Please ADD your own Las Vegas Trip Report. Date of Trip: October 24, 2007 to October 27, 2007 Hotel Stayed At: MGM Report by: KTINCA <> From: California

BREEDERS CUP 2007 TRIP REPORT

This report is going to be a little different because I’m writing it mostly for myself. I will include details of races that may not be of interest to many, and will include my impressions of hotels, race books and their personnel. If those reading don’t like it---too bad! I will not be offended if you jump past sections or skip my report entirely.

We took a 4pm SWA flight out of OAK Wednesday 10-24. I only mention it because there were only 70 people on the plane. This is very unusual as most flights to LV are pretty full, so it is a good time to fly.

Arrived at LAS around 5:30pm no crowds or lines here either. So we got to MGM a little after 6pm. I knew it was going to be really crowded for our stay. In addition to PBR, Vegoose, and Breeders Cup, MGM also had concerts by JLO & Marc Anthony and by Jimmy Buffett. Tried for an upgrade to a Celebrity Suite, but no suites were available (at any price) until our last night.
Clerk was nice and said she could try and get us a Bungalow Suite for our last night. We had to take a room with 2 beds the 1st night, but she blocked off a room with a King bed for the next day.
The Grand Tower room was exactly what we expected. Nothing really wrong with it, but nothing really right with it either. Decent sized room, although a little cramped for us with 2 beds. I did love the pillows though they may be too hard for many.

Maintenance brought up our fridge, and we couldn’t believe it. Because I actually need the fridge for medication, I guess you could say I’m almost an expert on hotel fridges, both in LV and elsewhere. Most are little portable ½ fridges, which is fine. MGM also has the ½ fridge which is brought to your room on a large cart which has a couple of shelves and stands around 5 ft tall.
This is a big bulky piece of furniture, so I decided to remove the fridge from the cart. It was bolted on! I guess there must be an organized ring in Las Vegas pilfering hotel fridges. Well MGM sure foiled them.

We took a walk around the hotel to get our bearings. We checked out the race book and then took a walk to the spa. My wife was planning to spend part of Thursday lounging at the spa, so she asked if she could go in and look around. The young ladies at the desk said “We don’t give tours”. My wife said she didn’t need a tour just wanted to walk around and check the facilities.
She was told they had a spa, sauna, and lockers, but don’t allow anyone in because clothing is optional. Obviously we were taking them away from their important conversations.
Unfortunately it appears we didn’t meet the high standards of the MGM spa, so my wife will just have to continue using the spas at Wynn & THEhotel.

Dinner was at Wolfgang Puck. I’m not a real fan of his, but we did enjoy it.
We had crab cakes for an appetizer. It was very good, but very small. I had a
garlic chicken pizza, which was much larger than I expected. Eileen had the salmon, which she said was exceptional, and perfectly cooked. With 2 Ice Teas dinner was $70.

A little VP and it was an early night.

We did play some VP this trip, mostly 9/6 JOB at Wynn but also some 8/5 at MGM. Of course at MGM we only played quarters due to the 8/5. Neither one of us could get much at MGM, including an amazing lack of full houses, but didn’t really lose much. We both did better at Wynn, making a small profit, but this was mostly due to the better pay-tables. We each got a couple of 4OAK but nothing bigger, and probably broke about even at VP for the trip.

Thursday 10-25
As usual the 1st day in Vegas I woke up early, so I went downstairs a little after 6. I walked around playing a little VP, and checked out places to pick up a quick breakfast. Stopped by the front desk to check on our room switch, was assured a room on the 23rd floor was set aside but the occupants wouldn’t be checking out until 11.
Went to the race book to pick up the next day’s Racing Form and check on our seat assignments for Friday & Saturday. On our last trip 3 weeks ago I had talked to Lamar Mitchell about arranging Breeders Cup reservations. I had since confirmed by email, and Lamar had set us up with a couple of desks away from the crowded football side of the book.

We really wanted to watch the races at Wynn, but I had talked to John Avello and he could not guarantee us a spot there. I realize that we are not big enough players to be invited to the private party at Wynn (limited to 300), but was hoping for spots in the race book. He did ask us to stop by that Thursday, and he would try and fit us in.

We decided that since we were going to see John at Wynn anyway, we would go to Tableau for breakfast. It was a beautiful morning so breakfast was outside. To start they brought complimentary smoothies and we ordered the mini beignets, my wife loves the lemon curd served on the side along with crème frache and a berry sauce. She had an omelet and I had the duck hash.
Along with coffee the bill was $49. The meal was excellent, as usual. Great service never rushed, breakfast took a little over an hour.

She went to play a little VP and I went to talk to John, fully prepared to act pathetic and plead for a spot in his race book. Asked for him at the counter but he was in a meeting. I explained that I was told to check with him about reservations for Breeders Cup. A very busy lady walking by asked for my name, and upon hearing my reply said “Yes, you are on the list and have seats”. She didn’t have the seating chart with her so I told her I would come back and check when she wasn’t busy.

Now I get to tell my wife that we have spots in her favorite race book. So I drag her away from her machine, we check out the area and play What If. “What if we have seats at the bar, would you rather sit there or at a desk at MGM?”
“What if we have seats at the sports book, would you want them or MGM?”
“What about those chairs against the wall, them or MGM?”
Wynn was closing the entire area and using it for the races. No College Football seating at all.

Went back to play some more VP and 45 minutes later, trying not to be too impatient, I went back to get our seat assignments.
“Your seats are 84 & 85”.
“Do you know what section that is?”
“Check down the center aisle on the left.”
Two desks right on the aisle 5 rows from the back. Absolutely Perfect!

Imagine getting dealt a Royal Flush or winning the largest bet you’ve ever made. This is how I felt when I saw the spots reserved for us for the next 2 days.

It was a little before noon so we decided to head back to MGM to see about changing rooms. Instead of taking a cab my wife thinks it would be a nice idea to walk. Every 3rd trip or so, I make this mistake. I forget this means stopping at Flamingo, stopping for water along the way, and resting at PH. A mere 90 minutes later we are back at MGM. Fortunes have been won & lost in less time in Las Vegas.

We head over to registration to see if our room is ready. We are told the room set aside is occupied and won’t be available (in HOTELSPEAK this means they gave it to someone else). The clerk looked in the computer and said;
“We don’t have anything now, come back between 3pm and 6pm and we will see if we can change your room”.
“I’m not wasting my day waiting for you to find us a room”.
“Would you like to speak to the manager?”

After this there was a brief discussion with the manager about promises made, not only at check-in but also a few hours ago (during which I did and excellent job of keeping my composure, although my wife was understandably concerned). This conversation ended with my offer to converse individually with all the people waiting in line for a room to find out what type they had reserved and were expecting.
After this the manager magically found us a room on the 11th floor. I was skeptical that it would be quiet enough and promised to be back if it was not.
Up we went to the 11th floor to check out this room. I turned off the room’s AC and immediately could hear the noise from the large AC units on the roof 6-7 floors below. Do you think the manager knew those units were there?

My wife said “I saw the clerk write down room 19329 on her pad.” So I said “OK, lets check that one out.” So it was up to the 19th floor where the maid was cleaning that room. We told her we were going to be assigned this room and she let us take a look. It was fine, non-smoking with a King bed. All we really wanted AND the room we had reserved.

Back downstairs to the manager returning the keys for the 11th floor room.
“There’s no way I’ll be able to sleep in that room because of the noise from the AC units below. The clerk said we could have room 19329 later and the maid is in there now. Could we have that after she is finished?” He checked and went along with this suggestion.

It wasn’t the fact that the type of room we wanted wasn’t available, or even that they gave our room away that mattered. What we are going to remember is the attitude of those involved.
And as usual the “little people” working at the hotel (housekeeping, maintenance, race book) were all pleasant and friendly.

Remember, I am writing this mainly for myself. This is not meant to influence any one else’s perception or opinion of MGM.
It is also to help me remember why we feel there are other more preferable hotel options on the strip for us in the same price range.

We finally settled in our new room, spent an hour going over the next day’s three races, and decide we are going to spend the evening at Gold Coast.

We had just been to the Cortez Room a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to try Arriva, the Italian restaurant. We were seated in the bar area and immediately felt right at home. It was Boston night on TV. The Red Sox were on one screen and BC-Virginia Tech on the other. People at different tables were talking about the games with strangers. Our waitress was a BC fan, but one patron had bet on VT and another on the under. My wife was considering the salmon for dinner, so the lady at the next table, who was a regular, said it was very good tonight. This is our kind of place.
My wife had the salmon and I had veal piccata. These are full dinners and the portions were generous. Unfortunately the quality was just average. My wife’s grilled salmon was not the same quality as the night before and the veal I had was not top grade. The price as expected was reasonable, with two Ice Teas dinner came to $47.
We loved the atmosphere, but for casual Italian we will stick with Casa Di Amore.

The rest of our time there was spent playing Pai Gow Poker. We like the atmosphere at GC and also the $10 minimums. We were lucky and got one of those really fun tables. The kind where everyone stays for a couple of hours, looks at everyone’s cards, and is rooting for each other.

One exciting thing did happen; the lady sitting next to me was dealt a royal flush. She showed it to me for verification, because she probably couldn’t believe it. She set her hand and then had to wait for the dealer. She was so excited that I didn’t have the heart to tell her she set her hand wrong. She played a Q3 in front and the RF in back, when she should have broken the hand and played AK in front and QQ in back. Everyone cheered when her hand was turned over. And as luck would have it the dealer could not beat her Queen and she won the hand anyway.
Of course, she didn’t really care because she had $5 on the bonus bet. And she came home from Vegas with a once in a lifetime story.

Played for 2-1/2 hours, making a profit of $35 and the wife winning $25.
Back to the room and in bed at a reasonable hour.

Friday 10-26
We grabbed a quick breakfast at the buffet. The MGM buffet is exactly what you expect from a medium-priced buffet. Then we went to the race book to pick up Saturday’s Forms, and watch a couple of races.
The racetrack at Monmouth Park had been very bad on Thursday. It was also sloppy on Friday and unfortunately on Saturday too. This affected our handicapping and the amount of our bets.

My original plan for today had been to go to Wynn for the races and then head to Bellagio for the LVT meet. It was my intention to then offer our MGM seats to anyone at the meet who may not have a spot for Saturday.
But we met the guy at the desk next to ours, and talked and watched a few races together. It turns out he was from Ohio and had been coming to MGM for Breeder’s Cup for a few years now. This year his group had grown to 10, but MGM could only give them 4 desks. We weren’t really sure if anyone at the meet would be interested, so we gave them our seats, knowing they were real racing fans and would certainly appreciate them.
And it was a good thing, because we ended up missing the meet.
On to Wynn for an enjoyable afternoon watching the 3 BC races.

This part of the report is for me, so I can look back years from now.

RACE SELECTION RESULT WINNER RETURN
F&M SPRINT MISS MACY SUE 6-1 3RD MARYFIELD 8-1 0
JUV. TURF ACHILL ISLAND 5-2 2ND NOWNOWNOW 12-1 5.20
DIRT MILE CORINTHIAN 7-2 1ST CORINTHIAN 9.40/4.40

The exacta for the 3rd race paid $60.20. This race put me ahead for the day, and made my wife even for the trip. She was very pleased because we figured this race perfectly. This is the kind of race that if it were a normal day at a normal track, I would just not bet. The favorite Discreet Cat was by far the best horse. And if he ran anywhere near his potential would win, so you are basically guessing if he will run well today. So we tried to picture the race with this horse as a non-factor (except for pace) and correctly came up with the exacta. Handicapping is really fun when you’re right!

We stuck around Wynn playing a little VP, but my wife got bored so she started looking at some of the slots, and a new one caught her eye.
It was called “HOT FLASH”, and yes ladies the subject is just what you think it is! My wife is of the age to truly be able to appreciate this machine. Line up 3 symbols and you get to hear appropriate comments like “You say my butt looks big in this muumuu”, “Another man, another tractor pull”, etc. And one of the bonus rounds is called “mood swings”.
It is a nickel machine with 15 lines. And because she was actually getting lucky, she got to see and hear many of the machines features. She started with $10, had it up to almost $100, and when I finally dragged her away she cashed out with over $60. She had a great time, and would return to this machine.

We returned to MGM and room service for dinner. That evening was spent in our room handicapping.

Saturday 10-27
After a quick breakfast at the food court, we packed, checked out and headed over to Wynn.
This is what we came for---a day of the best races of the year.

We were impressed with the performance of the Wynn race book staff. This was their first real experience hosting this day, and they made every effort to provide for the horseplayers. They tried to make sure none of the handicappers were shut out at race time, giving them preference over those trying to bet college football. Hopefully next year they will learn from this experience, possibly setting up separate lines and windows for sports.

Of course we were quite comfortable at our desks. My wife had brought headsets, so we could listen to the races on our TVs and drown out all the race book noise. Most of our handicapping was done, with only minor adjustments, and type of betting left to be determined.
And we quickly learned to make our bets about 20 minutes before post to avoid standing in long lines.
Drink service was excellent, of course drink tickets were required but were handed out freely, and not a problem when you are betting every 30 minutes.

Again, the race summaries are for my records:
RACE SELECTION RESULT WINNER RETURN
JUV. FILLIES INDIAN BLESSING 8-5 1ST INDIAN BLESSING 5.40/4.80
JUVENILE PYRO 4-1 2ND WAR PASS 2-1 4.60
F&M TURF LAHUDOOD 11-1 1ST LAHUDOOD 25.40/11.40
SPRINT IDIOT PROOF 6-1 2ND MIDNIGHT LUTE 5-2 6.60
MILE EXCELLENT ART 2-1 2ND KIP DEVILLE 8-1 4.20
DISTAFF GINGER PUNCH 9-2 1ST GINGER PUNCH 11.00/6.20
TURF ENGLISH CHANNEL 3-1 1ST ENGLISH CHANNEL 8.00/4.40
CLASSIC ANYGIVENSATURDAY 4-1 6th CURLIN

Notes: Excellent Art was probably the best horse in the Mile but did not get the best of rides by Murtagh, who tried to weave through traffic instead of just riding on the outside and relying on his horse. This is a common riding practice in England.
On the other hand, Ginger Punch was the recipient of a brilliant and courageous ride by Rafael Bejarano. I wish I could have heard the comments on ESPN after his ride.
I got a huge break in the Turf when Shamdnan ran 2nd at 25-1. I loved English Channel and was already well ahead so I bought a couple of exacta wheels which thanks to Shamdnan paid $152.
Speaking of exactas; exotic betting is much bigger than normal at Breeders Cup, so you hear a lot of cheering going on for horses who finish 2nd or 3rd.
I know my wife had the easy winner of the Sprint, but I could hear her next to me rooting like crazy for the horse who finished 2nd (exacta paid $49.80).

The fields were smaller than normal this year, resulting in lower prices. My wife says I seldom bet favorites, but I did choose 2 in 8 races (1st & 2nd).

Obviously I had a good day, when all your choices finish 1st or 2nd you are going to cash a lot of tickets. But I actually would have won more if we had gone to the race track at home. If I were betting myself at a machine, I would have played more exotics than I do in a crowded race book. But of course this means I would lose more the years my choices don’t do as well.

After the races we had a leisurely lunch at Red 8, and played a little more VP.
My wife used the $33 in free play she earned this month, getting an amazing number of 2 pairs and 3OAK and turning it into $80 real money.
One more visit to her Hot Flash machine, and it was off to the airport for our 7pm flight home.
I don’t recall ever flying home on Saturday night before. More people do go home on Saturday than I would have thought as our flight was almost full.

Final Thoughts:
Financially obviously this was a winning trip. My wife left home with $300 and returned with $298, and I returned with more cash than I came with.
But this was because of the races, and if we weren’t in Las Vegas we would have been at our usual table at Bay Meadows and had a winning day anyway.

I don’t ever remember having spent so much on cab fare. Those $15 (with tip) rides between MGM & Wynn add up. But I’m glad we didn’t rent a car, so I didn’t have to hassle with driving on Friday and Saturday.

Because we spent all of Saturday at Wynn and most of Friday night in our room, we weren’t bothered much by the weekend crowds. But you can still feel the different atmosphere and we still prefer weekday trips.
Of course 3 nights is a little too short a stay for us to be comfortable.

We really enjoyed our time spent at Wynn (not really much of a surprise).

The rooms at MGM are all right, but we really don’t like the feel or atmosphere of the place. This might partly be because of the weekend. But we didn’t really have a problem with it’s size.

I asked my wife if she preferred the race book Breeder’s Cup experience at Wynn to our normal table in the Turf Club. She said that it was different, but she liked Las Vegas better. So I guess there will be more BC trips for us in the future.

My apologies for the unusual TR. Hope you found it of some interest or value.

KTINCA <> - California    4098

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