Santa Anita Taken Off Auction Block

Magna Entertainment, which owns Santa Anita Race Track, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March of this year.

Since then, the owners had hoped for a flurry of bids for the huge, historic and valuable piece of Arcadia real estate known as the Santa Anita Racetrack. According to reports, however, no acceptable opening bid has been offered for the world famous race track, and thus the property will not go on the auction block as was originally planned.

In March, Miller Buckfire, the New York City-based bankruptcy consultants handling the sale issued a press release that included the following statement:

Of the decision to seek creditor protection, Magna Enteratinment Chairman and Chief Executive Frank Stronach said: “Simply put, MEC has far too much debt and interest expense. MEC has previously pursued numerous out-of-court restructuring alternatives but has been unable to complete a comprehensive restructuring to date due, in part, to the current economic recession, severe downturn in the U.S. real estate market and global credit crisis.”

Michael Wildish, managing director at Miller Buckfire, was contacted Wednesday afternoon by phone. As of press time, none of the consultants had returned calls to confirm or deny the reports or provide any additional information. This story will be updated at www.arcadiaweekly.com as soon as more information is made available.

In 1998 Frank Stronach, 76, paid $126 million for Santa Anita before starting a multimillion dollar renovation of the historic, art deco thoroughbred horse racing facility.

The Oak Tree Racing Association has said that the Oak Tree Meet, scheduled to run from September 30 to Nov. 8, and the Breeders Cup on Nov. 6 and 7 will not be affected by any of these developments.

By Terry Miller

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