Breeders' Cup

Yes, that one, THE Breeders' Cup. Over the years, the Breeders' Cup has been held in many locations: Churchill Downs, Arlington Park, Belmont Park, and of course, at Santa Anita Park.

We have tickets!

I've already written about going to Santa Anita here, here, and here. But this is different. This is really the big time. This year's event is being held on October 31 and November 1; we're going on the final day.

Getting tickets wasn't impossible, but it wasn't exactly easy either. We signed up for the opportunity to buy our tickets before they went on sale to the public. Given that we ARE the public, I can only wonder at the riff-raff that Santa Anita will sell to once the pre-sale option has closed.

When we've attended the races in the past, we've gone for box seats. They are relatively cheap and offer excellent views. And since there is so much seating available, we only have to buy two seats and get the whole box to ourselves. Remember these seats?

Box Seats at Santa Anita Park

For a total of about $35, we got two seats of the box and no one joined us. We had a TV that showed the races at Santa Anita as well as races at other tracks around the country. The view was spectacular and we had a great view of the finish line.

Tickets for those exact same seats for the Breeders' Cup are $975 per seat, AND patrons must purchase the entire box!!!! Admittedly, it's a two-day package, but most boxes have 6 seats. That's six grand!!!!!!! 

We didn't get those seats.

We normally sit in the Grandstand Reserved Box Seats (dead center). For the Breeders' Cup we'll be sitting in the Club Apron seats (off to the left).

Instead, Hubby tried to find restaurant seats but discovered that patrons must purchase the entire table; those seats were $1050 each. We ate lunch there last time without having to pay for the seats, just the food.

After much searching, Hubby finally opted for the less than glamorous stadium style seating located at the first turn. A large video screen will be placed in the section, and we will be able to see the finish line, but it won't be the view we're accustomed to (wah!). The price for those seats? $125 + an $8.00 processing fee per ticket and a $15 shipping fee per order. 

If you look way to the right in the photo above, you can just sort of see where our seats will be. They're not the best, but the experience of being at such an illustrious event will make up for it. At last year's Breeders' Cup nearly 60,000 people showed up to watch the nine races.

If you're interested in attending this year's Breeders' Cup event, you can check out the seat map and pricing here. The race is a long way off, but we're still excited about it. With the Belmont Stakes just around the corner and California Chrome representing my neck of the woods in such a spectacular fashion, we've got racing fever. 

By the way, we did another online bet for the Preakness and won a few more bucks. We used Hubby's TwinSpires account though which I can recommend for its user-friendly process. We're getting ready to place our next round of bets for the Belmont. Go, California Chrome!

California Chrome winning the Preakness Stakes (internet photo)