I've been to every Oaks/Derby the last 10 years and have a pretty good feel for the building and how it is when full. Friday's crowd was shockingly sparse. Saturday was well attended, but the attendance numbers certainly were ticket sales figures.
As to the original point, the 60 Minutes story on Zenyatta undoubtedly drove TV viewership up, but Churchill always hosts the best attended Cups. Zenyatta wasn't as big a draw in person as she was in front of the box given the Saturday gate was basically at the average attendance of previous BC visits to the Ville:
1988: 71,237
1991: 66,204
1994: 71,671
1998: 80,452
2000: 76,043
2006: 75,132 (Avg. 73,456)
2010: 72,739
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