Racing down Wall Street

- Magna writes down its investment in an Austrian racino:

AURORA, ON, Feb. 19 /CNW/ - Magna Entertainment Corp. ("MEC") (NASDAQ:MECA) today announced that it will record a non-cash asset impairment charge, net of income taxes, of approximately $59.7 million ($0.56per share) in the fourth quarter of 2006 related to Magna Racino(TM), MEC's racetrack located in Ebreichsdorf, just outside Vienna, Austria.

Sparing you the details of generally accepted accounting principles that few other than I care about, this means that there is no way in the world that they will be able to recover their investment in the facility. They have to reduce the value of the assets on their books related to this property to a level that actually reflects its profit-generating potential. The $59.7 million charge is net of income tax, which means the actual write-off is significantly higher. One wonders how long it will be until we see a similar press release relating to Gulfstream.

- Todd Pletcher becomes a shill for Youbet.com. I'm not sure if this has any significance to anything other than Pletcher's bank account, but I like what he has to say:

“A new generation of horse racing fans is discovering our sport online,” Pletcher said. “Youbet does the best job of taking horse racing to market for this key segment of younger fans and I’m delighted to be working with them to help expand the base and bring new fans to racing.”