What to Wear to the Kentucky Derby and Other First-Timer Questions Answered

At the Kentucky Derby, bigger is better—especially for your hat. If you’re attending, you’re going to need a big (emphasis on big), statement-making hat. What you wear matters half as much as your hat. Allison Kuch is headed to the 2025 Kentucky Derby on May 3—her first ever. And she’s been sweating to find the perfect look. Luckily for her, legendary sports reporter Lindsay Czarniak (who recommends bringing two hats) has come to her rescue.

Czarniak joins Kuch on Sunday Sports Club to discuss the Kentucky Derby and horse racing—a sport not yet featured on the show. An Emmy-award winning sportscaster for Fox Sports and former ESPN reporter, Czarniak is married to fellow news anchor, Craig Melvin, has two children, and will launch her own podcast, Things No One Tells You, later this spring. 

If you’re Derby-curious but confused by the lingo or the dress code, Czarniak’s got you covered. She insists that the Derby has its own language that separates the thoroughbred insiders from the casual hat-wearers just there for the mint juleps.

Who is Lindsay Czarniak? 

Czarniak’s path to horse racing wasn’t direct. She initially had dreams of being an MTV VJ or to cover news or entertainment. After various jobs, she landed an entry-level reporting job at CNN, followed by a side role covering NASCAR and motor sports. 

“I didn’t know that world at all, but they took me under their wing and taught me what I needed to know. It was a playground that allowed me to come at it from a news space,” she explains. 

A chance meeting with a Miami TV crew at a NASCAR event led to her first official sports media job covering the Miami Dolphins. “I love the storytelling and the relatability of sports. I think it’s so awesome and so powerful,” she says. 

After 20 years in sports media, including positions at ESPN and freelance work with Fox’s Sidelines, Czarniak entered horse racing through a friend who ran a digital horse racing outlet. She was asked to cover a promising horse that was considered the second coming of the elite horse, Secretariat, in the Breeders’ Cup. She jumped at the opportunity: “Me being at the barns in the morning is very similar to me being at a race track in the morning. To me, that is so cool. I love that time where there’s all this hope.”

Horse racing: a distinct culture 

Horse racing is a community of traditions, culture, and people looking forward to it for an entire year. The Kentucky Derby isn’t the only iconic American horse race. It’s the first leg of the Triple Crown, a series of horse races for three-year-old thoroughbreds that includes the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.

Dating back to 1875, the Kentucky Derby is the crown jewel of horse racing—it is the most well-known and popular of the Triple Crown. Full of lure, mystique, and history, the Derby is always the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs. Czarniak compares it to iconic venues like Fenway Stadium or when the Green Bay Packers have a home game at Lambeau Field. Twenty horses race for a full day on Saturday, and the derby occurs in the evening around 6:00 p.m.

“You walk around the grounds—and people just make a day out of that. There are so many different things going on. Being at the race track and going down along the rail watching horses thunder past you, you feel, you see it, you smell it. When the horses thunder past you, you feel it in your throat,” Czarniak says.

Each year, Czarniak looks forward to hearing “Old Kentucky Home,” played as horses enter: “There is so much anticipation for what is about to happen; there’s also an element of mystique because the horses can’t communicate, but you know that they feel it too. I love to see the track come alive.”

Your Kentucky Derby guide

If you know the Kentucky Derby (or even if you don’t), you know it has its own language. Kuch threw out a few horse racing terms for Czarniak to define. Here’s your Kentucky Derby dictionary: 

• A bloodline in horse racing is your family tree. For example, some horses competing in the race might have parents who are more famous than them. “Bloodline really matters, especially in terms of the expectation of how fast or strong a horse will be,” Czarniak says.
• Call to post is the little jingle that plays when the horses are called to the post or the starting gate. “That is a magical moment at the derby, so that is what you listen for that makes it really special,” Czarniak explains.
• Colors and silks are the uniforms, like an NFL team’s, in horse language. Horses wear silks and jockeys wear the colors and silks representing their team.  
• A furlong is the length that a horse runs during a race, and it’s measured at an eighth of a mile. Horse racing is the only sport that measures its distance in furlongs. 
• The infield is the part of the race track where a lot of the action is happening. Guests can bring their own chairs or picnic blankets. 
• Millionaires Row is the indoor dining space at the Kentucky Derby where guests can watch the races from the covered terrace from the fourth level overlooking the track.

Who attends the Kentucky Derby? 

The derby attracts a diverse crowd: lifelong fans, first-timers attending the philanthropic pink-themed Kentucky Oaks (where female horses race), families, and celebrities. It’s very much like the Super Bowl, Czarniak notes, with parties every night featuring musicians and other athletes in attendance. “There are rumors that Taylor Swift is going to be there this year, and last year, there were those rumors too, which almost shut down the red carpet at the Kentucky Derby.”

If you want a ticket to the Kentucky Derby, you’ve got options with various tiers. “There are a million different ways to get a ticket. Companies might have a box, or there are sponsors. There are also general admission tickets and early admission tickets. It doesn’t matter if you are a guy or a girl, there’s something catered to you,” she says.

Derby fashion: What to wear to the races

You can dress up as much as you want for the Kentucky Derby. Czarniak says the Derby has an unspoken, unwritten dress code. “Hats are a big deal. Hats on derby day—you need to do them. Everything from dresses to suits that are Derby fancy. Pink is as must at Kentucky Oaks,” she says.