Be Very Afraid New York race fans

[slakboy]

From Cindy Adams (of all places):  Stronach wants to turn \"old and run down\" Belmont into a mall.  


http://www.nypost.com/gossip/cindy.htm

--
Smarty Jones wasn\'t the only winning smarty at the Preakness. In the clubhouse I sat with Frank Stronach, founder/chairman of Magna Entertainment, America\'s leading track owner. His turf includes Pimlico. Said Stronach:

\"New York should be the center of racing. Not Kentucky or anyplace else. New York. To make that happen I am prepared to invest a billion dollars.\"

I right away ordered seconds on the Maryland crab cakes.

\"I have 15 tracks - Gulfstream, Pimlico, Santa Anita. Your Belmont is old and run down, built back when people had no choice about what to put up. I want to create a whole new facility. A major entertainment destination center for the entire family. Track for the father, mall for the mother, games for the kids, adjacent Vegas-style hotel with big name concerts. And I\'ll build up the back end. Stables. Dorms. Housing. Training center for the people.\"

Stronach\'s from Austria. \"Same town as Schwarzenegger.\" But, trust me, he speaks better. He\'s also handsomer. He lives in Canada. His beautiful daughter Belinda came within a blonde hair of becoming prime minister, and creates media copy throughout North America. In \'62 he bought his first horse. He now employs 80,000 people. Smarty Jones should only keep running this good.

\"With all my tracks I could have a constant program going. Everything linked together. New York, with the greatest population, should be its center. The government has to make up its mind. A new licensing process is coming due in two years. They should just put it out for tender.\"


The man\'s right. Then, maybe, we might even have New York steak and New York cheesecake on the lunch menu at Pimlico.

[TGJB]

Holy smoke. Stronach found the only person in the world who would take what he says at face value. Breathlessly.

I want to be a fly on the wall at the board meetings where Stronach and Barry Schwartz square off. There is no way that Barry is involved if someone else is running the show.

[twoshoes]

\"With all my tracks I could have a constant program going.\"

Great. Six horse fields and declining purses for everyone. Hallelujah

[Silver Charm]

I promised Jerry I would lay low but this string will go away by the time I come back and I can\'t control myself.

This portion of my post almost went up last week before the Preakness after Stronach took control of the microphone last year on the NBC telecast and totally embarrassed himself with his \"We Are Going to Rebuild This Place\" lie.

Would someone introduce him to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

This is a Public Company he is running and to be out in public making all kinds of statements shows how dangerous he is. Someone call Pit Bull Shareholder Attorney, Bill Lerach of Milberg,Weis he will explain the definition of the law to him.  

The guy can\'t be saying this stuff and never back it up. He just said he was prepared to spend A BILLION DOLLARS, forget the Belmont Exacta unload on Magna Entertainment PUTS.

Also Jerry giving you a heads up,someone used the word syncophant in their post...maybe nothing.

[shanahan]

ouch!  forgot to proofread my sychophant post...just kidding.  \"slakboy\", if you are so close to Stronach, would you please tell us the real skinny on Belinda and Bill Clinton?  
Seriously, the remark about 6 horse fields is right on target...I am all for updating the fan base (better pools for us), but a mall at the track?  Frank must not be around GP when the Guess Who are making the horses rear up....

[TGJB]

Good point about Stronach/public company.

Just to be clear-- I fully expect the wack jobs to continue to swing from the rafters on the other site, but what I don\'t want is to have those guys affecting what is taking place here. What they do on the Ragozin site is fine, it sends guys over here, and that is working out pretty damn well. But it is one thing for me (or someone else) to go after Ragozin errors (the latest of which, the Derby lengths, they haven\'t even corrected, let alone admitted), and another to get into a squabble with the lunatic fringe. One is productive, the other just static-- and the only reason I even added my comments at all was because Mandown felt compelled to write that long post. I understand why he did it (he runs the data base, and by the way, there are few in this industry with as good a resume as his), but he\'s shooting a mosquito with an elephant gun.

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

Thats a dang Gossip column. That old needy bag was probably daydreaming that Stronach would knock her down and some loose change would fall out of his pockets in the process.

Money talks, but New York would be daft to consider any overtures from that moron. Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga have something Stronach doesn\'t and thats tradition and class.

Take a hike Frankie

CtC

[asfufh]

Don\'t underestimate Frank S. He built the Magna Auto company from nothing to a multi-billion dollar international company in Canada (where they often look sideways at the concept of free enterprise). Asfufh

[STB]

I\'ll be shocked if Magna is not running the NY racing show within a couple of years. Although math was my worst subject, the math in this case looks pretty simple to me: a very troubled NYRA\'s expiring franchise + Magna\'s exceptionally well-connected Albany lobbying crew = legislature giving control of NY racing to Magna. The lobbyists, who best of all for Frankie have the total mainline to Joe Bruno, are already hard at work. For instance (if I have my facts straight, and I think I do), a few weeks back Bruno spoke of \"disappointment\" over NYRA\'s refusal to enter into any sort of \"discussions\" w/Magna. Lo and behold, a week or two later I pick up the paper to see that NYRA and Magna are in \"discussions\" about possible \"partnerships.\"
Ah yes, I can see it now...\"The Shops At Saratoga Race Course\"....your full service mall and race track, featuring a beautiful new auditorium for those concerts featuring thrid-string 1970\'s bands...
Think I need to go get some coffee...



Post Edited (05-17-04 17:04)

[gowand]

I have been going to Saratoga since I was a baby.  The thought of Stronach getting his hands on this track makes me sick.  For all of the faults of NYRA they have kept the old time charm of Saratoga while making it more accessible to a larger nimber of fans.  Joe Bruno seems to like it as he seems to be there an awful lot on the taxpayers dime.

[miff]

GOWAND,I\'ve been at the SPA for 26 straight years.The best race meet by far.Stronach is an Auto Parts giant, who is an arrogant, egotistical, rude guy who has flourished in CANADA with the help of the Canadian government. This guy has HUGH resources, bad ideas, and is a real danger to Monopolize racing in this country.Sen.Bruno and company surely must know of the reputation of this imported clown, FRANK STROOONACHHH!!!Pardon my accent.

[STB]

I\'ll make book on Magna being at least a partner with NYRA and, more likely, in outright control of NY racing, within three years. A few numbers which I\'m basing this opinion on:

- April 1, 2003; the date by which slot machines (or \"Video Lottery Terminals\" if you prefer the spin-friendly term) had to be installed at Aqueduct in order for NYRA\'s franchise to be extended through 2012.

- $68 million; NYRA\'s debt to NY\'s Thoroughbred Capital Investment Fund.

- $10 million; NYRA\'s debt to NY\'s horsemen.

- $3 million; amount in Federal fines NYRA must pay as punishment for the mutuel dept. fiasco.

- $15,000 per month; amount Magna is paying Ken Bruno and his law firm for lobbying on their behalf in Albany. Ken Bruno is Joe Bruno\'s son, of course.

- $10,000 per month; amount Magna is paying Al \"Senator Pothole\" D\'Amato\'s lobbying/consulting firm. D\'Amato is widely regarded as Gov. Pataki\'s mentor and a key force behind his 1994 upset of then-Gov. Mario Cuomo.

- $110,000 per year to lobbyist Patricia Lynch, a former top aide to Assembly Speaker Shelly \"Marbles In My Mouth\" Silver.

Looks like an awfully weak hand for NYRA, at least to me. While Stronach has a lobbying all-star team ready to bring the full court press on the three guys who run New York state gov\'t, NYRA has huge debt, no real way of paying it, a slots installation plan that seems totally up in the air, and a state facing never-ending  budget shortfalls (which are only going to get worse due to, among other things, a court-ordered change in the way school districts get funded that could result in a spending explosion unlike anything ever seen in NY). Do I think that, when push comes to shove, when the lobbyists start making the Big Pitch, the state legislature, desperate for revenue, is going to make the franchise decision based on fears that Stronach might desecrate the charm of Saratoga Race Course? Not so much.

Saratoga is the single biggest reason I got hooked on this game, and I am indeed frightened about what Magna might do to the place if and when they get their hands on it. I just think it\'s more a matter of when than if.

Hope I\'m wrong about all this...

[TGJB]

Great, great post. I had heard about the D\'Amato angle, but the details are a shocker.

Dead serious-- why not send a letter to the editors of DRF and Bloodhorse with the same info? Or to Finley, Kerrison, the Times, etc.? The more sunlight on this the better.

[cfm]

Stronach is freak, and does not need to be telling anyone how to run a race track. Anyone who has been to Santa Anita and has had to stand inline for 15 minutes to make a bet knows what I am talking about. Or , you can ask the horsemen at Gulfstream about what they think of him.  Also, you make it sound as if he created 80k jobs in the horse industry, which is false. I personally think that his interests are not aligned with what may be best for the horse industry, and don\'t want to walk through a mall to get to the track.

[Silver Charm]

STB wrote,

>Do I think that, when push comes to shove, when the lobbyists start making the Big Pitch, the state legislature, desperate for revenue, is going to make the franchise decision.

Stronach is making one key mistake if he thinks that by acquiring NY Racing he will be taking control of the largest part the Thoroughbred Racing Industries Handle.


Jerry Brown Controls That.