I'm happy, but it's only one day out of 81. Last year was a disheartening start. I thought we'd build, but we never really did.

I'm hoping that we have a better mix of horses and trainers to improve on last year. I think we have more horses here ready to run than last year.

Saturday was disheartening because I felt like our guys didn't believe at the end of the game [against Michigan]. One good thing is, we're not worried about who we're playing. It's tough going to Illinois. But I think we showed at Iowa that if we can get ourselves together, we can play.

We still have a lot of work to do. Purses won't solve everything. We weren't able to fill 200 stalls (in 2005). At least now, when we go to recruit, it gives us a little bit of a 'wow' factor that we didn't have the last two years.

Probably not, but they'll certainly have an impact.

I wanted to show that we were committed to maintaining our grade. This will help lure horses for the upcoming year. If you get a grading and lose it within a year or two, they're going to be very reluctant to give you the benefit of the doubt in the future.