MAGNA Entertainment Corp worth peanuts

[Gallop58]

Open letter to Mr Minor:

Honeymoon's over for me...
I watched the Minor news with interest, but the latest comments and tact re: MEC and MID has put me off and now I don't feel like giving you the benefit of the doubt. Grow up Mr "Bad boy of silicon valley" Please give it a rest. I don't need you as a saviour. How about buying a track (you can get Fort Erie for cheap) showing us all how you can work your magic?
Don't you know that racing doesn't like new faces with a large mouth, we just like your money. I fell for the Hialeah return to glory altruistic angle, but jumping from that to buying a whole group of tracks with little to no historic value? What, so you can get your hands on Santa Anita and save it? Have a different plan for Gulfstream?
Too much of a leap, I think you just like to hear yourself talk. You sound like a trainer trying to tell an owner how easy it is to move that $10K claimer up the ladder.

What's your plan? What's going to be different? Is the the only way you can do it if you get a flagship historic track? Or do you have theories on how to do it in general? Anyone on this forum could come up with your ideas, it's just that in general they don't work. The Hialeah thing had a shot as it has some historic complexity, but now you your grating the chalkboard.
Call me skeptical... Formerly optimistic...

I'm sure your a very nice guy, but that's my view from the cheap seats..

Back in my hole,

Cheers.

[Hold Your Peace]

Played golf yesterday with a few GGF management guys and they have heard nothing regarding the sale of GGF. They tell me GGF is very profitable as a racing entity.

It's only going to be the profitable tracks that Magna has a prayer of selling.

No one wants to buy a cash sinkhole from Magna.

They're going to have to sell tracks that people would actually want.

[Foggytrip]

We need more silicon valley badboys and less old school crooks

[majxmom]

I don't think it's good for any one guy (or corporation) to own too many racetracks. Sooner or later they all get the idea that they should neglect or shutdown the small tracks and just use simulcast racing at the big tracks. Then the simulcast isn't enough and they need a casino. We were all better off with individual tracks. There was no better run facility than when the Donn's ran Gulfstream.

I just got my Bloodhorse and there's an annoying heavy stock insert for the Adena Springs consignment glued inside. And who is the most prominent figure in the insert? Stronach! A huge head shot. Why would it be important to them to have his picture in the insert instead of Awesome Again's or something? I've never seen a picture of Seth Hancock in a Claiborne ad. Did Stronach decide that himself, or was it a boot-licking advertising weasel who thought it'd be a good idea? I'm so fed up with that guy. That Farallon letter really nailed it.

[NorthStar]

The dangerous thing for California race fans is that both of Magna's big CA tracks, Santa Anita and Golden Gate, are worth much more as commercial/residential developments than they are racetracks.

If Magna bails out, we could loose both tracks to malls/condos.

Can you imagine NorCal without Bay Meadows (already closed) and Golden Gate?

Southern CA without Santa Anita or Hollywood (already announced their days are numbered) is a nightmare.

Good-bye CA racing, if that happens. We can't all race at DelMar and the fair circuit.

Maybe he saw this coming and that is why he wanted Dixon Downs so badly. Maybe he should try again now, with the market down, those folks may jump at something to bring money to the neighborhood.

[Gallop58]

From the 2007 MEC annual report they list GGF and SA (in that order I believe) as the collateral for some of their credit (one of the ones they keep renewing). If the creditors want out, the legal agreements would likely dictate what they get in lieu of their money, no? All this might have changed though.

I assume MEC gets to try their debt reduction until creditors say enough's enough, then the loan gets paid by dealing with the collateral put up. Then if that isn't enough things get messy/chapter 11, etc.

[zinn21]

Here's a link to the latest on Magna. It appears they are running on fumes and a Halsey Minor takeover looks like a real possibility.

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/nation ... loans.aspx

[Hold Your Peace]

Here's a link to the latest on Magna. It appears they are running on fumes and a Halsey Minor takeover looks like a real possibility.

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/nation ... loans.aspx

Halsey Minor is as broke as Magna.

http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.p ... n-lawsuit/

He's just hot air.

Remember when he claimed recently that he was going to bid for a Maryland slots license in competition with Magna?

Didn't happen.

Just like Magna he didn't have the funds to put up that were required along with the application.

[geowarrior]

I'm not 100% sure I believe everything I read in the Minor article (well I don't believe everything I read anyway). From what I understand, Minor is somwhat of a purist when it comes to racing, so backing away from slots may have been not solely a financial decision. If in fact auction houses retained paintings long enough for economic woes to cause their depreciation, the Minor may have a case - and we can't judge the merits of either side.

Anyway, Magna is a fire sale with substantial assets of value that needs an operator. Clearly there's a motivated major shareholder that wants to find an operator and if it isn't Minor, I bet they can find another one with credit, credibility or cash.

[Hold Your Peace]

I'm not 100% sure I believe everything I read in the Minor article (well I don't believe everything I read anyway). From what I understand, Minor is somwhat of a purist when it comes to racing, so backing away from slots may have been not solely a financial decision. If in fact auction houses retained paintings long enough for economic woes to cause their depreciation, the Minor may have a case - and we can't judge the merits of either side.

Anyway, Magna is a fire sale with substantial assets of value that needs an operator. Clearly there's a motivated major shareholder that wants to find an operator and if it isn't Minor, I bet they can find another one with credit, credibility or cash.

But where's the excuse for defaulting on the $25 million credit line from Merrill Lynch? He makes no claims of them doing anything wrong (which is amazing because he's very litigious). He just plain doesn't have the money.

And if he's such a purist why did he say just a week before the application deadline that he WOULD apply for a slots license and then not do it. He didn't do it because he doesn't have the license fee.

Anyone that thought renovating and reopening Hialeah was a sound idea obviously has a screw loose. For all his blowing and crowing about wanting to be a savior of racetracks, he's not in a position to do that.

It's going to be tough to find people wanting to operate any of Magna's tracks as racetracks because they're all worth more money being plowed under and used for something else.

We are going to need saviors rather than pure businessmen and we can only hope some in racing with the finances will step forward and be those saviors.

[jurneeka]

The dangerous thing for California race fans is that both of Magna's big CA tracks, Santa Anita and Golden Gate, are worth much more as commercial/residential developments than they are racetracks.

If Magna bails out, we could loose both tracks to malls/condos.

Can you imagine NorCal without Bay Meadows (already closed) and Golden Gate?

Southern CA without Santa Anita or Hollywood (already announced their days are numbered) is a nightmare.

Bay Meadows has been closed now since the August auction...actually there is really nothing left except for several piles of rubble and you can see the outline of the track (my husband and I rode our bikes past the site a week or so ago). It's horrifically sad. Go to "Construction Info" on their website http://baymeadows.com/ and you can see there isn't a whole lot left...I am kind of ticked to say the least because with the economic downturn we have even more empty office/retail space than we did a year ago and the housing market of course is dead as well. They could've easily kept the track up for at least another year or two and generated much-needed tax income for the state and local coffers. Now of course they won't be doing much of anything for awhile IMO.

My husband lived near Arcadia and actually worked at Santa Anita (as a parking lot valet and truck driver) back in the 1980's. One has to wonder WHY SA isn't on the Register of Historical Places yet! Jeez.

[majxmom]

Yes, I had to go to SFO a few weeks ago, and coming home I got off on Delaware Street before getting on the bridge to go see the old girl. There was an enormous pile of rubble pushed up around where the grandstand used to be, and stupidly, a guard at the gate to stop you from driving near a heap of dirt. Extremely sad for me...but I bet that guy is so happy to have his job still.

[Barbaro06]

Yeah with the late application for slots and being Magna being broke, I'm really pessimistic with the future of horse racing here in Maryland. All the talk about slots and the stupid fights over them and here we are. Sad, but true.

[zinn21]

jurneeka wrote:

They could've easily kept the track up for at least another year or two and generated much-needed tax income for the state and local coffers. Now of course they won't be doing much of anything for awhile IMO.

It really is mind boggling that BM was trashed in the middle of the greatest real estate bubble in this country's history. And the commercial real estate bubble is just starting.

The only explanation I've heard was BM Land had loans approved that would have been pulled had they not moved forward with their current plans. But why would they want to be up to their neck in debt knowing that office space, houses etc. are over supplied and dropping like a rock? I doubt if they can sell what they build and make a profit or break even for that matter.

[Bunty Lawless]

The dangerous thing for California race fans is that both of Magna's big CA tracks, Santa Anita and Golden Gate, are worth much more as commercial/residential developments than they are racetracks.

.

Oh yeah, the developers are lining up to build condos and houses they can't even rent let alone sell? Commercial real estate, with all the businesses closing is the next shoe about to drop big time. Pelosi and friends would probably confiscate it anyway for a place to lock up all the republicans.