BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 30, 2004

Jeff Greco

Corey Johnsen

D.G. Van Clief, Jr.

D.G. VAN CLIEF, JR.: This is all first blush, but it's the best way to feel it. We think that this horse race aesthetically is a complete success from a customer service standpoint. We will get the input over the next few days. Didn't see anything wrong. Great energy level. Great excitement. I have not run into anybody this afternoon that hasn't had a good time here. From a racing standpoint, obviously, highly competitive. As we said a week ago, we are very satisfied, thrilled with the quality we got. Once again, it's kind of interesting, I think, to note that there has always been an apprehension of European connections shipping to the Southwest in warmer clients. I am not sure, we didn't look it up, but I want to say that we had two British horses win for the first time in Breeders' Cup history, two British shippers and two British winners. Obviously, this course (inaudible) so once again we are proving that horses from anywhere in the world can ship anywhere in the world and compete in a national championship. From the standpoint of the race course horses, I bumped into our veterinarian and asked if everybody came out clean. It appears they all did. Race courses worked or surfaces worked as expected, safe, fair, consistent championship level. To sum it up, we are very happy this afternoon. The venue functioned well. The gentleman to my left, Corey, and Jeff, I think at this point -- I think we said a few days ago at 6:00 we will answer these questions, we won't before 6:00. I am going to tell them right now they have every reason to have a lot of pride in their time and their venue.

COREY JOHNSEN: Appreciate it.

COREY JOHNSEN: As you know, we had 39,000 temporary seats and things went really well. One thing about Texas and racing fans, they are watching such a great day of racing and people are so nice. Our employees led by Jeff, our employee team, they are so hospitable. Even though you might have had some temporary seating and those kind of things, I think that customer service level was there as evidenced by very, very solid betting today.

JEFF GRECO: There are always challenges when you host an event of this caliber. Overall, I was very pleased with the way the operation worked. As we originally stated, it was a Texas hospitality in welcoming the world, I think we accomplished that.

COREY JOHNSEN: I want to talk about the traffic situation. I heard that I-30 was slow in peak time. They said it usually takes me 30 minutes to get there, and today it took me 40. It took me 10 minutes more. It was great. I heard a lot of that. So I was very pleased. Jeff and I would like to thank the city of Grand Prairie, their chief of police, his assistant Mike Shaw. They have been to the last two or three Breeders' Cups. They have worked on this for years. I thought they did a great job with traffic. We have a brand new Beltline Road out here. I thought it went very well for bringing 53,000 people to the facility.

D.G. VAN CLIEF, JR.: Sure. I am saying this is my first blush reaction. We will get feedback and more numbers as the days go on. I think first blush is legitimate enough. We are very pleased with the way the venue handled this event, the way it performed. We thought that the customer service was just great. My personal experience, that's not what I have throughout the whole area, but the areas I covered today, I did not see anybody but customers having a good time. Corey mentioned that one best part of customer satisfaction was handled, those numbered are very solid. People just seemed to be having a good time. The racing was superb. The temporary facilities seem to handle themselves well. The permanent facilities was great. I thought that the whole event gave off an aura of goodwill and a good time. It was a terrific sports day. I also mentioned earlier from a pure racing standpoint I thought that the core services handled the event very well. If you look at it from a safety standpoint, I saw the veterinary inspection reaction team as I was walking across the paddock to come here a few minutes ago. I asked Larry if they all came out safe. It appears they did. We may have had as close to an injury-free Breeders' Cup as we have had in 21 years. From a standpoint of European shippers, they are always a little apprehensive. We know it's a bit more of a recruit to get the European horses this time of the year to ship to warmer climates and ship to the Southwest. We knew that was true coming into this one. I think this is the first time, we are debunking the theory rapidly that Europeans can't run this part of the country and run this time of year. We had two British shippers and winners. Without looking it up, I am pretty sure that's history-making. We have never had two British winners. From a facilities standpoint, customer service standpoint, we are very, very pleased. As I said before, I want to give credit to my colleagues to my left, Corey and Jeff, and their team and all the employees of Lone Star who did a terrific job and really worked day and night to pull this off and they pulled it off.

D.G. VAN CLIEF, JR.: Based on what we have seen so far, they certainly qualify. I will analyze the numbers, the customer input, we will all discuss it. For all I know, Corey is going to tell me he never wants it again.

COREY JOHNSEN: Let me make this very clear: We definitely want to host the Breeders' Cup again. It is a fabulous event. I think this is the right venue, the right market. It provides a great marketing tool for this sport. I hope that we showed that from the day the horsemen arrived to how they were treated to the track surfaces, how they were maintained, how we treated our customers. We definitely would like to see the Breeders' Cup back again. A piece of legislation that was passed is open-ended. Whenever a race track in Texas is able to host the Breeders' Cup, they can receive up to a $2 million rebate on their paramutual tax. We would love to take the state of Texas up on that again.

D.G. VAN CLIEF, JR.: From what I have seen we would love to take the state of Texas up on that again, too. I don't see a reason sitting here this evening why Lone Star wouldn't be a future host venue. There is one other area I ought to mention, too. There has been a lot of input from the horsemen about the back-stretch facility. There was some apprehension on the part of the horsemen who had never visited Lone Star before where those would measure up to other tracks in the country. From what we have heard from the European and domestic shippers, the treatment they received, facilities they had were first class. From what we have seen, this is a great venue. We always expected Dallas, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie would be a marketplace. That has proven to be true as well. Ask any of our out-of-town customers, folks that come in here, are in the hotels, going to the functions all week, and I guarantee they will say they had a great time.

COREY JOHNSEN: If I could, I would like to give you a glimpse of what the dedication means. Last night it rained here at 11:30 p.m. It was one of the thunderstorms that came out of nowhere. Our track maintenance crew was so dedicated they left three tractor drivers here the entire night. When the weather service called and said you have 20 minutes to seal your track, those guys were out there with their (inaudible) and got it sealed. I think Jeff could probably tell you every department has done that. You talk about an injury-free Breeders' Cup, the fact they stayed here all night, were ready to go in 20 minutes' notice and got that thing sealed, and that the track was perfect today says a lot about our team here.

COREY JOHNSEN: Absolutely. I believe we will get repeat business not only from our customers, but I think the horse industry is really going to see some gain in new owners. I think that you have a lot of people, they come out and go, "This is great, this is a great sport, I want to be part of this." In a new market like Texas, there is a lot of people, I think they are going to come into this game because of bringing an event like this to Texas.