The surprising cost of renting a horse stall at Churchill Downs during the Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — At Churchill Downs, wherever the Kentucky Derby draws million-dollar horses and planetary attention, the outgo of stabling those prized thoroughbreds is amazingly humble — a world that becomes wide beyond the grandstands and distant from the pageantry.

Here, successful what’s known arsenic the "backside of the Downs," the way operates similar a small, self-contained community, with 47 barns lodging the horses and arsenic galore arsenic 600 workers surviving and moving connected site.

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About 1,400 horses capable the stables crossed the sprawling grounds of Churchill Downs. (Amanda Macias/Fox News Digital)

"Want to instrumentality a conjecture however overmuch it costs to rent 1 of these stalls astatine the astir celebrated racetrack successful the world?" asked Stan Bowling, pb circuit usher astatine the Kentucky Derby Museum.

"$7.50."

That humble regular interest stands successful stark opposition to the high-stakes satellite of thoroughbred racing, wherever millions tin spell into preparing a azygous horse.

"Every morning, from mid-March done the extremity of the year, the horses are going to beryllium retired connected the way grooming betwixt 5:30 and 10 a.m.," Bowling said.

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A presumption of the stables astatine Churchill Downs wherever the lease for a azygous stall costs $7.50. (Amanda Macias/Fox News Digital)

Steering a play cart astir the backside, helium added that by mid-March, astir 1,400 horses are on-site.

The grounds besides see dorms, a chapel and adjacent a tiny schoolhouse — portion of a satellite that runs parallel to the spectacle conscionable steps away.

The backside stretches crossed rows of mostly nondescript stalls, punctuated by a fewer bearing the names of famed horses and their jockeys.

Qualifying horses get successful aboriginal March to set to the way and settee into beingness astatine Churchill Downs, which hosts astir 750 races each year. But nary contention carries the aforesaid value arsenic the Kentucky Derby, affectionately called the "fastest 2 minutes successful sports," the 12th successful a 14-race lineup that anchors the day’s events.

That aforesaid high-stakes concern carries implicit to the instrumentality experience, wherever attending the Kentucky Derby tin travel astatine a steep price.

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A presumption of the Kentucky Derby grandstand astatine Churchill Downs, wherever seats tin scope from $1,000 to much than $400,000. (Amanda Macias/Fox News Digital)

"It’s an costly ticket, I volition assistance you that, but, for astir people, coming to spot the Kentucky Derby is simply a bucket database event," Bowling told Fox News Digital.

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Ticket prices scope from astir $160 for entree to the 26-acre grassy infield, wherever fans ticker the contention connected ample screens, to astir $800 for immoderate of the cheapest grandstand seats — portion luxury experiences supra the way tin apical $400,000.