Magna on life support

Magna Entertainment did not close its racetracks on Saturday, delaying the inevitable by a day but there may not be many more.

Magna, or, if you will, Frank Stronach’s hallucinations come to life, lost another $113.8 million in 2007 and said its ability to continue operation is in substantial doubt.

So, here’s the score. It’s fourth and long. After a loss of $43 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, the company has more than $500 million in debt and has lost more than $500 million since being founded in 1998. Magna's auditor reiterated that the company cannot continue to operate without a substantial turnaround in its financial performance, a comeback of the type not seen on this planet since Lazarus.

Last year in circumstances only slightly less dire, Magna officials said that the company would seek to sell some of its properties in order to reduce its debt and hopes to fine new owners for Portland Meadows, Great Lakes Downs [which has closed its racing operation], Remington Park and Thistledown. Remington Park has slot machines. The others are probably not viable as racing properties and in the current real estate market are likely not viable for development.

Stronach said during a Friday conference call with shareholders and what few analysts are still paying attention to Magna that the company is also pursuing partnerships for its racetracks -- Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park, Golden Gate Fields, Laurel Park and Pimlico and Lone Star Park in Texas. It is unlikely that Stronach will find a benefactor interested in these properties, either.

Santa Anita faces a huge loss in connection with the failure of a $10-miilion installation of Cushion Track, which will be replaced at the end of the current race meeting. Gulfstream Park, a fine property before Stronach razed the building and replaced it with a dysfunctional white elephant, has seen disappointing results from its casino in an area saturated by similar gaming alternatives. The Maryland tracks, which may be permitted to install slot machines, are surrounded by tracks in Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia with established casinos.

In other words, what has always been a disaster inevitable in the eyes of virtually the entire human race, except Stronach, is finally at hand.

Magna's stock closed on Friday at 79 cents and the company recently received a warning that it would be delisted by NASDAQ if it fails to trade above $1 for 10 consecutive days prior to Aug. 11. The battered investors will love this solution: A reverse one-for-two stock split.


Better than she looked

By Jenny Kellner / NYRA

When Wishing Wishes first showed up in Anthony Dutrow’s barn last fall, it would have been understandable if the trainer had dismissed the New York-bred filly as just another horse. After all, Wishing Wishes had lost her three previous starts – two restricted allowance races and a $25,000 state-bred claimer -- by a total of 44 lengths.

But Dutrow wasn’t content to write off the dark bay daughter of Graeme Hall that quickly.

“I said to myself, bad horse, good client – so let’s try,” said Dutrow, who trains Wishing Wishes for Edward Lipton. “Back then, I could have run her in a $5 claimer and no one would have taken her. So, I ran her in as poor a race as I could [$14,000] to build something positive both she and I could build on. She won, got a little confidence back, she took another step, and seemed to thrive, and then another. And here we are.”

With three straight victories under her girth, the 4-year-old Wishing Wishes goes postward in her first stakes race Sunday, when she faces five other New York-bred fillies and mares in the 29th edition of the $75,000-added Broadway Handicap. The Broadway is race eight of a nine-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m. First race post time will switch to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5.

Also entered in the six-furlong Broadway are Wishing Wishes’ stablemate Waytotheleft, who won last year’s Broadway; Karakorum Starlet, who took the Ruby Rubles Stakes over a sloppy track at the Big A on January 11; Laurentide Ice and Tamberino, second and sixth in the Ruby Rubles, and Scatkey, who will be making her 2008 debut in the Broadway.

“Both my fillies are in great form so I’m happy the way they’re coming into the race,” said Dutrow of Wishing Wishes and Waytotheleft, whom he claimed out of Gary Contessa’s barn last November. But Wishing Well’s progress has been especially pleasing for the trainer.

“It really looked hopeless,” said Dutrow. “But there was something there.

“I looked back, and this filly won her first race,” he explained. “Most lose their first time out. She had no blinkers, and came from off the pace in that race. In some of her races after, she had blinkers on and was up on the pace. So we took the blinkers off, had her come from off the pace, and got her in with some bad horses. It made her go from one point to the next, and it got us to this race in great shape.”

The highweight in the Broadway Handicap under 120 pounds is Karakorum Starlet, the 5-year-old daughter of Skip Away who earned close to a quarter-million dollars last season out of trainer Jeff Odintz’s bar

In her last start, Karakorum Starlet was up close early and then weakened to finish fifth in the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel on February 16.

“I was disappointed in that race,” admitted Odintz. “She never really had a chance to relax and she got bumped around in the stretch. It turned out to be a tough spot with some fast fillies.”

Prior to the Barbara Fritchie, Karakorum Starlet had finished no worse than fourth in eight starts, including victories in the Iroquois Handicap, the Union Avenue and the Ruby Rubles for New York-breds as well as a pair of second-place finishes facing open company in the Interborough Handicap and the Smart Angle.

“She’s very consistent,” said Odintz. “She just keeps going. She’s always been that way ever since I got her at age two.”

Odintz laughed when he recalled those first few days with Karakorum Starlet.

“She came on the van with two other fillies, Karakorum Ella and Karakorum Dreaming, and you couldn’t separate them,” said Odintz. “If you took one out to train then the other two would get all upset. We had to take them all out together and train them together – it was like a choo-choo train. It took about two weeks to break them of that habit.”



Worth a shot

From Godolphin Racing

The Godolphin Seven Stars competition in the racing is now for entries.
The entry period for the 2008 competition closes at 11:59 p.m. March 28 (Dubai time).

The purse: prize $50,000 and a luxury holiday for two to the 2009 Dubai World Cup, $25,000 for the runner-up, $15,000 for the third and four prizes of $7,000 each.
Entrants have to choose 14 Godolphin horses, seven of whom are active at any one time.

Entrants are able to swap horses within their 14-horse squad during designated "Swap Windows" three times in 2008.

The seven active Godolphin horses earn points according to their performances on racecourses around the globe, while each of the other seven remains dormant until called upon.

The first day for the Godolphin horses selected to earn points is Saturday, March 29, for the Dubai World Cup meeting and final day is Sunday, December 14, 2008.
Entrants are encouraged to follow the competition throughout the year on www.godolphin.com