Comments on: Golden Gate Fields owner files Chapter 11, plans sale http://albanytoday.org/2009/03/07/golden-gate-fields-owner-files-chapter-11-plans-sale/ News and stories on people in Albany, CA Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:03:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Michael http://albanytoday.org/2009/03/07/golden-gate-fields-owner-files-chapter-11-plans-sale/comment-page-1/#comment-2683 Michael Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:26:41 +0000 http://albanytoday.org/2009/03/07/golden-gate-fields-owner-files-chapter-11-plans-sale/#comment-2683 Racing is in sad shape and there aren't many visionaries stepping up with sensible ideas to save our wonderful sport. Forget about its heyday, people flooded to the racetrack in the old days because they wanted to see great horses compete against each other and because if you wanted to make a bet, you had no choice but to go to the racetrack. Today it's much different. The good horses rarely race after age four unless they are geldings, and trainers don't like their horses to carry weight. Track management was blind to the tremendous opportunities the Internet could bring to racing. They blew it! And now, they're playing catch up, but they've fallen too far behind. The economic crisis made it worse for sure, but racing's leaders dropped the ball way before the Wall Street disaster. Racing is in sad shape and there aren’t many visionaries stepping up with sensible ideas to save our wonderful sport. Forget about its heyday, people flooded to the racetrack in the old days because they wanted to see great horses compete against each other and because if you wanted to make a bet, you had no choice but to go to the racetrack. Today it’s much different. The good horses rarely race after age four unless they are geldings, and trainers don’t like their horses to carry weight. Track management was blind to the tremendous opportunities the Internet could bring to racing. They blew it! And now, they’re playing catch up, but they’ve fallen too far behind. The economic crisis made it worse for sure, but racing’s leaders dropped the ball way before the Wall Street disaster.

]]> By: Bill http://albanytoday.org/2009/03/07/golden-gate-fields-owner-files-chapter-11-plans-sale/comment-page-1/#comment-2232 Bill Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:24:00 +0000 http://albanytoday.org/2009/03/07/golden-gate-fields-owner-files-chapter-11-plans-sale/#comment-2232 In the current edition of Berkeley Daily Planet, Richard Brenneman on page three reports that the $195MM so-called "stalking horse bid" is not for GGF alone, but for: three race tracks (GGF, Pimlico, and Lone Star), as well as Magna's odd-processing firm, a betting service and other real estate. By simple division, that would seem to put the amount of the "bid" for GGF at something like half of the $80+ MM that Magna paid Ladbroke for GGF a decade ago. In the current edition of Berkeley Daily Planet, Richard Brenneman on page three reports that the $195MM so-called “stalking horse bid” is not for GGF alone, but for: three race tracks (GGF, Pimlico, and Lone Star), as well as Magna’s odd-processing firm, a betting service and other real estate.

By simple division, that would seem to put the amount of the “bid” for GGF at something like half of the $80+ MM that Magna paid Ladbroke for GGF a decade ago.

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