Lake bankrupty
 

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...for-bankruptcy


Wonder how this happened?

Wow.

hmmm


When contacted by telephone, Lake told The Blood-Horse: “For you to print something in your magazine about this is a classless move.”

ok-so if he ends up not having to pay all his debts, is that classy?

I saw that too..When you are a fairly high profile person in a profession that has a Trade Magazine and you declare bankruptcy..yeah..it's appropriate to cover. That doesn't fall under "Personal" problem.

I agree. A classless move.

You agree with Lake? He reaps the benefits of positive publicity from these publications, he needs to deal with them reporting the truth no matter how bad it makes him look.

I don't see a horse racing publication reporting that one of the sport's biggest brightest stars has filed Chapter 11, is classless. Calling him for a statement is also part of the territory. A "no comment" would've sufficed.

This paragragh alone makes it newsworthy:

The largest 20 unsecured creditors filed with the petition are listed with a combined $1,177,479 in claims, including those with a feed company and veterinary groups, among others. The petition claims there are between 50 and 99 total creditors. The street address used for the debtor is the same as Belmont Park.

especially since the owners were most likely paying their bills to Lake. Anyone interested in the actual owed parties-amounts?

Not worried about the Vets. They will just s-u-c-k someone else dry.

Isn't it interesting that Lake just moved to Belmont "recently" too.

I wonder why he didn't use a barn in Delaware where laws [from what I understand] are better.

LOL.

that's what i think. he's high profile in the sport the magazine covers, of course they're going to report it.

i just hope he structures every thing in such a way that everyone owed gets paid. feed stores and vets shouldn't be left holding the bag.

Yeah, well, good arguments. I guess I can see publishing it regarding the racing stable entity. But not personal.

if he owes vets and feed stores, how can it be personal? seems like it would be involving his job...

edit~just re-read the article, this is the last paragraph:

Chapter 11 bankruptcy is generally described as a court option that allows the debtor to continue to operate his or her business while a reorganization plan with creditors is developed and approved

Guess it depends upon how the legal entity is structured.

You are kidding right? I hope you meant by Lake. This guy has been first or second in wins for quite awhile. There are thousands of trainers who win much less in purse money but somehow pay their bills. Seems to most likely he pissed his money away, and his classless comment makes that even more likely. Unless, of course, he invested all his money with Bernie.

I haven't seen Lake get much positive publicity from any publication.

Not lately, but he was the golden boy when he first started winning at an impossible clip. Just publishing his stats over the last decade has surely gotten him more business.

Who can forget those old stories about how he would have the 2 hotdogs for $1 special at a gas station next to Penn National for his dinner every night.

The guy probably salted away a couple hundred grand in cash - declared - and is now just going to operate in cash for the next several years.

Nailed it!

There is a trainer that frequents this Forum who was stretched to $400,000 in training bills by an owner. I know another who was stretched to nearly $700,000. Both likely faced professional bankruptcy as an option.

Since none of us know one iota of the circumstances surrounding Scott Lake's professional financial situation, I'd suggest withholding any judgement about the 'classiness' of the parties involved.

If you don't care for Lake because of his record of rules violations, that's fine, but it provides no insight into whatever forced him into the situation he's dealing with. I've met Lake exactly once and don't know enough about him to have an opinion.

And as an aside, when it comes to 'classlessness' there isn't much worse than kicking a guy when he's down. I'll venture to guess that within the next 12-24 months, there won't be a single one of us that aren't familiar with at least one friend, family member or business associate that will be in the same position as Lake is today.

which is why i said 'if' and that i hoped he didn't structure things in a way that those owed won't get paid. if lake is on the short end because of owners, i wouldn't want to see that trickle down to whomever he owes in turn.

"Cause I'm the taxman, yeeahhh, I'm the taxmaaaannnnn. And you're working for no one but me."

Jeez, I love the Beatles.

Would like to see the list of creditors. Anyone know how to find and pull the doc from court records?

Things are going to get a lot worse.
 

I know someone that is going to lose his job and to keep from paying him the company filed for bankruptcy protection. I feel sorry for him but not the company. They made enough money over the years to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

Amen...... Unfortunately I don't have to wait that long.

Damn that George Bush to hades!!

Obama will take care of Mr. Lake.

i think everyone can sympathize with those who are hurting, or have to go this route. but someone has to eat those debts as well. bankruptcy might solve a person's problems, but it creates problems for others in turn.

I agree with Steve. The sorry fact is that there an awful lot of people in this biz that don't pay their bills. It doesn't take long for an owner with several horses to run up a quarter million in debt on day rates and vet and shoeing etc. The trainer puts up his money to feed and care for the horse (that often is not worth the amount expended) in the hope that if it earns something that the trainer will get paid.
If the trainer has physical custody of the horse he is expected to provide at least basic care. Not to do so will bring the authorities on cruelty charges. In many cases that care is provided and not reimbursed until legal action or threats are involved.
I don't know Lake or anything about his situation but I wouldn't be surprised if his problems stemmed from an inability to collect on money owed to him. I have met him only once and don't know anything at all about how he runs his business so I have no comment about it.

I think the only point anyone was disputing was his comments about the article. Most weren't commenting on the legitimacy ( or non) of his BK. But when you file you have to know it's going to be out there.

i'd imagine lake is embarrassed as hell, but i can't believe he really thought BH wouldn't pick up and run the story.

Lake owns a lot of his own horses via Home Team Stables.

That's all I was commenting on. No matter what the story is behind it, it is public record and he had to be prepared for that phone call from BH.

Just because he's been publicly exposed as a bankrupt.... doesn't mean he's down.

He was down in '91 and '92 ... at Penn National and having won a grand total of one race over those two years.

In a 3-year span from '98 through '00 he went 413-for-1,321 (31% wins) and a God like $2.23 ROI with sprinters. Bernie Madoff couldn't even do that.

If ever a trial was held for crimes of perverting the handicapping process... Lake would without question be the one guy most guilty.

Like someone with his supernatural gift of magically transforming cheap speed sprinters is ever going to be down.

Most have been shocked they'd come at a little guy like him - I mean this decade alone he's won over 3,900 races and his stable has made almost $80 million in earnings - small potateos.

Now this really nailed it. It is amazing how we can be so out of control as to post without thinking.

Hard to comprehend that legitimate expenses "doesn't take long ... to run up a quarter million in day rates, vet , and shoeing." I'd have to question if the owner was getting fleeced .

http://www.drf.com/news/article/102254.html

"Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxmaaaannnn...."

This is exactly why I am a freak about transparancy in financial reporting as it relates to horse ownership/partnerships. I want to trust all of my business partners but the best way for me to remain trustful is to show me the money trail. In the partnerships I manage, I scan bills and send them to my partners. They see where each dime is spent. I scan the bank statements so they can see every bill is paid. Any manager of a stable that doesn't want to do a full accounting on a monthly basis shouldn't be a manager.

I had heard of Lake's tax problems 3 or 4 months ago. I didn't know the reason until today.

I feel for the guy - he trusted a friend that swindled him. That's the lowest of the lows.

I just think people are a lil amazed that someone who has constantly shoved chalk down our throats doesn't have enough money to pay his bills.