Odds and Ends

- I guess that Rap Tale can rate. The filly claimed by Kasey K - y'know, the one that I hinted that you shouldn't bet today - won the second at 9-1. Yeah, I didn't have her either... I never said that she can't win, just that the race was called to Bruce Brown's attention by the racing secretary trying to get a fill, and that two turns on the grass is the main objective, which it is. I was talking to Bob just this morning, and we agreed that we really had no idea how she would run. But she won easily, with the evil Edgar Prado wrapping her up in the final yards. There's a Virginia-bred stakes race on the turf at Colonial in July that is being pointed to down the road.

- Trouble for Penn National's deal to be purchased by two private equity firms. It certainly isn't the first highly leveraged buyout to run into problems given the credit crisis.

The buyers and their lenders, led by Deutsche Bank and Wachovia, are working to negotiate the final terms of the financing commitments, these people said. The banks appear to be balking at the originally agreed-upon lending terms at the same time that the buyers are considering ways to cut the deal’s price, these people said.
....
The Penn National deal had been identified by some analysts as a potential candidate for renegotiation. Since the deal was announced last June, Penn National’s stock price has remained consistently below the deal price of $67 a share. Shares in the company closed on Tuesday at $43.43. The deal includes a $200 million breakup fee if the buyers cannot get regulatory approval or financing. [NY Times]

In Illinois, the company's Hollywood Casino in Aurora has been fined a whopping $800,000 for sending promotional materials to "addicts."

The agency said the business failed to omit the names of gamblers who had asked to be banned from all state casinos when it sent promotional materials to nearly 16,000 people in January. It says 146 of those who received the mailing are enrolled in the gaming board’s self-exclusion program, which allows problem gamblers to cut off their access to all casinos in the state. [AP]

And if all this isn't bad enough, Carol Gordon left her ATM card in a machine at Penn National's Hollywood Casino at its flagship track in Pennsylvania!

Police said Gordon's card was used four times for various transactions at local businesses, totaling about $68.50.

As of Monday, no one had been arrested in connection with the theft, and the investigation continues, police said. [York Daily Record]

I'll be sure to keep you posted of any further developments.