Archive for the ‘Magna Entertainment’ Category

Monday’s filing came from North Run Advisors, a Boston-based investment firm that spent just over $25 million to buy 2.3 million shares in MI Developments (MIM), roughly 5% of the company’s outstanding Class A stock. Half of North Run’s holdings in Mi Developments were bought in early February. North Run said it has joined with other shareholders in retaining counsel to consider legal action against the MI Developments board, which is also controlled by Stronach.

What a long, strange trip it’s been.

Hard to believe, but it’s been just over 10 years since Frank Stronach dove head-first into racetrack ownership with his December 1998 purchase of Santa Anita Park. Or perhaps I should say he did so with his company’s purchase of Santa Anita, since the 76-year-old Canadian auto parts magnate and Eclipse Award-winning owner and breeder has been careful not to spend too much of his own money on any of the racetrack ventures.

The strong-willed Stronach was hailed by many, including this writer, as a savior when he first rode into Southern California and purchased Santa Anita for $126 million. The historic racetrack was then owned by Meditrust, a real estate investment trust that had little to no interest in horse racing, and there were concerns about the sport’s future at the “Great Race Place.”

Stronach had big plans: a new stable area; a gated community to replace the infield parking lot; a grand entrance hall of sorts where horses of all breeds would be in the spotlight and robust women in lederhosen would serve an endless supply of cold beer. “I have no plans to move the mountains,” he joked, in a reference to the San Gabriel Mountains that serve as one of American horse racing’s most beautiful backdrops amidst concerns that he was going to change Santa Anita too much.

One of his biggest early supporters was the late Bob Lewis, a major horse owner and industry leader who had been going to the races at Santa Anita for decades. At a meeting Stronach conducted with horsemen who were worried that Santa Anita’s traditions would be thrown out the window, Lewis stood up and said:“Frank, you and I have had our arguments on the track, but as an owner I want to thank you for your magnanimous willingness to go ahead with your plans for Santa Anita. You’re going to be a breath of fresh air for this place.”

Stronach invested in some capital improvements, adding the new Frontrunners restaurant atop the grandstand and making Santa Anita’s track apron more appealing for railbirds. But big plans for a new stable area and other improvements were put on hold while he turned attention to his growing appetite for additional acquisitions.

He purchased Gulfstream Park in July 1999 for $95 million from a Japanese company that, like Meditrust, wasn’t interested in horse racing. Optimism abounded that racing in South Florida would improve. He also acquired land in Palm Beach County north of Gulfstream and built a state-of-the-art training center.

Then came deals to buy Golden Gate Fields along with the racing license for Bay Meadows in Northern California (though not the land on which the track was located); Thistledown in Ohio and Remington Park in Oklahoma; Portland Meadows in Oregon; Lone Star Park in Texas; and Laurel and Pimlico in Maryland. He also built Magna Racino, a racetrack/casino in his native Austria (since closed), and purchased plots of land for the possible development of a new track in Northern California and another in north central Florida. He started a racing cable network, HRTV, and an account-wagering company, Xpressbet. Once, when he disagreed with something I wrote in Bloodhorse magazine, he threatened to buy that publication – and he was serious.

There were rumors Stronach was set to purchase Suffolk Downs near Boston, Emerald Downs near Seattle, Monmouth Park in New Jersey, even Fairmount Park in Southern Illinois, among other tracks. In some ways, he looked like a kid in a candy store, and racetrack owners everywhere who were looking to unload their properties were hoping to catch his eye.

Stronach controlled the majority of the voting shares in all of the companies because of how they stock was structured into different classes. That allowed him to handpick board members and run the companies the way he saw fit. R.D. Hubbard, a very savvy businessman and racetrack owner who has had more than a few boardrowom battles of his own, told me very early on that only a fool would make a serious investment in a company that sells a majority of its stock in non-voting shares.

Interestingly, this is not how Stronach ran Magna International or his hugely successful breeding and racing operation, Adena Springs, where management was stable for years.

In the early years, he seemed to love the limelight that came with owning racetracks. At a public forum at Gulfstream Park in 2001 that he used as a platform to publicize his views on the industry, Stronach said with glee, “I can’t wait to tear this place down.” Sure enough he did, rebuilding what many thought was a perfectly good grandstand and spending hundreds of millions to create a racetrack (and now casino) that is widely detested. He made similar promises to tear down and rebuild Pimlico, which would have been applauded, but those plans never got off the drawing board. Of course, Magna’s history in Maryland has been tainted by their recent folly in failing to file an adequate slot machine application for Laurel, after voters approved a statewide referendum last November. The company is now the laughingstock of the Free State.

Stronach also used his prominent position as owner of the nation’s largest racing company to air his differences with the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Breeders’ Cup, calling for democratic elections to the organizations’ boards of directors (while overlooking the fact that his own companies weren’t democratic because of the different classes of voting and non-voting stock). His ideas did have merit, and he deserves credit for helping bring greater transparency to some racing organizations.

Stronach once told me that he would “create his own Breeders’ Cup” because of differences he had with that organization. A couple of years later, he made good on that promise, creating the Sunshine Millions, an annual event at Gulfstream and Santa Anita that matches Florida-breds vs. California-breds.

The late Bob Lewis, his onetime supporter, began to publicly criticize Stronach’s comments about the NTRA and other industry initiatives. “Frank got mad and stopped talking to me after that,” Lewis told me. Then, with his broad, trademark smile, Lewis added, “So, naturally, whenever he’s at Santa Anita I go out of my way to reach out my hand and say hello to him.”

Clearly, Stronach can no longer be having fun as a racetrack owner. Though sources complain that he has surrounded himself with “yes” men at the corporate level — executives like Dennis Mills, CEO of MI Developments — he cannot help but hear the criticism that has come his way from racing fans, horsemen, state regulators, and shareholders in his various companies.

Magna Entertainment is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, and institutional shareholders in MI Developments are threatening legal action if they feel that company’s board of directors breaches its fiduciary responsibility by extending additional credit to Magna Entertainment. Though some of its tracks are performing moderately well in this desperate economy, it’s too little too late, and the debt load is more than the company can absorb.

It’s sad, really, when I think back to the energy (sans Frank’s Energy Drink) and commitment Stronach brought to this endeavor 10 years ago. He had ideas – some good and many bad – that he felt could help reinvigorate racing. I have no doubt that his intentions were always to make Thoroughbred racing more appealing and successful. But his appetite for domination of the industry and his “my way or the highway” management style were a recipe for disaster. Several former Magna executives told me they tried to talk Stronach out of many bad decisions, but he seldom paid attention to them.

“You’ve got to listen, right?” Stronach said during a horsemen’s meeting at Santa Anita in April 1999. Unfortunately, he failed to take his own advice over most of the last decade. Now he’s paying the price, but so is the rest of the Thoroughbred industry. No one can be certain where those bad decisions will take us.

Horsemen were notified of that development Wednesday by the California Thoroughbred Trainers organization, as Santa Anita’s parent company, Magna Entertainment, appeared to be preparing to file for federal bankruptcy protection.

The memo went on to say the funds will continue to be handled through the paymaster’s office but that the account will be managed by TOC instead of Magna.

The meeting will be held in the Baldwin Terrace Room at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., at 10:30 a.m. (Pacific).

During a public session, the board will discuss financial conditions of the two tracks and take action on licenses for the current race meetings and on the ADW license of ExpressBet. It will also seek assurances from Magna that the wagering public and horse racing industry participants are financially protected in the event of a bankruptcy filing under federal law. Of concern is money belonging to horseplayers that is held by XpressBet and owner, trainer and jockey funds held by the horsemen’s bookkeeper at the two tracks.

Horseplayers are particularly concerned because of a recent bankruptcy filing of the Hinsdale Greyhound Track in New Hampshire, in which account wagering funds belonging to bettors were frozen. Officials with the Thoroughbred Owners of California reportedly have had ongoing discussions with Magna officials about having access to owners’ money in the horsemen’s bookkeeper’s account if and when the company files for bankruptcy.

The CHRB also will discuss contingency plans and take appropriate action in the event Magna is unable to secure “debtor in possession financing,” which presumably would allow the two tracks to continue operations. Among the possibilities are substitute race meet licensees in the event Santa Anita, Golden Gate and XpressBet are forced to close their doors.

Magna has defaulted on one loan and has other debt obligations due in coming days that it is not expected to meet.

After opening the day at $.89, share prices in the company (MECA) had fallen to $.74 by mid-afternoon after light trading. The stock has fallen steadily since the reverse split was enacted on July 22, a move that dramatically reduced the number of outstanding shares but bumped up the price from $.37 to $6.56.

MECA share prices held relatively even until mid-September, when the global financial crisis began to unfold, and the stock has tumbled since then.  MECA closed at $1.75 on Sept. 30, spiked to $3.97 on Nov. 4, then quickly fell again, closing below $1 on Dec. 8, the first time since the split it fell below that mark.

MECA received noticed Feb. 12 that it had fallen out of compliance with NASDAQ regulations after share prices closed below $1 for 30 consecutive days. The reverse split was designed to keep the company in compliance

The racetrack operating founded and controlled by Thoroughbred breeder and auto parts mogul Frank Stronach owns such tracks as Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields in California, Pimlico and Laurel Park in Maryland, Gulfstream Park in Florida, Lone Star Park in Texas, Remington Park in Oklahoma, and Thistledown in Ohio. It has slot machine operations at Gulfstream Park and Remington Park. However, the company has significant debt and has never turned a profit. It also runs an account wagering company, Xpressbet, and is co-owner with Churchill Downs Inc. of the HorseRacing TV cable channel.

Plans were recently announced to restructure the company, pending the approval of shareholders in MI Developments, another Stronach company that is the largest shareholder in MECA.

Since Stronach took MECA public in 2000, the value of its stock has fallen 99.2%.