th-richest race in the world last year. The Japan Derby, England’s Epsom Derby and the United Arab Emirates Derby have all been two to three times richer than the Kentucky Derby. At $2 million, the Derby will offer the same purse as two Breeders’ Cup races. The richest race in the U.S. is the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Even at $1 million, the same purse as paid in prep races such as the Florida Derby and the Arkansas Derby, the Kentucky Derby never wanted for entrants. With a limit of 20 horses, Churchill had waiting lists some years. Despite race-week scratches because of injuries, the Derby has averaged nearly 18 starters a year since 1999.

“I don’t know if we raised the purse even higher that we’d attract a different caliber of horses,” Sexton said.

First place in this year’s Derby will be worth $1.24 million. The record for a Derby was set by Fusaichi Pegasus, who earned $888,400 for winning the race in 2000, the year the total purse was $1,188,400, also a record.

The Derby, which went from a $500,000 race to a guaranteed $1 million in 1996, grew in value when one-third of nomination fees for the Triple Crown were added to the purse.

To be eligible for this year’s race, a horse must be nominated, at a cost of $600, by Jan. 22, or for $6,000 by March 26. After the second date, a supplementary payment of $200,000 is required. The supplementary fee, which also makes a horse eligible for the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, the other Triple Crown races, has been raised $50,000.

The Preakness and the Belmont, which became $1-million races in 1998, two years after the Derby, are expected to remain at that figure. There is a $5-million bonus paid to a horse that sweeps the series. The last Triple Crown champion was Affirmed in 1978. With no bonus, he earned $433,680.

The fifth-place horse in the Derby will now earn a piece of the purse. The distribution for second through fifth places will be $400,000, $200,000, $100,000 and $60,000. After expenses, which include entry and starting fees, tickets to the race and travel costs for horse and horsemen, an owner won’t show a profit for finishing fifth, and might even lose money for running fourth.

In boosting the Derby payout, Churchill has eliminated a $125,000 race for 2-year-olds and reduced purses of four other stakes.