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BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 25, 2003

ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA

ERIC WING: We are live in the interview room with the happy winners of the recently concluded $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff presented by Nextel. With us on the right, the far right, is the winning trainer, David Hofmans. In the middle, John Amerman, a man to whom success in racing is no stranger. Though perhaps this was his biggest success as well. And this is Mrs. Amerman. And what's your first name?

JERRY AMERMAN: Jerry.

ERIC WING: And we're going to get questions started. People in the upstairs can ask questions in the press boxes. First, why not take a look at what just transpired a moment ago.

JOHN AMERMAN: That's a good idea. It looks better than it did the first time. Unbelievable.

Q. David, first of all, you took the blinkers off for the effort today. What was behind that strategic decision?

DAVID HOFMANS: Well, after looking at the race and knowing who was going in there and Azeri dropping out, I thought that our filly could go on the lead, but I wanted her to be on an easy lead, not the blinkers makes her too rank, so I thought that we would be on the lead and I wanted to be on a comfortable lead. And without the blinkers, she sort of looks around and kind of pulls herself up, which conserves her energy. And that's why I took them off of her.

Q. David just mentioned he was hoping to have her on a nice comfortable lead, which is a nice thought but is seldom the case in races like this. How please and the how surprised were you to see her with an uncontested lead and going in 47 to the half and 111?

DAVID HOFMANS: I wasn't surprised at all. We talked about that all along. The instructions to Pat were to come out of there riding as hard as you can and hopefully everybody will take back and give us a length someplace. I think that's what happened.

JOHN AMERMAN: I think everybody expected Adoration to come back. And through the great training of David and the great, great riding of Patrick Valenzuela, we pulled it off.

Q. John and Jerry, you've had horses like Spoken Fur who had a lot of success this year, Lido Palace the last couple of years. Is this a safe bet that this has been your crowning achievement to date in the racing world?

JERRY AMERMAN: Oh, yes. Yes.

JOHN AMERMAN: Well you know when we got into racing on our own in 1997, we said to ourselves, looked ourselves in the eye and said, wouldn't it be wonderful to win a Breeders' Cup race? And now we have done it.

DAVID HOFMANS: And you didn't have to supplement.

JOHN AMERMAN: No. Well, yeah, we turned down a few opportunities, didn't we, because of the supplements. We've got to talk to the Breeders' Cup about that rule.

Q. I know that, John, with some of your other horses, you've had a very active hand in the acquisition of many of them. How did the acquisition of Adoration come about?

JOHN AMERMAN: Well, I was playing the 18th hole at Indian Wells and the Nextel, the Nextel phone went off. And it was Bob Feld who it had gotten a call from David Hofmans about Adoration. And I said, I'm too busy, I'm going to shoot an 81 here. I don't want to really talk about it. So after the 18th hole, we talked about it again. When you think you have a good horse and it's endorsed by David and Bob Feld, it took me about two minutes to say, yeah, let's go for it. And she got a little banged up at the end of last year, took some time off. As a result, she was a fresh horse coming back on her third race. They always say the third race back is the best.

Q. Nextel sponsor mention, by the way, was truly spoken like a former CEO. (Laughter.)

JOHN AMERMAN: Well, if anybody's got a picture (indicating). (Laughter.)

JERRY AMERMAN: Also, you didn't mention you did see her break her maiden.

JOHN AMERMAN: Actually, I did. I was here, I didn't know the horse, but I saw her win by eight back in January of 2002. And I said, "Wow, what a great horse". So when I got that phone call and it was the horse, I said, "Yeah, let's do that".

Q. I want to ask David, back in Woodbine in '96 you shocked everybody with Alphabet Soup by beating no less than Cigar. Today you beat a filly who, although not the stature historically as Cigar, was a very heavy favorite. Can you compare the two feelings whatsoever?

DAVID HOFMANS: Two feelings? They're about both the same. They're both -- we're not totally surprised by it. We expected both horses had a chance. Something happened to Alphabet Soup the day before the Breeders' Cup. He got a strange look in his eye. He stayed focused like that for the two days. This filly did the same thing yesterday schooling her. She was down the paddock and she got this look in her eye and she, today she wasn't nervous saddling or anything. She knew what was coming and was ready for it.

JOHN AMERMAN: Would you call me up when the next horse does that. (Laughter.)

ERIC WING: John Amerman by the way the former CEO of Mattel. Questions in the room?
Q. I just want to know when it was you actually bought her after how many races into her career.

DAVID HOFMANS: It was her second race. Her second race.

Q. After her second race?

DAVID HOFMANS: She had won a sprint once and finished fourth and then she ran long and won.

Q. John, after the first race that she started for you, I guess it was a disappointment. What was your reaction to the Santa Anita Open. Was that the first race that she started for you?

JOHN AMERMAN: It may have been. She ended up fourth, right?

DAVID HOFMANS: No, 8th.

JOHN AMERMAN: I'm a positive person. I always think a little bit better. We were a little disappointed there, but we knew she could do it. I think something was bugging her. So we gave her a lot of time off early this year. When you come back and she won down at Delmar and then she was cut off in the stretch in the Ladies Secret, and third race back, she did very, very well. Through David and Pat.

Q. Who trained the horse originally?

DAVID HOFMANS: I did. I've had her her whole career.

JOHN AMERMAN: That's the best way to do it, by the way.

Q. Could you comment about P. Val and his sort of renaissance.

JOHN AMERMAN: I love Pat. He comes out he's so enthusiastic. Upbeat. Regardless of what horse he's on. He thinks very positively about winning and in this particular case I was kind of would have been probably happy to hit the board, but he was saying, no, we tack all the money.

ERIC WING: You've gotten the day off to a great start congratulations.

JOHN AMERMAN: You better believe it.

ERIC WING: Congratulations to John and Jerry Amerman and David Hofmans. And continued success to all of you. And we have got some gifts for you as you walk out.

End of FastScripts...

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