Somebody get a tourniquet!!

[PaceAdvantage]

Apparently, Magna totally blew it's earnings in the 2nd quarter....consensus was a loss of .09/share, and they lost .25/share.....BIG MISS....of course, creative accounting could be the cause of this, and in the wacky world of Wall Street, this could be seen as good news.....LOL

Is this the kind of leadership and performance they expect to bring to New York if they win the NYRA bid? :lol:

In announcing these results, Tom Hodgson, President and Chief Executive Officer of MEC, remarked: "Our financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2005 are disappointing in absolute terms, and as compared to the prior year.

Magna Reports 2nd Quarter Loss of $26.9M (http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=29368)
Feeling the pinch of losing its Bay Meadows lease and the continued drain brought on by the rebuilding Gulfstream Park and Laurel, Magna Entertainment reported $26.9 million in second-quarter losses, the company disclosed Thursday. That translates to a loss of 25 cents a share. Blood-Horse (http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=29368)

[andicap]

No slots in certain states, no income. E.g. Maryland.

And GP renovations had to cost them a pretty penny too. (I haven't read the full financial report yet.)
Wonder if the GP overhaul will actually bring them more business next year.

It's too bad. I do agree with their overall philosophy of buiding "entertainment centers," and retail destinations at racetracks. It's just difficult to do without a heavy income stream and you need slots and more to do that. That's why I don't blame them for the poor state of Pimlico. The state won't allow them to compete with neighboring states by allowing MD to have slots.


While wishing them luck, I do not necessarily want them to run NY racing - who wants someone in here in financial trouble?

[kenwoodallpromos]

I guess the kids nowadays think horses are too slow and old-fashioned for the 21st century. I wonder why the Indy 500 draws 300,000 people?
Maybe some people just think horseracing is just too slow, boring, expensive.
Magna sund the fastest tracks in the country and it seems some of them were either off tracks over the winter or tore up for rebuilding.
Magna made his initial billions on car parts, not horses. Horses is where you invest your money After you made it in other sports, entertainment, medicine, casinos, or cars (like Seabiscuit's owner!).
Maybe Magna will start allowing kids to have "sideshows" at his tracks!LOL!

[skate]

? cause its one race per year

[NoDayJob]

[QUOTE=PaceAdvantage]Apparently, Magna totally blew it's earnings in the 2nd quarter....consensus was a loss of .09/share, and they lost .25/share.....BIG MISS....of course, creative accounting could be the cause of this, and in the wacky world of Wall Street, this could be seen as good news.....LOL

Since S&P, under pressure, changed from "company earnings" to "operating earnings", balance sheets leave out important things like INTEREST ON DEBT. HELLO! Any reference to P/E ratios are at best, in many cases, double of what is reported. Of course this will distort earnings, BIG TIME. I wonder how much debt Magna has? 10-K's please.

:D NDJ [AKA Troll #1] :D

[toetoe]

Funny, but racing's slowness only becomes apparent as one delves into it. At first sight, it's fast and furious, donchathink?

[chrisg]

I guess the kids nowadays think horses are too slow and old-fashioned for the 21st century. I wonder why the Indy 500 draws 300,000 people?


You got me thinking. All they do is watch cars go around in circles for four hours. With a little bit of advertising, I wonder how much I could charge to have people watch me go in circles all day...the chair to the refrigarator to the chair to the refrigarator to the chair to the refrigarator... @ some point I might stub a toe, run a vacuum...that should be plenty of mind-numbing experience for them

:D
:faint:

[depalma13]

As bad as the earnings report was, Magna is still on track to turn a profit in 2007. Now is the time to buy this stock. There is far too much good on the horizon with this company than there is negative. Slots in Florida and Pennsylvania, the casino at Remington Park, completed construction in Maryland and Florida, and better weather in California will have this company turning the corner very soon.

[andicap]

As bad as the earnings report was, Magna is still on track to turn a profit in 2007. Now is the time to buy this stock. There is far too much good on the horizon with this company than there is negative. Slots in Florida and Pennsylvania, the casino at Remington Park, completed construction in Maryland and Florida, and better weather in California will have this company turning the corner very soon.

Spoken like a desperate shareholder eager to prop up the stock...

(I know its not a Magna flack but the company has no pr people)

[Macdiarmadillo]

depalma13 wrote:
. . . and better weather in California will have this company turning the corner very soon.
Where's this come from? No cards have been cancelled or even shortened due to weather. It's not gonna rain slot machines in the near future there either.

[CryingForTheHorses]

When the slots finally come to Broward County,There will be a influx of horses waning to race here for the winter months like never been seen before, Horseman and owners who like to race will find the Gulfstream dates perfect for their horse,There will be huge purses.. Lets face it, ALL owners would love to race a horse at Gulfstream, I know I would.There are going to be huge fields and Im sure lots of horses on the AE..You can laugh at MAGNA"S loss's but "Frankie" will win on this one.

[Vegas711]

If magna would suddenly fold does that mean all their tracks would shut their doors?

Stronach should have limited his racetracks to 2 or 3 and first see if he could make them profitable.He reminds me of a friend of mine who had an idea of buying 7 old cars, fixing them and selling them for a profit. He bought more than he could handle and ended up losing 75 % of his money.Lesson : do not take on more than you know that you can handle.

[JustRalph]

I wonder why the Indy 500 draws 300,000 people?

It doesn't..........anymore. I have some friends that go just about every year. They tell me that the Brickyard 500 (the nascar race at Indy) actually sells more tickets now. From what I understand, the Indy Racing League gives away a gazillion tickets to ensure that the stands are filled every year. Lots of promotion has been needed since the split between CART and the IRL.

[depalma13]

I'm serious, this company is not in as bad a shape as everyone tries to make it out to be. Even Maryland racing made $4 million more than it did at the same time last quarter. Had the dates on Golden Gate not been moved, their losses would have been less. The only downer on this company right now is Lone Star.

A full casino in Oklahoma should payoff quickly.

The slots are coming to South Florida and Florida is unique in that racing dates aren't assigned. If Gulfstream or Calder wanted to run year round they can. Now it wouldn't be good for business for either to do so, but as of now, the slots were approved for Gulfstream (Broward) and not Calder (Dade). The day the first slot machine goes in, there will be a winter meet at Gulfstream. Where will the owners and trainers want to compete? Aqueduct inner dirt, or a slot ladden purses at Gulfstream. The only thing that may stop that is if Magna gets NYRA.

You may not like Stronach, but what he is doing is going to payoff.

[depalma13]

Racing handle in Southern California was off $39 million between December 26 through May 6th with 315,000 less fans attending. Biggest reason cited for this by the California Racing Commission, weather. Even though handle was down across the state, the dramitic decline was in Southern California, where one card was cancelled at Santa Anita. At least seven stakes races were taken off the turf and over 45 inches of rain fell in a time period that normally had 10 inches (Dec. 26 - April 18). It was the wettest winter in Santa Anita history and the second wettest winter in last 100 years in the Los Angeles area. Horses couldn't train and when they couldn't train, they weren't racing. Entries were down to an average of 6.1 horses per race. 28 days were run on tracks listed as off.


In the fist quarter of this year, Magna's handle was down $33 million. The time when the weather was at its worst. The last month of the Santa Anita meet handle saw a revenue resurgence and it's handle was on pace with the previous year.

Now, I'm not going to say there weren't other factors that may have lead to a decline in revenue, but the weather was by far the most serious factor. Judging on handle of preceeding years and the large increase during the last month of the meet, I can only deduct that is southern California weather returns to normal, last year will be an anomily not a trend.

[skate]

horse racing remains the most popular sport in the world.


take a break


buy some magna