Belmont Stakes sells-out tickets in 5 minutes

What a difference a Triple Crown contender makes.

The Thoroughbread Times is reporting that reserved seat tickets for the Belmont Stakes sold out in under 5 minutes when a block of 3,000 tickets went on sale via Ticketmaster yesterday morning. Of course, this year’s Belmont has a little more added incentive after I’ll Have Another won both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in exciting fashion.

Roughly half of the seats at Belmont were sold at the start of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Since the end of the Preakness, there has been a mini-rush for tickets, with the New York Racing Association reporting that approximately 5,000 more seats have been sold since the race’s end. While the Belmont can hold 32,000, they have the ability to increase capacity for high-demand events like a potential Triple Crown winner.

1,000 more seats will be available for the Belmont starting on Wednesday.

While online reserved ticket prices range somewhere between $20 to $120 depending on your seat, secondary tickets are presently going for nearly $1,000 on secondary ticket market website, Stub Hub.

The last potential Triple Crown winner, Big Brown, pulled in more than 90,000 fans during his 2008 Triple Crown bid.