“We're thrilled with what we heard today from our patrons. They echoed the same sentiments, that it had the feel of a lavish, high-energy sports book. And they enjoyed the idea of being pampered. This is a new paradigm, a new presentation of racing that we think others will follow.”
“We will offer restaurants and food service so strong people will come here for the dining experience as much as the racing. By mid-meet we should be hitting on all cylinders, which is where we would have been on opening day if not for the delays caused by hurricanes Katrina and Wilma.”
“I think with some of the new trainers and some of the other guys who have been coming here, it's going to be a fun meet with plenty of betting opportunities.”
“There's been so much emphasis put on what an incredible venue this is going to be, so much talk about what will be ready and what won't be ready on opening day, that the facility shouldn't overshadow what incredible racing we're going to have.”
“It's unbelievable how our staff pulled this off. We had a few glitches - there was a small problem with the walk-around tellers that was fixed after the fourth race, and we had long lines at the concession stands and box office. We understand there were issues, but 99 percent of those are fixable and will be remedied by Saturday.”
“We want to have a better progression of distances. Maybe the Holy Bull will be run at a mile and the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby are run at 11/8 mile. And maybe, on the same day as the Holy Bull, there's a 61/2-furlong [companion] stakes and on Fountain of Youth day there's a 71/2-furlong stakes.”
