LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Can the Kentucky Derby be everything for everyone?
Probably not. But can it live somewhere between what it was and what it's become?
A man leaned against the rail Saturday, waiting on Race 3 to begin on a chilly Kentucky Derby morning. He traveled to Louisville from California, a dream trip he'd waited a lifetime for.
"This is surreal," he said, turning to look up at the towering Twin Spires above. "I never thought I'd be here."
Churchill Downs' endless transformation has fundamentally changed what the first week in May looks like, feels like and costs. For some, it's still the old horse race in the south end. For others, it's an item to check off the bucket list — full of mint juleps, Instagram photos and a story to tell.
In 2024, as Churchill Downs opened its brand new $200 million paddock, WDRB's legendary columnist Eric Crawford saw the opulence — as well as the accessibility it'd begun to sacrifice — and likened it to "Derbyland," Louisville's shiny beacon for the world.
"It's Cinderella's Castle with betting windows," Crawford wrote. "It's Tinker Bell, in cowboy boots, with a fascinator."
Louisvillians of a certain age are quick to tell you how it used to be. Everyone longs for the days gone by, but Kentucky Derby nostalgia hits differently. From the street parties along Central Avenue to the debauchery of the infield, Louisville natives can still see — and smell — those days at the track.
It stopped being a neighborhood party years ago. Today, it's evolved, more like the Masters or the Super Bowl than the Indianapolis 500. It's a much harder ticket and a much larger spectacle. The man on the rail is the typical Kentucky Derby fan in 2026. It's much easier to find people this day from Texas and Maine than St. Matthews and Fern Creek.
But while some long for what was, there's a younger crowd just now learning what the race means to Louisville's identity in this new era. They grew up with American Pharoah and Justify, not Secretariat and Seattle Slew, and they embrace the see-and-be-seen environment the Kentucky Derby Week now amplifies. After all, this is now a lifestyle event for social media as much as it is a horse race, and that's just fine for them.
"There is something so magical about being here the week of Derby, a Louisville woman in her 30s said Thursday. "There's magic in the air. … I feel so much pride, growing up here and being here."
'A Kentucky tradition'
In the 21st century, the only constant at Churchill Downs is change, and it seems as though it'll never end. Within the next few years, the track said it expects to complete $920 million in new projects. Work will begin soon to fully enclose the area between the grandstand and the First Turn. And it previously announced plans to build three massive permanent structures in the infield to add 7,000 "premium experiences" and dedicated space for general admission guests.
Long gone are the days of college kids snagging cheap general admission tickets to experience the magic of the Derby. The target audience has changed.
"There's a long waiting list of people wanting to get in through the doors," track spokesperson Darren Rogers said when those projects were announced in 2025.
But the changes put even more distance between the experience in your memory and the one Churchill Downs seeks to create. "If you build it, they will come" doesn't just apply to a cornfield in Iowa. If the Kentucky Derby left its roots in the rearview mirror, it's only because the company saw the dollar signs and leaned all the way in.
To its credit, though, just as Churchill Downs made changes to Oaks and Derby, it tried to invest in everything else. Cheaper tickets and thinner crowds make 502'sDay, Winsday and Thurby feel like the locals' new days at the track. And for a week leading up to the big money-making days, Dawn at the Downs welcomes anyone through the front gates for free to stand close enough to touch the champion thoroughbreds trotting by.
A couple standing above the paddock Thursday represent that change. The man said he'd been coming for decades, since he was a teenager, and was there when Secretariat set a record in 1973 that still stands 53 years later. But that was a long time ago, and differences are stark.
"I used to come on Derby Day and Oaks Day, and now it's backed up to Thurby because of costs and crowds and everything," he said. "But I still love being part of the action. The scenery — the outfits and everything — is so much better than it was years ago. I do miss just having the Twin Spires and not all the other suites and everything that cover it up. But it's still a Kentucky tradition, and we love coming every year."
Crawford said it two years ago, staring at that sweet — or suite — new paddock: "This one week a year, I also try to appreciate the desire of so many people from so many places to be part of this sporting castle in our midst."
There's a feeling today that the Derby left the city behind. Nostalgia is a powerful drug. But walking around Churchill Downs this week, it's still hard to ignore the pride that remains in people who love Louisville. This thing — their thing — brings the world to town and blows them away.
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