No One Hits $5 Million Derby Contest

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No one claimed the $5 million prize for picking the exact order of finish in this year's "Run for the Roses" as part of the first-ever international promotion connected to the Kentucky Derby.

The "Kentucky Derby $5 Million Pay Day," a free Internet-based contest of skill offered exclusively through www.kentuckyderby.com, challenged players to pick the exact order of finish for the 2003 Derby, which had 16 starters. Of the 172,246 individuals who registered to play the online game, no one was able to correctly select the entire running line for the race.

The contest generated considerable interest, as tens of thousands signed up to play in the final hours that entries were accepted. Additionally, traffic to the Churchill Downs network of Web sites on Derby Day (May 3) increased by 57 percent over the day before (Oaks Day, May 2) with more than 1.24 million unique visitors viewing the sites. There were more than 827,000 unique visitors to www.kentuckyderby.com, the official Web site of the Kentucky Derby, on May 3 alone.

"We're extremely pleased with the fan response and level of interest in the Kentucky Derby $5 Million Pay Day," said Karl F. Schmitt Jr., president of the Churchill Downs Simulcast Network , which developed and administered the online contest. "While we're disappointed that no one claimed the $5 million prize, we're very excited about the 'buzz' generated by the contest and by the number of individuals who signed up to play."

The Kentucky Derby $5 Million Pay Day contest was open to residents of the United States and Canada (except Quebec), as well as England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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