How to Keep Your Business as Succesful as When You Started

Jason Maslin is a serial entrepreneur who's built 10 companies from the ground up. She's a business and life mentor, a mom, a trapeze artist, and she is loving life Ali and you is inspiration and insights for your business, your life and your dreams. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Allie and you show. We are talking about business success today. I am Alison Maslin and my friends call me Ali. I'm a serial entrepreneur and a business and life mentor. Now, let me ask you, when you're going after success in your dreams, what do you do if you can't see a clear path ahead? Well, let me tell you, if you tune in every week at this time on wazilomedia.com to Ally and you, I'm going to share with you some winning strategies, clear directions and the answers you've been looking for. I'm also going to highlight some successful and interesting entrepreneurs, artists and talents that have refused to back down even when the road got tough. The result is that you're going to see some inspiring stories that will move you and you'll also learn some lessons from the road that they've paved before. And I want you to also communicate with us through Facebook and Twitter. You can get to us on my fan page, AlisonMaslin. We want to hear from you, your questions, your comments. We're going to answer those questions right on the show. So I want to get right to our guest today because I'm so excited. I have Mr. Joe Harper, who is the President and CEO of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and has been for the past 30 plus years. And he has weathered the storm through some ups and downs and hung in there through it all. So we are going to learn from all the trials and tribulations she's been through and to bring that track to record highs. He's also the grandson of the late Hollywood director, famed director Cecil B. DeMille. So he's had quite an interesting past and present. So we want to hear all about it. So I'm very proud to introduce my friend, Joe Harper. Thank you so much for being here.

Kidding. Thanks for having me on your show, Ali. It's a terrific show.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Well, it's just you have, you know, it's like, where do we start? You've had such an incredible life and I want to talk about the racetrack and entrepreneurs watching the show. And so they're going to be like, how has he done this for 30 years and hung in there? Right. But I also want to talk to you about your interesting childhood so why don't we start there a little bit. And as I said in the intro that your grandfather was Cecil B. Demel. Who is that guy?

He showed up back in the teens. He was in New York, started out in plays, writing plays and directing them in the legitimate theater they call it. This is, you know, 19, just after the turn of the century, really.

Yeah.

And then he, you know, heard about Mr. Edison inventing this little camera. And they could actually photograph plays with the camera. And I guess. I guess they didn't have to pay the actors the only once. So obviously that's changed. That's changed, yes, but. And the original guys that were there, part of his group, Jesse Lasky and Sam Goldwyn and some of the great names in Hollywood in the beginning. So he formed this company, the Atlaski Players. And they found out soon with these new cameras that you needed a lot of light. And not like us here in the studio with all this synthetic light. In those days they didn't make bulbs that big or probably no bulbs. So they had to go where the light was and that's outside. In New York in the middle of winter, there's not a lot of light. So grandfather got on the train and headed west to where the sun shines. Took his camera and his little family, my mother and her mother, and they went west. They got off in Flagstaff because that's where they were going to go with the sun. But it was snowing in Flagstaff. So back on the train they got. And they got off when it stopped for good. And that was in Los Angeles. You know, he rented a barn and put his camera in there and shot most of the stuff outside. And the first film ever made in Hollywood, the first feature length film was made in Hollywood. He made, and I believe it was around 1912 or so, was called the Squaw Man. And in those days you could make more than one picture in a year. His later films such as the Ten Commandments and the Greatest show on Earth, it took you three years to make one of those. But the old days you could make three or four years. But it kicked off Hollywood and it was, you know, an industry was born and millionaires were made. And yeah, everybody took.

Just because he had a passion, right? And he went for it.

He had a passion and he had a great creative passion which is, I think, even stronger than. Than making money. I think it's like you just want to. You got this inside, you want to put it out. Here's this new media. I mean, you think about it, there Was no movies. I mean, this was all new. So it would be like some guy going around and said, look, I found a paintbrush for the first time. So he had all this discovery to make on what he could do with a camera. When does sound come along? Can he move the camera? Can he pan shots, wide shots, establishing shots? That was no such thing in those days. It was on a play. It was on a stage.

Now, he worked with Charlie Chaplin as well, didn't he?

Well, he didn't work with Charlie Chaplin. They were at that same kind of time, in fact. Interesting story. When Grandfather became successful, the first decade in the early 20s, he bought a house in Hollywood. A great big old house up on a hill. And there was one next door, not too far away that Charlie Chaplin lived in. Charlie wanted to sell it, and so Grandfather bought it and joined the two houses and made it one house.

And that's where you grew up?

That's where I grew up, yeah. Great big old, you know, 30, 40 rooms.

Yeah.

Lots of nice.

You were slumming it.

It was tough. Of course, I didn't know I was, you know, what I was in those days, it was just home, you know.

Yeah. So tell us about that a little bit, because here you are, you know, this little kid, you've got Hollywood actors and movies running around. And I know your. Your parents were also involved in the industry. What was that like for you?

Well, you know, it's hard looking back on. It was terrific, you know, then when it was happening, I just thought, this is the way people, you know, lived. I mean, I. It was always around the set, the studio, everything. Conversation was always about whatever picture was being filmed at the time. You know, you'd come home and, you know, Charlton Hestig would be sitting in the living room or Hop Along Cassidy or, you know, Anthony Quinn. Actually, Anthony Quinn was my uncle, and he ended up marrying my mother's sister. So there was a lot in the family. There was a lot of theatrical presence. And so it was just great growing up because a lot of the things that my family did, all of us did it. So when we went to the studio, I'd go to the studio. And as a little kid, I remember sitting on a stool next to Grandfather when he was filming the Samson and Delilah back in the late 40s with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. And there's a great scene in it where Samson pushes the temple down. And I just happened to be at the studio that day when the temple came over. It was all done in miniatures, but miniatures instead of 100ft, they were 20ft. So it still made a big bang when it fell down. I remember that.

And that's pretty cool to a young kid.

Oh, I mean, it's terrific. You know, and I mean, you'd go to lunch in the commissary and, you know, you're sitting next to some guy dressed as King Arthur or Spaceman or. I mean, it was always. It was like that. It was a fascinating world. You know, it was this kind of like fake world out there, but it was real. I mean, the people that, you know, you knew, well, he's not Pharaoh, that's Uncle Yule. You know, I mean, it was Brenner. Yule Brenner, my pal, you know, so it was. It wasn't Moses. It was. It was Chuck Heston.

Yeah. So you got to talk to God too, because I heard he was the voice of God.

The voice of God? Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. I mean, growing up meant working in the pictures too, because after a while, you know, you had to go earn some money, you know. And so my first picture that I did with grandfather was. Was the Greatest show on Earth and one actually won an Oscar for best picture of the year of 1952.

And, you know, I'm a trapeze artist.

I know.

That's like one of my favorite movies.

It was. I actually got a little time on a trapeze. Yeah. Which was terrifying. So don't ask me to come out there with you because I Scary. But it was fun because we got to travel with the circus and he shot it. We shot the real circus and cut it into the theatrical part of the picture. So it was just fun, you know, on the train going from town to town with the lions and tigers and clowns. And the clowns are always crazy.

So that scene where they. Because where the catcher is catching and they do the kiss, was that real?

That was real. Actually, it was interesting because Betty Hutton played the flyer in the picture, the trapeze artist. And she was. She was a really hard worker, gung ho lady, neat lady. And she actually learned how to be a trapeze. She must. Did a lot of the stuff that you're doing. And she was. Yeah, they were up there and they tried to get her a double, but she said, no, no, I want to do this. I can do it. And Cornell Wild was the catcher for her. And so it was interesting. It was fun. It was great because my scene in the picture was when the train wreck comes along and there's this huge Train wreck. Two circus trains run into each other, if you remember it all. But it's the wild animals get loose and people are throwing around and fires and everything. And, you know, that's all before digital stuff came out. So it's an amazing spectacle to see in 19. And then we shot it late 50s, early 51. So it was. It was amazing to see that kind of thing on the screen for the first time, really, with that much action right now.

You said you were chased by.

Yeah, well, my scene was. I had to come out from underneath the wreck. I was a circus performer and I had a little toy soldier. And I think at the time I was about 7 or 8 years old. And I come crawling out from underneath this Pullman car that's on fire, and. And I drop my toy and I have to bend and pick it up. And when I pick it up, this panther who's loose makes a run at me and tries to get me. And I scream and I pick up my toy and I run down the set and the panther's chasing me. And just as it gets to me, the trainers come and tackle it down. And I run into this lady's arms, supposed to be my mother. And it's a great big, long scene with lots of action on it. And I remember I was dressed in a bathrobe because it was late at night and supposed to be on the train. And the assistant director, a great guy, and Chico Day said, now, Jody. They call me Jody those days. He said, now, I want you to look scared. I said, okay. So I'm down there waiting for my cue. Well, so was the panther. And his trainer had a hold of him, like, with both hands, holding this thing and going, you know, that looks scared. All I can see was this breath coming at me and these eyes. And I came out of there like a shot.

Okay, you didn't have to act.

No, no, no, that was the real thing. It was a real thing. And it was funny because, I mean, it was so scary. I saw the. The rushes the next day, what they'd shot the previous day. And I saw this whole scene, and it was. It was scary. It was. It looked like the kid me was going to get eaten by this panther, mauled. And because it came very close, the panther, I knew my mark, but the panther kept moving his mark because he knew where the catcher, the guy was going to catch him. So he. He'd move over and get a little better shot at me.

Well, if something happened, you couldn't actually. You couldn't really sue your Grandfather.

No. Well, I think that was it because they said that before the whole thing. They said, well, we need a kid that you know is going to be in harm's way. And, well, we'll use Jody because he won't sue us. You know, it was so scary. The funny thing was, of course, it was so scary looking at that that they cut the whole thing out of the picture.

Oh, really?

Because this was 1952 release and it was supposed to be kind of like a Disney deal and they couldn't have child endangerment in pictures. And so somewhere on the floor of a cutting room.

My best stuff would love to see that. Now, you also rode in the chariot with Charlton Heston when he had his first, well, he training chariot lesson.

Charlton Heston's first chariot lesson was not. It was way before Ben Hur. It was actually for the picture of the Ten Commandments. There's a scene in the opening scene where he's Moses the Egyptian prince, before he becomes Moses the Hebrew slave. And he needed to drive the chariot. And so we were all in Egypt on location with the chariots and he said, I need a lesson. And the guy that took him, he was a major in the Egyptian cavalry. He was in charge of all the chariots and stuff. And he. He gave him a lesson and he said, hey, why don't you hop in here? So I got in the chariot with Heston and Abbas and took off. I was terrified, of course, because Heston didn't know what he was doing at that time. And Abbas was kind of half trying to scare me, but it was a wild ride out in the Sahara desert with Charlton Heston and this guy.

Oh, my gosh.

But Heston picked it up and, you know, a few years later he was in Ben Hurs.

Yeah. And he did an amazing job in that, too. That was incredible. Wow. So, you know, and then you said at a young age too. I mean, here you had all this excitement too. But then you were sent off to boarding school at a young age. And I mean, we know that a lot of kids growing up in Hollywood, let's be honest, some of them get kind of messed up. How is it that you turned out so great?

I got lucky there? Well, it's true. I was sent away at boarding school when they would go on location or I wasn't working in a picture. And so I went to, in the third grade, was sent off to Black Fox military school in Hollywood. And everybody in every kid in there was somebody's kid. You know, whether it was Jimmy Stewart's kids were there and Kirk Douglas kids were there. I think Mike Douglas wrote in my yearbook in the third grade. So it was always there. And it was tough because a lot of these kids, you know, they had three or four different families. You know, I remember going home for Christmas vacation or getting ready to go home. And one of the kids hadn't met his new mother yet, you know. And one kid was looking forward to. Because she was some, you know, some movie star that he hadn't met before. And, you know, so it's always funny, those conversations were just so bizarre. You know, Uncle Daddy, this. And I can't decide which house to go to or which family to see. But I was always good at it because I. You know, our family was very busy, but they were a great family. And although they were gone a lot being raised in a house as big as we'd had in those days I mean, there were probably at least 10 to 12 people that worked there full time between the maids and the cooks and the secretaries and the gardeners and the laundresses. And so lunchtime, it was terrific. It was like the United nations because they were all from different countries, you know. And so we, you know, the cook was Hungarian, the maid was Finnish the cleaning lady was German and the chauffeur was an American.

Right. They were like your surrogate family.

They really were. I mean, they loved me. I love them. And in the weekends, if I couldn't go home from boarding school because nobody was there one of them would come and pick me up and take me to their house for the weekend. So I have lots of love. You got lots of love? Yeah, yeah. And I think that's what. That's what does it really.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And so, just. So moving on from that period of time how did you get from this, you know, Hollywood childhood to end up being the president of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club?

Well, I think when they finally threw me out of my last college I decided that I better go back in the motion picture business where I felt comfortable. And I ended up at MGM Studios in the mail room where everybody goes to the mailroom. When you start again, everybody's kid was somebody in the mailroom.

You know, you must have had a lot of mail coming in.

Yeah, yeah. So it was fun there. And I actually ended up a cinema photographer. Ended up working for a fellow named Joe Burnham who did a lot of documentaries and a lot of them around the racetrack. And so my mother had always bred horses and I was very comfortable around the racetrack. It was either the studio or the track. And so I ended up at the racetrack doing shooting commercials for them and promotional films and some coverage, daily coverage of the races from San Anita, Hollywood park and Del Mar. And after a few years, somebody said, well, maybe I ought to go to work in management. So I ended up a vice president of Santa Anita. And then when the guy from Del Mar was retiring, I couldn't wait to, to come down, come down here to Del Mar, which was, you know, 1977. I started down here as a cameraman in 67, and in 77 I came in the management position. So. And it's been great. I mean, Del Mar is, I mean, it's the best racetrack in the country. It is, you know, hello, it's Del Mar. Yeah, I mean, how can you beat that? And, yeah, you've got a short so beautiful boutique meet, you know, and, and we've had to reinvent ourselves. It's been a very interesting time. I mean, I love it. I've never not wanted to go to work. Every morning I get up, I can't wait to get in the office. We got a terrific crew. They all feel pretty much the same way I do. And, you know, for seven weeks you make the magic happen. And, you know, the racing industry has seen, you know, a lot of hard times. I mean, here's, you know, it used to be in the, in the 50s, 40s, 50s, you know, you'd. With a Seabiscuit picture. Those of you seen it, it was a big thing. I mean, they'd get 80,000 people at San Vita.

Yeah, well, Seabiscuit raced also at Del Mar.

Seabiscuit did race, yeah. In the 30s, he came out with a match race against a horse called Ligarote, which was owned by Bing Crosby. Bing was the guy that kind of started Del Mar. For those of you who are or don't know, Bing Crosby, he was a very powerful guy, a singer and actor in the 30s and 40s in Hollywood. And he liked racing and he made a deal with the state of California that owns the track, owns the grounds there to build this racetrack and get things going. And he was, you know, he'd bring all these Hollywood cronies down. So, you know, Bob Hope and all the actors, the big time actors of those days, the huge stars would come to the track, as Bing said, come on down.

And it was like a Hollywood hangout.

It was a definite Hollywood hangout. Yeah, it really was. And, and that's, you know, there's nothing better to market your place with than a bunch of Stars. So the people came and when he brought Seabiscuit down, made a deal with, with, you know, the owner of Seabiscuit to come down the following year. That even got more play. So.

Right.

And it worked very well for Bing for a number of years. And then I think he got a little tired of it and the fan base kind of dwindled over the years. And when I got there in the 70s, mid-70s, it was, I think we were number 22 in the country.

How many racetracks are there in the country?

Well, I know there's probably 50 or 60 of them around now, probably more in those days, but, you know, now it's, you know, we had to reinvent ourselves and more than once when I got here, we had to reinvent ourselves just kind of on an operational basis to make it easier and then build the place into something that looked decent. The fact is that in 1977, the place had been falling apart. It's owned by the state of California. The people that had the lease before we got it didn't put any money into it. So when we got there, our company is a management company, we decided we're not making any money. We're not going to. Now, I say that we're not going to make a profit for ourselves. We're going to make a profit, but we're going to make a profit for the track.

Right. And that's a really important point, actually. Excuse me for cutting you off there, but a lot of times entrepreneurs have a hard, it's hard for them to grasp that they're not taking a salary from a while, you know, that the money actually needs to go back into the business to grow the business.

Well, it's like that old story about, you know, watering the well to get the well to work. You know, you cup of water there, do you drink or do you pour it down the well to get the well to bring more water. And that's what we were faced with. We knew what we had to do and we felt that if we, if we put all the money back into the facility, it would be a win win for us because it would be better. More horsemen would like the better horses would come here. With the better horses came the higher handle betting handle and with that came the more profits so we could put more money back in it. And it worked really well. You know, in the early days of that, of those leases back in the. Well, it was in the late 60s when we started this thing to keep the money back. You know, we were, you know, I think our first rent check was about 500,000. You know, wow. Our rent check last December was 13.1 million.

Yeah, 500,000.

500,000 to now 13 million year. And the same with fewer racing dates.

Yeah.

So.

And, but you've been able to tell us about, you know, what do you feel that your secret has been to, you know, the last several years, the economy's been down, other tracks are hurting, and Del Mar has got record highs. What's your secret?

Well, I think first you have to identify who you are or what you are. And, you know, we're relying on discretionary income. And we're, we're in the, we're in the entertainment business. You know, a lot of tracks think they're in the racetrack business only. And I don't. I mean, we're in the entertainment business and you can't expand your attendance and your market just being the same old, same old. So there you go, you start reinventing your image and how you want to bring people in.

And you've got to do that in a business. You've got to rebrand, you've got to refresh that.

And it's a very clearly marked success because you take some of the other tracks in the state at the same time. After, for the last 10 years, we really started, we reinvented ourself again. We started off in the 60s, we did it again in the 70s. And when, you know, and when. Ten years ago, when we started, okay, we're really, we're doing well, but we need to get that younger audience. We need to get the 30s and 40 or 30, 20 year olds. So, you know, first thing you do then is you go out and hire a marketing guy. That's that age.

Yeah, yeah.

Don't look at, you know, for the old guy, it ain't gonna work.

And then you did the concerts.

So we did concerts. We rebranded ourselves, basically. You know, we were always cool with Bing Crosby and the old Hollywood. Well, we just, we went from where the turf meets the surf to being as cool as ever. And we brought the old into the new. You know, our commercials didn't show horses anymore. They showed pretty girls on a Runway going through the fashions from the twenties to the modern day. We brought in concerts on Friday night, interesting concerts, bigger concerts on Saturday, maybe two or three or one or two a season, depending on what we could find out there. We introduced interesting sponsorships, but geared toward younger people.

So you got creative, really creative. You took a shift to bring in this new audience and really.

And when it was all Said and done. Here we are with the same product that say Hollywood park or Santa Anita has exactly the same horses in a much smaller market. And we're doing three times the business. And more than three times when you look at profit, because they're probably breaking even. And here we are at $13 million net profit.

Well, I think growing up in the entertainment business, too, it helped. You kind of think that way, too, maybe, where some others didn't have that.

I think you can't come in and rely on. You don't. You don't ask the people that are already there what they want. You know, Ask the people that aren't there.

Right.

Why they're not here.

Right. You're not here. Exactly. And that's about speaking to your customer and figuring out what they want.

Yeah, yeah.

Give it to them.

You know, it's interesting because what I learned was that your customer is that you want isn't your customer now. And that was the tough part for me. I remember our early years when we started this process. We'd go out and do market research, obviously, and we'd ask the people, why aren't you coming to Del Mar? And nobody could really come up with a reason, which is very frustrating. Well, you know, if the parking too much, we'll fix that. Is what. Whatever it is, we'll give it to you. But they just didn't. There was this kind of apathy. Well, yeah, we hear it's really nice, but, you know, it's. We just don't go there.

Right.

So. Okay, well, you don't go there because you don't really give a rat's petunia about horses. Okay, so let's give you something else. You know, let's give you Ziggy Marley. Let's give you Ben Harper. Let's give you Crazy Hat Contest.

Let's give you some Cirque du Soleil.

Right? And we did all that. So people say, oh, that's kind of a cool place to be, you know, and it doesn't matter what you're doing. I mean, you look at a bar that sells the same booze that any other bar sells. But why are all the people there? Because the people want to be there. They feel comfortable there. They're part of a bigger thing, you know, At Del Mar, you're part of a bigger deal.

Yeah, it's an event going there. I mean, I love going there. You get dressed up and people go on the opening day of the races, and they're wearing the big hats, and it's. You Know.

And where else can you see a Miss Cougar contest?

Yeah. Oh, my God.

I know. I'm sorry about that.

So. And, you know, you've had some situations where you've had to kind of stand up to your ideals. I know. In 2009, you put in the Poly Track to help protect the horses.

Yeah, that was actually. Yeah.

And I remember that you got a lot of flack. People wanted to pull their horses off because it wasn't fast enough, and you stood your ground. That must have been tough. How did you do that?

Well, again, you got to know what you want and stick with it. I think it was actually 2007. I think it was. And we had had a rash of injuries in the preceding years. We really couldn't figure out why, you know, and so in looking at it, we did a lot of studies of these horses. We did necropsies of them. We found out that there were some reasons. I mean, they were breeding more for speed, less for stamina. A lot of those horses were just tired. They were, you know, they had some problems. They had different kinds of shoes on. And so we began seeing a pattern here of why these horses were being injured, and some injured enough to having to euthanize them. So I really wasn't in a position where we could do anything for the horse or to the horse, but I could make it a more safer track or a more forgiving racetrack. So we looked all over the world and we found this synthetic track being used in the UK and places in Europe called Poly Track. And it was a mixture of sand and silicone and fiber and rubber and. And wax. And you mixed it together, and it. It was a very forgiving track. It was a slower track, and a lot of the people that bred speed horses didn't like it. And we got into some interesting arguments, some of them in front of the press, unfortunately. But. But.

But you were tough. You stood your ground.

You have to. Sure. Because it was for the horse. It was. It was an easy position to win. I'm doing this for safety of the horse. I love horses. You like what I'm doing.

Right.

And so they really. You really had no argument on the other side of it, you know.

Right. But it was, you know, people. We're talking about millions of dollars, people are talking about taking their horses away from the track.

And some did. Yeah, yeah, some did. And.

But now the other tracks are following suit.

Well, a lot of them. In fact, it's interesting. One of the richest race in the world is in Dubai, and Sheikh Mohammed From Dubai, loves racehorses and he owns a lot of them. Now, here's a man who has all the money in the world, but he also has all the sand in the world, which regular tracks are made out of.

Right.

So what does he put in? He puts in a synthetic track. He's got the entire Sahara desert at his doorstep. But he went in and put in a synthetic track because he knew how safe it was. And so, you know, when you, when you see those kind of guys making those decisions who could do anything in the world they want to do, and here he is, he went and put.

A similar type of track in and saves horses lives.

Yeah. And we've had, since we put it in 07, we've had a over 30% reduction in fatalities on the track, which is good because remember our 12,000 average daily people, and you look at the average hardcore racetracker is probably about 3,000. So that difference doesn't ever want to see a horse get hurt. And they'll walk out the old hardcore. So we're in a little different position than a lot of the tracks.

And tell us, Zenyatta, speaking of horses, I became totally enamored with this horse. And I know that she just had a baby.

She did, yeah, just a couple days ago.

And what was it, do you think, that people got so enamored with this horse?

Well, I think from one thing, of course, she just kept winning races.

Yes.

That'll get your 19 races in a row. And. But she did it with such, in such a fashion. I mean, she was. She was a ham. She loved the cameras. You'd walk her around the paddock, if there were reporters around with the camera, she'd stop and look at them. She'd prick her ears up like, okay. You know, she was a movie star and she knew it. And she was owned by some really nice people. And, you know, it just, it just, it was all there, you know.

And so she made Oprah's top 10 list. She did. I know, yeah.

So she just did it with such style. And so, I mean, when she would run, we were so lucky to have her. For a number of years there, she'd come down, she won the same race at Del Mar year after year. But she'd do it, she'd be in the back of the pack and you think, oh, no, she's gonna get big. And Mike Smith, who could ride her perfectly, he would wait till the last possible second to make his move.

Yeah, we were all like, oh, I know.

I was. Well, he. I asked, I said, what Are you doing Mike? I mean, come on, stop this. And he'd say, if I move her too soon and she gets to the lead, she thinks it's. She'll quit running.

Yeah, because she's just thinking, I just need to get out.

All I need to do is beat that son of a gun out there. And once I do that, hey, I'm done. So you better make sure that her nose is ahead right exactly at the wire, or else you're in trouble. And he. For 19 straight times, that's what she did. And unfortunately, their last race, she got beat just to zap. It was nobody's fault. It was a heck of a race by a nose. Yeah.

Like, if she would have been like this, she would have won.

She just stuck her tongue out, you know?

Now, I want to touch on this just briefly, that you have such a gift in. I mean, it's not just that you're making the right business decisions. You have a gift of empowering your team. People have come to work with you year after year after year. What is it that you. What is that special ingredient that you think you have?

I'm not sure I'll tell you. I think, you know, you've got to set an example of what you want your people to be like. I mean, we're in the entertainment business, Okay? I just tell her, look, we're going to have a party, okay? And it's just like you're home and you're inviting some friends over, okay? So you invite 40,000 friends over for opening day or 45. You know, treat them like your friend. You know, make them comfortable. Think about it. Where are they going to go? What are they going to do? Are they going to have trouble parking or where's the problem spots? And I think, you know, when you work with your employees, they understand what you want, Right? And I think, you know, I mean, I love those guys. I mean, I'll tell you, our staff is the best staff in the world. And I tell you, I tell them that all the time. You know, we have 1500 employees, and I wouldn't trade any of them. Now, they're the same guys that might work Hollywood park or San Anita, and they may not be quite as nice up there, you know?

Right.

But I think it's a combination of coming to Del Mar and your shoulders go down. Anyway, you're here. I know I work the other tracks. When I come to Del Mar, I was a different person.

Well, you feel appreciated.

Well, you feel appreciated, and I really do appreciate them. I mean, I Love those guys. I mean, I tell the new employees every year, I give them a little talk when they go through their training and just say that, you know, look, you have our life in your hands, your customer service people. You can turn a guy around so quick, you know, and that's what it's.

About, really taking care of your clients. And I think in this economy, the businesses that remembered that and, you know, really embrace their clients and, you know, said, how can we make them feel at home? They're going to keep coming back. So you've built those amazing relationships.

Well, I think it is. Customer service is where no matter what you do, if you have a customer, you know, you got to take care of them and you go the extra mile. I mean, you know, look at Nordstrom's, you know, right? There's three perfect example. But I think it's these other companies are doing it, too. I mean, I even forgot this company. I should. But I was buying something in some store, and when I got home, the phone rang. It was the guy just thanking me for being there, you know, I mean, just those little things, you know, okay, I'm going to go back there as soon as I can remember where the story was. But, you know, I mean, you can do that. I mean, I'll call, I'll go down, work at the turf club, work the clubhouse, the grandstand. I'll go down and thank people for being there. Was your lunch okay? You know, if it wasn't, you know, I'll make some jokes and I'm going to go in and, you know, kill the chef. And by the time they say, no, it's okay, I mean, you have to be. You have to have a personality. You have to be upbeat. You can't be down people with problems that come to you. You can't have a problem with them.

Right.

You got to solve it. You got to make them happy. You might not be able to solve the problem, but if they know you've tried and they feel good about the way you've handled them, even if you.

Don'T get the problem solved, but they see that you care and you're making an effort, you know, it really does make a big impact. So tell me, what's. What's next for Joe Harper? What's next?

Well, I was thinking of retiring, but the fellow that I've been kind of bringing along for 20 years took another job, so now I'm back.

Really? Uh.

Oh, yeah. So. Well, he made a lot more money going with me.

Yeah, but nobody want, you know, what's Del Mar going to be without you?

Well, it'll be fine. But I tell you, it's a love affair for me between Del Mar and myself and just the whole area itself. I live in Del Mar. Our kids were brought up in Del Mar. Grandkids are there. So it's a love affair, and I can't just walk away from it. You know, I got a great crew, and I'm trying not to boss them around too much, and they're trying not to, you know, cut my meat and tell me what to do, but they're close, you know, And, I mean, I could walk away tomorrow and the place would run smoothly. They're just great guys, and they all do a super job, you know, but it's fun just being kind of the. I don't know, maybe the don, the old man, just walking around making jokes and being funny. And I guess I'll keep doing that until, you know, until it's time to ease on down.

Well, when you say, oh, man. Let me just clarify this. This is. I met Joe first because we work out with the same masochist trainer, fitness trainer, Marcus Hian, who's an ex Marine, and we do these boot camps together. And one day, I had been working out with Joe for years. I mean, how many years have we been training together?

Probably close to five, 15 years.

Yeah, we've done mud runs together. Totally crazy. But, you know, you're so down to earth. I didn't know what. What you did. We're running in a boot camp once, and he said, allison, would you like to have a couple tickets to the Turf Club? And I'm like, yeah, that'd be great. How'd you get your hands on those tickets?

I know people. I know people.

Yeah, yeah, you got some. You got a little pull, so. But anyway, you are in amazing shape. And I would say, I mean, I really believe this. I'd love to hear what your thought is, is, you know, I do some intense fitness training, and it really keeps my mind clear. Like, I worked out this morning. I was a little nervous about this show today, I'll be honest. And it just, you know, got the nerves out of me, and it keeps me strong. Would you say, you know, staying in top shape and working out helps you in your business?

Absolutely. Yeah. Because it's, you know, for seven weeks, it's 24, seven. I mean, it is literally 24 hours a day. There's some days there where I might catch a nap sometime. We open up the track at 4:30 in the morning. I'M there sometimes on a horse, riding around, you know, it goes to late. There's always a party. There's always some social function you have to be at. So it's, it's, it's a. You have to be really in good shape, otherwise, you know, you just. It'll kill you.

Yeah.

And. And I think, you know, certainly Marcus has without killing me. Well, Ally and I are in this group and there's all these young guys, you know what I mean? I mean, they're like in there. And I say young. I'm gonna be 69 here in about five days or so. And so I have to. I'm working out to live. They're working out to look good. And it's working obviously for Ally. I'm still alive. You still look good.

You look fantastic. Are you kidding me? They're all going 69. No. Yeah. So in your family, man, you've got nine grandkids.

I do, yeah.

Wow, that's amazing.

Yeah, I've high school sweetheart and now almost 50 years.

Yeah. You and Barbara, that's so.

It's been fun. I mean, that keeps you going, too. And I mean, I really have to say that there's really almost no stress in my life because of my family, because of my friends, you know, because of the lifestyle that you've got going. And that's sort of everything. I mean, stress brings you down, you know, it's just like putting rocks in your pocket. And if you can get rid of all those things, life is going to be a lot easier.

Yeah. It's your attitude. I mean, you're always in a good mood, and I think you just attract good things to you, you know, when you have that kind of vibration. Good karma, too.

That's it.

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming here today. And I know I'm going to be seeing you back in the gym in a few days. And I know that all of you have learned a lot from hearing from Jo, and I really appreciate you.

Oh, thanks for having me, Allison. You're terrific. I'll tell you, this lady has done amazing things with her life, and you're an inspiration for a lot of folks, including me.

Thank you. Wow, you're so sweet. So we are going to be right back. Don't go away. We've still got more to share. I'm going to tell you how to get that mojo in your business. See you in just a few.