No Auction for Santa Anita Park

[Hollywoodmike]

I'm adding the required link.

Remember to link next time, or the post gets taken down.

-- MaryS

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/util/presti ... le-7003274

Monday, September 07, 2009


ARCADIA, Calif. (KABC) -- The Santa Anita Park horse race track in Arcadia will not be auctioned off Tuesday as planned.

Officials familiar with the sale of the thoroughbred track told the Pasadena Star-News that no one made an acceptable opening bid, despite heavy interest. No other details were released.

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One deterring factor may be that Santa Anita is zoned solely for horse racing and cannot be developed for anything else.

The track's owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March. Still, the company reportedly has enough money to keep the track afloat at least until the first quarter of next year.

[Srotagtbs]

I knew Hollywood Park was on it's death bed, but MEC only has enough $$ to get Santa Anita through March 2010?? Can't pony up some money to keep it going or is he going bankrupt too?

Am I incorrect to think that California Racing is worse than I thought?

[Hollywoodmike]

I knew Hollywood Park was on it's death bed, but MEC only has enough $$ to get Santa Anita through March 2010?? Can't pony up some money to keep it going or is he going bankrupt too? It's unreal that just made a private purchase of Einstein for his Adena Springs Farm but can't pony up some money to keep SA going!!!!!!

[Hollywoodmike]

Thanks for adding the link Mary

[Billmose]

While we're on the subject, what does this mean?

On the official HollyPark site dated 8/29/09
http://hollywoodpark.com/news/750000-ca ... s-schedule

where they discuss shortening the Autumn meet the following is the 10th paragraph of that article.

“We will have the same overnight purse structure as Oak Tree,” said Martin Panza, vice president-racing.
“This is a one-year suspension. Hopefully, with more days at future meets, we will bring some of these races back".

Future meets? Hollywood Park? Huh?

[Bob B]

would love nothing more than to pony up the money and get control of Santa Anita at a fire sale price. The folks holding the debt are fighting tooth and nail to avoid that happening. The shareholders of MI Developments have not been too happy being Frank's piggy bank for his horse racing interests in Magna Entertainment. By declaring bankruptcy, the shareholders of Magna Entertainment were wiped out, the debt holders (MI Developments being a significant one) want to get as much money as possible out of the asset sales to get paid. If someone wanted to acquire Santa Anita and any of the other Magna tracks, one good way to do it would be to acquire the Magna Entertainment debt. I think Halsey Minor might have tried and Frank (being chairman of MI Developments - no conflict there but that's a whole other story) turned him down. For similar business scenarios see how Carl Icahn acquired the Trop in AC by buying the debt and pledging the debt as the bid out of bankruptcy. Another similar story is the Fertitta boys in Vegas with Station Casinos. These guys took their company private with private equity investors giving themselves a huge payday. They took on insurmountable debt to complete the buyout, went into bankruptcy, and then offered to buy the assets out of bankruptcy at a fire sale price. Boyd is trying to fight them to take over the Station Casinos.

The problem with Santa Anita (for potential buyers anyway) is that it is can't be developed under current zoning. I don't know the political situation in Arcadia, but if some big $$$ could change political minds, that land would be worth a fortune I would imagine. We sure know Hollywood Park wasn't worth $250 million as a racetrack a few years back.

[Lurker]

The Wolf knows.....welcome back!

[Moonwalker]

One deterring factor may be that Santa Anita is zoned solely for horse racing and cannot be developed for anything else.

This is a kind of relief, that it won't end up as a rubble pile like Bay Meadows (at least until some money passes hands to re-zone.)

Mary MMM