Breeders' Cup 2015

I GOT TICKETS!

While most wouldn't think so much about the fact that I got tickets to the Breeders' Cup 2015 World Championships, it is a HUGE accomplishment and a most interesting story!  First, to be able to go to the "Super Bowl" of thoroughbred racing is a cool enough fact in and of itself.  But, I've been to eight of them (at three different venues), so that's not what makes this so unique.  This coming fall the Breeders' Cup will be held at historic Keeneland Race Track in Lexington, Kentucky for the first time ever.  Keeneland is over 75 years old and is the site of the most prestigious sales in the industry every year.  Their Fall Championship meeting serves as a major prepping ground for the Breeders' Cup every year, and their Spring meet sets the stage for the Triple Crown season, as well as serving a bridge between championship racing at Gulfstream in the winter and then the big summer races.  So, again, that's all well and good, but what's the big deal?  Well, here's the big deal.....as you can see above, there is very limited seating available.  And this becomes even more significant when you find out that the last two times the Breeders' Cup was held in Kentucky, at Churchill Downs, it drew over 100,000 for each day.  When virtually everyone had to travel across the country for the last three big days at Santa Anita in California, the attendance was well over 90,000.  So with only 45,000 seats up for grams, and only 10,000 of those in the actual grandstand where you can SEE the races, I knew that my chances of getting tickets would be limited.  But I felt I had a good chance since I am on the "preferred" list through several different organizations I belong to, the most significant of which is being on the BC ticket list each year.  So every year for the past seven years I'd get an email with a code that gives me "preferred" access to the tickets before they went on sale to the general public.  But as the week opened and it became clear that these 10,000 tickets were going to go on sale to the public with no "preferred" sale, I knew I needed to be ready to go.  I also found out prior to the tickets going on sale that you could ONLY buy them in advance and you HAD to buy a two day package.  This was no problem for me, but for my Mom, sister, & niece it was a deal-breaker.  Especially when considering the price tag for a single seat: $425!  I called Keith, as we'd committed to go this year, and after a moment's hesitation he was all in.  In the days leading up to the sale the Breeders' Cup had initially advertised you could get tickets either by phone or online.  But by Monday of this week they put out through email and social media that they expected extremely heavy traffic on the phones and you'd be best advised to go online.  As I went for my morning walk today I was thinking about how insane this process would be and that the only way to be sure to get tickets would be to jump on what ever was offered immediately - no hunting for a "better seat."  Then it occurred to me that if I had any kind of computer glitch I'd be out of luck, so my plan became to have both computers up and running.  So at about 11:45 I had both of them opened on the BC ticket site, on the "Grandstand Reserved" seating area.  Sure enough, promptly at noon both computer screens automatically refreshed and now displayed the message, "Good News!  You are in the queue for tickets, do not manually refresh your screen - wait time, approximately two minutes."  HORRAY!  But within a minute the screens refreshed to a five minute, then eight minute wait.  Then my main computer refreshed and displayed the message:  "Sorry, the demand for tickets is too great at this time, please try again later" - LATER!!!????? There will be no tickets later I knew!  Luckily the laptop was still on a wait list.  I refreshed by going back and forward online and got "back in line" on the main screen.  But this happened two more times while still I was holding my place on the back-up computer.  Then suddenly I glanced at the laptop and now the screen read, "Do you want tickets?"  OH MY.....I'm IN!  Yes, I clicked and then - despite being told I would NOT have to register it asked for my username and password, or to create an account.  So I entered my email in the "Create an account" box because if I had a password from 2013 I didn't know what it was.  I clicked submit and then I got the "you have an account, want us to email you your password" message.  NO WAY I'm taking a chance on all that could happen with that.  So I re-entered a different email and created a brand new account.  BINGO I got in and within a minute I took the "best available" seats.  And within seconds there they were - Section K only seven rows up in mid-stretch at the 16th pole.  WOW! 

All I had to do was finalize my purchase and I am going to the Breeders' Cup!  If this were the entire story for the day and getting tickets it would be a great story, right?  But oh no, there's more!  While waiting for ticket sales to open I decided to look for hotels.  I had not looked yet, even though I was sure that rooms would be limited, because I didn't want to book without knowing I was going for sure with actual tickets to the championship racing.  But with the two computers running I figured I probably would get them and even if not, I could cancel within 24 hours.  So I opened Expedia and asked for hotels in the Lexington area.  To my surprise there were many choices at various prices.  The Baymont Inn caught my eye at a fair price and it looked like it was fairly close by.  As I examined the details I saw it was about 20 minutes away.  I thought, well, if I'm picking, I'd rather be closer.  So I opened another window and googled for hotels near Keeneland.  But everyone I checked all were booked for the BC weekend.  Now I'm feeling like I'm lucky to get a room only 20 minutes away.  So went back to Expedia and booked the room.  All went well until I got to the final two screens.  I clicked "Book It" and the option came up to "Pay Now" or "Pay at check-in" - well, if I can choose I'd rather wait and pay then.  So I clicked that option and the "Processing Your Reservation" screen came up.  After spinning for a few seconds I got a new screen, "Server error, click here to return to previous page."  Sigh.....really?  So I did, and repeated the process.  Again, "Processing Your Reservation" and AGAIN "Server error....."  Now the thought occurs to me, I wonder if the demand is so great that the hotel has set the reservation process to only accept those serious enough to pay now.  So this time I clicked the "PAY NOW" and it all went through, and I printed off the confirmation page and receipt.  Fast forward to the ticket adventure.......ok, it's about 12:30 pm and I have a confirmation of tickets and of a hotel room less than 30 minutes from the track.  So I open my email to check out my confirmations.  Lo and behold there are NINE EMAILS from Expedia!  WHAT THE!!!   I open the first one and compare the confirmation # and reservation i.d. and it's the same as I've printed.  Hmmmm, wonder why they sent me multiple copies?  So I deleted the other two.  I opened the first of the other emails and it's an "About Your Hotel" email.  There's a "click here to see details" button and when I click that I am taken to my Expedia account and it lists all of my upcoming trips and reservations.  But oh no, at the bottom there is not one, not two, but THREE separate reservations to the Baymont Inn!  So I get on the phone and call Expedia.  I explain what has happened and that I know I've paid for one, and the other two are being held for me; and that I only want to keep the one I paid for.  The girl on the other end, who seems to speak and understand perfect English replies, "I can help you with this.  So you want to cancel your Ameri-Suites reservation?"  I think, "WHAT?"  And then I see what she's talking about - that's my hotel for May for the Preakness in Baltimore.  So I repeat, no, I have three reservations for Lexington, at the Baymont Inn, for October.  Now she says, "So you want to cancel your May reservation?"  NO!  I repeat what I want.  She asks, "Is this on credit card......" and I tell her I do not have a credit card with that number.  "Is the security number....."  Again, no, I don't have a card with that number.  "OK, let me look at the reservation - it's the Ameri-Suites in Baltimore you want to cancel?"  W - O - W!  NO.  Finally - we're about 25 minutes in now - she gets it and cancels the one.  "Is there anything else I can help you with?" she asks.  YES!  I want to cancel BOTH of the ones that I have not paid for.  Fortunately she gets the right one and finally after forty minutes I'm down to a single hotel reservation! 

What a stressful morning!  As I told everyone later, despite the hassle, I felt so fortunate to have actually got tickets and a room.  And I was anxious to find out how the process had gone for everyone else who wanted tickets.  Well, by late afternoon I read that of the 77,000 tickets available - that includes standing room at the rail, restaurant seats, sales pavilion with jumbotron seats, and tail-gating in the parking lot spots - 60,000 seats were sold before 5 pm and ALL seating locations were sold within a couple hours of the noon release of tickets.  W-O-W.  We are so very fortunate and I'm so excited to be going!