ICYMI.. Nice little Hialeah update in NYT
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/sp...irth.html?_r=2

Give John Brunetti credit for hanging in and adjusting as opportunity worked it's way around. Funny that he brings up hosting a BC.. I asked him on the air about partnering as a semi-permanent home with Breeders' Cup nearly 10 years ago.

i would LOVE to see hialeah host a bc. it's a beautiful track with a ton of history, it would be a great site.
and i'd be sure to be there.

I'd love to see Hialeah come back and get at least some Thoroughbred racing.

Spent a day there many years ago..............beautiful track and facility, totally enjoyed it. Saw a horse by the name of Synastry get the second win of his career in an allowance race. Memories..................

I was there 2 years ago with Sniper and Antitrust the day after the FL Derby. Still gorgeous.






There is no toteboard or stalls...would obviously take a boatload of cash to get it back to a thoroughbred facility

Didn't know the toteboard was gone - wow, yeah, that would take some cash to redo.

it will be cheaper than tearing down the old one which was an antique. they would have a huge high def toteboard....state of the art. Imagine how awesome it would be ?

You can't even get new parts for those old infield boards.Tracks have been trading what extra stock they have, especially when they get rid of one but there isn't really any of that left either on any regular basis. Some of these smaller places where you see deadspots in parts of the board can't fix them becuase there just are no parts to be had anymore.

Amen.

interesting how brutally honest he was in the piece. He hates Quarter Horse racing and the more he races them the more millions he loses on that product. But it's getting him a casino license and that's making up for the expense.

As much as a lot of us don't like the casino revenue propping up the horse racing product, the one difference here is you got a horse racing guy that gives a bleep about the sport, in charge of the opertion and would make those improvements to the tote board and back-side

maybe they could build a huge gated community around the place for retired hossplayers, who could live out their remaining days

Horseplayers retire?

It's a pipe dream, unfortunately. The area (South FL) isn't supporting two tracks running concurrently now, and do you think either of them are going to give up days for a 3rd track? Possibly it could have flown way back when Halsey Minor was trying to do something but Burnetti wouldn't budge. Now there are slots in Calder and they are pulling out all the stops including diluting Tampa's winter population by running their absurd winter meeting against both Tampa and Gulfstream. add a 4th track running Thurs-Sun all winter and it would kill purses even further. I would highly doubt that neither CDI nor Stronach are going to give an inch.

in Hialeah, FL... no less??!! :eek:

Hialeah is a great track but lets not nominate Brunetti for sainthood just yet. A big reason that S Florida racing is screwed up is because of him. I would go back to Hialeah in a minute if they had some sort of reasonable meet but I also cant blame Calder or Gulfstream is they dont want to deal with him.

Exactly

Only like the Mafia retire - it's sudden and unplanned in the end. Until then ... I need action! :D

First, ultimately there will be 2 tracks on the Gold Coast as a Stronach Group-CDI Calder deal will happen soon enough. (They were trying to finish it before the CDI shareholders meeting Thursday).

Halsey Minor? Do some Googling as to his current status. John Brunetti could have bought and sold Halsey Minor at any time. Brunetti knew he was a joke and dismissed him appropriately.

There's likely room for a companion facility to go with Gulfstream, especially given that stalls and a training facility will be needed when Calder goes. Payson Park is for sale and won't necessarily be around forever either which would add further need for barn space. Gulfstream had been willing in negotiations with Calder to give them some openings and there's no reason they wouldn't do it with Hialeah.

Steve,

Sorry I've been a little out of the loop with some news items lately. Please clarify what you mean with "when Calder goes". As in when they go back to just racing in the summer, or gone for good?

The most recent discussions included suggestions that Calder would be closed altogether. One of the ongoing obstacles to closing a deal has been the expense involved in renovating the backstretch at Calder and whether it is prudent.