From the pink polo shirts to the mint juleps and floppy hats, the Kentucky Derby has always been a sporting event for the upper crust.
And no wonder. Racing horses can cost as much as $2.4 million. They can also yield big returns: the 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify sold for $500,000 as a yearling and is now worth $75 million.
"There's so much excitement in owning Thoroughbred horses — it's the closest thing [people] can be involved with in owning a sports franchise as there is," Bob Elliston, vice president of racing and sales at Keeneland Racing in the world's horse capital of Lexington, Kentucky, previously told Business Insider.
Who can afford these steep prices?
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Business Insider looked at the horse owners using racing database Equibase. Here are the horse tycoons vying to win the gold cup Churchill Downs in the 146th Kentucky Derby on Saturday, September 5. The five winners will share the $3 million in prize winnings, with the first place winner taking home $1.86 million.
All odds were determined using Vegas Insider.
Alyson Penn contributed to an earlier version of this article.
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