Archive for the ‘Hialeah Park’ Category

By Ray Paulick
Thoroughbred owner and Internet entrepreneur Halsey Minor showed he isn’t willing to take “no” for an answer from John Brunetti in his efforts to revitalize South Florida’s dormant Hialeah Park, claiming in a lawsuit filed Monday against Brunetti and the city of Hialeah that Brunetti is not the rightful owner of the historic racetrack.

Click here for a copy of the lawsuit, which was filed in Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit for Miami-Dade County.

The complaint, filed by Minor and Save Hialeah Racing Inc., a Florida not-for-profit corporation that Minor said includes Hialeah residents and members of South Florida preservation groups, is seeking to nullify the 2004 property deed transfer from the city to Brunetti. The suit claims the city had no lawful authority to transfer ownership because Brunetti failed on several counts to live up to terms of the lease-with-an-option-to-buy agreement and that residents of Hialeah were never given an opportunity to vote on the property transfer in a city charter-mandated referendum.

Minor was rebuffed after first approaching Brunetti last summer with a proposal to purchase and restore the track to its former condition as the “grand dame” of South Florida racing. Brunetti had operated the track since 1977, when a Brunetti company, Hialeah Inc., and the city of Hialeah entered into a lease-purchase agreement. The agreement, the suit claims, required Hialeah Inc. to offer live Thoroughbred racing, hold a pari-mutuel permit from the state, and “maintain the property and to make all repairs necessary to keep the property, buildings, fixtures, and improvements in the same condition as on the day the least agreement was signed.”

Hialeah has not run a live race since May 22, 2001, after which it lost its pari-mutuel permit, and its stable area has been torn down. Significant damage occurred when Hurricane Wilma hit Florida in 2005. The suit does not address who would be entitled to any of the insurance claims Hialeah Inc., or an affiliated real estate company, Bal Bay Realty, may have received following Wilma.

Minor, who has residences in Virginia and (like Brunetti) California, is president of Save Hialeah Inc., which a press release said was formed to “educate the public regarding the value of continued Thoroughbred horse racing in South Florida.” Restoration of the track and resumption of live Thoroughbred racing will be to the “benefit of the citizens of Hialeah and the rest of Florida, as well as the millions of annual visitors to Florida," the press release states.

Hialeah Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2007 the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Hialeah Park as one of the 11 most endangered historic places in the United States.

Included in the suit is a claim the charter for the city of Hialeah “provides that the city shall not give, donate, sell or otherwise dispose of city real property, parks or recreational areas without approval of the electorate in a referendum held at a general or special municipal election.”

No referendum was held when the city transferred the deed to Brunetti’s company in 2004, which the suit claims occurred after Brunetti’s company “ in 2002, made clear, that it intended to abandon thoroughbred racing and undertake residential development on the property.”

Questions about the city’s role in deeding Hialeah Park to Brunetti’s company were first raised in an article in the Paulick Report last October, which discussed, among things, Brunetti’s relationship with city officials.

By Ray Paulick

While the racing industry has been a clear loser in the demise of South Florida’s Hialeah Park, the city of Hialeah may have been dealt the greatest setback after the dormant track held its last race on May 22, 2001. It turns out, however, that city officials may be in part to blame for Hialeah’s current plight.

Hialeah is a proud city, and for much of its history the civic pride of the heavily Hispanic populace has centered on Hialeah Park. The fifth-largest city in Florida with a current population of 250,000, Hialeah has lost jobs and tax revenue due to the track’s closing. But there are intangibles that can’t be measured in dollars and cents.

“It’s been said and I believe it to be very true that Hialeah Park is the very soul of Hialeah,” said Alex Fuentes, who has led the Save Hialeah Park grass roots effort to bring Thoroughbred racing back to the place many refer to as the “grand dame” of the sport. “The track was the catalyst for the beginning of the city. The park was operational before the city was incorporated. It’s the coffee table the entire city was built around. Even the high school mascot is a Thoroughbred. Everything here had to do with the racetrack.”

It’s not widely known that the city actually held the deed to the track property and leased it to Brunetti throughout the years he operated Hialeah. A pass through lease-purchase agreement had the same terms as the mortgage, according to a source.

The 201-acre track had been owned by John Galbreath, the late sportsman who owned Darby Dan Farm and major league baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates. Galbreath paid roughly $21.5 million to buy the track from the estate of Eugene Mori in 1972, but wasn’t able to operate at a profit, reportedly losing several million dollars before trying to sell Hialeah’s pari-mutuel license and racing dates to Gulfstream Park in 1974.

That deal failed to go through, and Brunetti stepped in and arranged to buy the track in 1976 for a reported $13.3 million. It was termed a “complicated deal” by Audax Minor, who wrote a regular column called “The Race Track” for The New Yorker magazine. (For more on Audax Minor, whose real name is George F.T. Ryall, see this article in the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred.)

Minor reported the city of Hialeah paid $9 million, with Brunetti paying the remaining $4.3 million to acquire the racetrack. Before the deal was done, Bill McCollum, Florida’s attorney general wrote an opinion giving the city the right to purchase the track. Some of the terms of the agreement between the city and Brunetti were disclosed in McCollum’s opinion (which said the seller would receive only, $12.3 million, not the $13.4 million reported in The New Yorker). He wrote: “The terms of the agreement provide, among other things, that during the life of the agreement, the track will be used as a Thoroughbred racing facility and for other municipal-public ‘recreational and educational purposes.’”

At the end of the 30 years, provided he lived up to the terms of the agreement and kept up with his monthly payments to the city, Brunetti would be able to purchase Hialeah Park for a nominal fee of $100. However, sources have told the Paulick Report that other conditions of the agreement required Brunetti to maintain a pari-mutuel license permit.

Hialeah Park stopped operating as a racetrack in 2001 and Brunetti lost his pari-mutuel license in 2003. Yet the city of Hialeah handed him the deed to the track in late 2004 or early 2005 at the end of the lease agreement.

The relationship between Hialeah city officials and Brunetti can be called “cozy,” at the very least. For many years, a man named Esteban Bovo, who was a member of the city council and eventually council president, worked for Brunetti as his “asset manager.” Bovo recused himself on any council votes related to the racetrack.

The longtime mayor of Hialeah, Raul Martinez (whose 1991 racketeering and fraud conviction was appealed and defeated in a second trial), was a member of a Hialeah Park “advisory board” and said to be extremely close to Brunetti. (Martinez is currently running for Congress). It’s believed that it was near the end of Martinez’s 24-year run as mayor in 2005 that the deed was transferred to Brunetti, despite the terms of the agreement apparently not being met.

The current Hialeah mayor, Julio Robaina, is subject to term limits, which restrict him to two four-year terms in office. He is up for reelection this year and thought to be very motivated to bring racing back to Hialeah Park as part of his legacy. Halsey Minor, the Internet entrepreneur whose interest in buying Hialeah Park has so far been rebuffed by Brunetti, has met with Mayor Robaina on at least one occasion.

One option Robaina may want to explore, considering Brunetti’s intransigence to sell, is eminent domain – a government entity taking over private property for public use. That may not be a popular concept in a town populated with exiled Cubans, many of whom had their personal property seized by the government of Fidel Castro, but there may not be many other options. Brunetti seems stuck on a price that far exceeds the appraised value of the property as a racetrack, and commercial development does not seem to be a near-term option for Hialeah Park.

It is in the city’s best fidicuary interests to have Hialeah Park operating as a racetrack again. It will create jobs and tax revenues and help the local economy. By forcing the sale of the track to the city, Hialeah could reclaim the land it once owned and lease the track under a long-term agreement to someone like Halsey Minor, who wants to restore the track to its former glory.

The city owned and leased the property before; why not do it again?

“An economist can measure what this has cost us,” Alex Fuentes said of the loss of Hialeah Park as an operating racetrack. “But the city has lost a lot of pride and sense of place and respect. There is no other city like Hialeah. The people here have lost a sense of their own identity.” 

By Ray Paulick

Halsey Minor, the technology entrepreneur and Thoroughbred owner and breeder whose bid to purchase Hialeah Park was recently rebuffed by owner John Brunetti, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the auction company Sotheby’s for transparency and disclosure issues that may parallel those in the Thoroughbred auction business.

Minor, 43, was sued by the New York-based Sotheby’s for $16.8 million last month after he failed to pay for three works of art he purchased through the auction house in May, including $8.6 million for the “Peaceable Kingdom With the Leopard of Serenity,” by 19^th Century American folk artist Edward Hicks. On Tuesday morning in federal court in the Northern District of California, Minor filed a class-action claim against Sotheby’s for deceptive practices, unjust enrichment and fraud, plus one individual count of breach of fiduciary duty. (Click here for a copy of the suit.)

The lawsuit stems from Minor’s claim that Sotheby’s was deceptive in not disclosing its own economic interest in the artwork he purchased. Sotheby’s was owed money by art collector Ralph Esmerian, the suit claims, and the debt was secured by the works of art that Minor purchased, with Sotheby’s allegedly retaining the proceeds from the sale in order to reduce the debt. Sotheby’s failed to disclose those details verbally or in its sale catalogue, which the suit claims is a violation of New York statute and common law.

Furthermore, it is claimed, Dara Mitchell, director of the American Paintings Department for Sotheby’s, acted as an advisor to Minor and recommended the purchase of “Peaceable Kingdom” and steered him away from other works. The suit states: “Sotheby’s took on obligations to plaintiff beyond those of an independent auction house or traditional middleman when engaged as art consultant and purchasing agent … Sotheby’s breached its fiduciary duty to plaintiff by intentionally and in bad faith concealing from plaintiff information concerning its economic interest in the auctioned property.”

Minor seeks to represent what the suit projects are thousands of other buyers who may have purchased property at Sotheby’s auctions in which Sotheby’s had an undisclosed economic interest. Proposed class-action members can be identified and located through access to Sotheby’s records, the suit states. It seeks relevant information about previous buyers from Sotheby’s over a six-year period.

The issue of a sale company’s economic interest in property it sells has not come up in legal action in the Thoroughbred auction business to this writer’s knowledge, but it is not uncommon for proceeds from horses sold to to be used to settle debts to an auction company; those details are not disclosed publicly. Further, individuals employed by auction companies in various positions have had undisclosed economic interests in horses sold by the auction companies.

An attorney familiar with art and Thorouthbred auctions commented to the Paulick Report: “Sotheby’s will take the same tactic the horse business does in such matters and say, ‘No one twisted your arm to bid — if you were willing to pay it, it must be a fair price,’ and ignore the ‘informed buyer’ requirement of the fair market value definition.”

The Los Angeles law firm Dreier Stein Kahan Browne Woods George is representing Minor.

The suit demands a jury trial and seeks an injunction requiring preliminary and permanent disclosure in catalogues by Sotheby’s of any economic interests the company has in property it auctions; repayments to Minor and class-action members of unjust enrichments by Sotheby’s from property’s in which it had an economic interest; compensatory and punitive damages for wrongful conduct; and treble damage in accordance with New York law.

Seven years ago, Sotheby’s and counterpart auction house Christie’s paid a $537-million settlement to customers for price-fixing on commissions and Sotheby’s former chairman Alfred Taubman was convicted of price fixing and sentenced to one year in prison.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

Well, it was fun while it lasted, this dream of someday returning to Hialeah Park to enjoy horse racing in its most beautiful setting. Since making my first trip there in 1988, when the South Florida track already was in severe decline, I’ve held out hope that someone, somehow could restore it to some semblance of its past elegance.

At first, I let John Brunetti convince me that everyone really was out to get him and that if he could only get a break from state legislators and regulators he could be the one to bring Hialeah back. But then, as the years went by and I saw Brunetti’s recalcitrance and heard about his disingenuous actions from horsemen and others involved in Florida racing, my expectations were that Hialeah Park would never be reopened after running its last race in 2001.

Then along came Halsey Minor, reigniting the flame of hope many of us hold for Hialeah. The Internet entrepreneur and Virginia Thoroughbred owner and breeder put together a team of experts to appraise the property, map out renovations for the grandstand and clubhouse, design new barns, and develop an operating plan. He engaged Brunetti is discussions that so many of us hoped would lead to a sale of the track to Minor and the rebirth of the “sport” of racing in South Florida.

Turns out Brunetti was only jerking his chain.

Brunetti is one of those guys who has a number in his head that isn’t based on appraised values, or highest and best use of the property. The price Brunetti wants today, the Paulick Report has learned, isn’t even in the ballpark of what he was trying to get previously from the state of Florida. It’s much higher.

There is no rationale for Brunetti’s demands, for he isn’t a rational man. He just has a price, and one that isn’t based on reality – especially the reality of an economy that has seen real estate values plummet, credit tighten and development slow to a crawl.

So the talks between Minor and Brunetti are dead, unless Brunetti has any second thoughts.

Given the nature of the economy, financial markets and zoning impediments that would keep Brunetti from bulldozing the track and putting up a business park or condos, Hialeah Park isn’t going anywhere soon. It will just sit empty as Brunetti gets older and more bitter about his plight. Minor, 43 years old and involved in many other business projects, can simply wait Brunetti out and see if his heirs have more interest in doing something with the track than Brunetti.

As Minor has been quoted as saying, in that scenario Brunetti would “forego any of the recognition of giving back what he took from racing."

For Hialeah Park, it’s back to hibernation, unless Brunetti changes his mind and decides that he wants to be a steward of this Thoroughbred racing gem.

SO HORSE OF THE WORLD CURLIN, GINGER PUNCH AND OTHER STAR THOROUGHBREDS racing on a program that included five Grade 1 stakes could only attract 8,563 fans to Belmont Park. No surprise there, especially considering the rainstorms that swept through the New York metropolitan area. But previous crowds to see Curlin compete at New York Racing Association tracks weren’t exactly overwhelming. For both the Woodward at Saratoga and Saturday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup, NYRA’s marketing team tried to stir up interest in a sporting public apathetic to any racing that doesn’t involve the Triple Crown.

The problem isn’t what NYRA’s marketing department has done over the last few months. It’s much bigger than that. The challenge for the “new” out-of-bankruptcy NYRA (which looks suspiciously like the old NYRA to me) is to redefine itself and somehow overcome a reputation defined by decades of arrogance and indifference to the public.

THANKS TO THE READER WHO TIPPED US TO THE LATE SCRATCH OF SAILORS SUNSET from Saturday’s Grade 1 Ancient Title sprint at Santa Anita. A check with the California Horse Racing Board’s equine medical director, Dr. Rick Arthur, confirmed that there was a scratch on that day’s program because a horse received a pre-race throat flush that involved something other than water, the only substance permitted on race day. Arthur said there appeared to be no performance-enhancing procedure attempted on the horse (i.e., a milkshake), but that a steward’s hearing would be conducted into the matter. If Sailors Sunset was indeed the horse in question, the hearing would involve trainer Marcelo Polanco.

California’s prohibition on race-day of throat-washing products such as Wind Aid that are commonly used in some other jurisdictions could create problems at this year’s Breeders’ Cup for trainers unfamiliar with CHRB regulations. For that reason, Arthur said, the Breeders’ Cup horseman’s handbook will explain its medication rules in detail and an associate steward will be assigned to outline California medication rules to every trainer with a horse in the Breeders ‘ Cup.

 

BEST PERFORMANCE OF A SPECTACULAR WEEKEND OF RACING? Was it Curlin’s victory over Wanderin Boy in the Jockey Club Gold Cup? Zenyatta’s dominating performance in the Lady’s Secret at Santa Anita? Eye-popping turf victories by Grand Couturier in the Joe Hirsch Invitational Turf Classic or Red Giant in the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial? How about the stretch-running victory by the 2-year-old Tapit filly Stardom Bound in the Oak Leaf Stakes?

All were outstanding, without question, but in my book the race that might be the most overlooked was the track-record blowout by Fatal Bullet in the Kentucky Cup Sprint at Turfway Park. This 3-year-old Red Bullet gelding is a synthetic track specialist who could be very dangerous on the Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Who did you like in these Breeders’ Cup preps?

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

Best unintentionally funny line of the week came from John Brunetti, the owner of Hialeah Park. Discussing a conversation he had with Halsey Minor about the technology wizard’s interest in buying and reviving the shuttered South Florida racetrack, Brunetti was quoted in a trade publication as saying: “I have told him that in some ways I don’t think he understands this business.”

Does Brunetti think he understands this business? How could he? If he did, how did he let Doug Donn outsmart him on every move and get control of the best winter racing dates for Gulfstream Park? Why did state legislators and regulators turn their back on him? How did Calder crush Hialeah in head-to-head competition? Why did Brunetti raise take out to the point that he chased away any remaining horseplayers Hialeah had? Why has the track sat empty for more than seven years?

It’s a mortal lock that Hialeah will never reopen successfully with Brunetti as the owner and operator. I happen to think John Brunetti is a nice guy who loves racing, but I have zero confidence that he can revive Hialeah Park on his own (and I may be more optimistic than state officials or Florida horsemen).

Does Halsey Minor know everything there is to know about Thoroughbred racing? Of course not. But he comes to the game with passion, enthusiasm, capital and confidence that he can return Hialeah to some semblance of its past glory.

Brunetti isn’t the only industry veteran who thinks Minor may be nothing but a dreamer if he thinks he can revive horse racing as a sport. I’ve heard from a number of racetrack executives and horse owners who said they’ve heard it all before. But what is the alternative for Hialeah Park or operating tracks that are hanging on by a thread? Lobby to get slot machines, turn the facility over to a casino company and hope it will subsidize the money-losing portion of the business indefinitely?

Should Brunetti and others in the industry just blow off this opportunity that Minor presents to give horse racing in the Miami area one last chance to stand on its own as a sport?

I remember when Frank Stronach came into racetrack ownership and said he would try to make the sport more compelling and entertaining. In the beginning, Stronach said he had no interest in getting slot machines at his tracks. But Stronach became a victim of his ego, forcing in too many of his own bad ideas and forcing out too many executives who dared to disagree with him. He almost seemed obsessed with getting control of as many tracks as possible without having any idea what he was going to do with them all.

Gulfstream Park was the first Florida racetrack to get slot machines. Under Stronach’s vision, Gulfstream became the least successful slot machine operation in North America, based on the benchmark of dollars won per machine per day. Calder will be adding slots as early as 2009 after getting approval in a local referendum in January of this year. The rebuilt Gulfstream Park is more slots parlor and simulcast theater than it is a facility to host live racing. In short, it’s a disaster.

Calder, built to host hot-weather summer racing, has always struck me as a cold and impersonal track, but it’s never seemed colder or more impersonal than it is today. In a recent weekday visit there I stumbled across what seemed like no more than several hundred fans scattered throughout the first two floors (most of the third floor is closed).

Count on Churchill Downs management to pigeonhole those fans in as small an area as possible once the slot machines are installed and plugged in. Racing at Calder will become secondary, though its purses will be healthier than they are today because of the slot subsidies. But what will Churchill Downs management’s long-term vision be for racing at Calder?

Minor said he has no interest in bringing slot machines to Hialeah Park. The competition for slots players is intense, with the Seminole Native American tribe holding the market share advantage at their Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Fla. Minor wants to focus on the excitement of racing and the fact that it’s the only sport you can legally bet on. 

Racing needs people like Halsey Minor, and people in the industry should be doing everything possible to help him succeed.

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By Ray Paulick

While CNET founder Halsey Minor continues his efforts to purchase Hialeah Park from current owner John Brunetti, he also has contacted financially troubled Magna Entertainment about the possible sale of Santa Anita Park near Los Angeles and the company’s two Maryland Jockey Club tracks, Pimlico and Laurel. But after speaking with Magna’s chief financial officer, Blake Tohana, Minor doesn’t think Magna is a serious seller, despite recent comments by company chairman Frank Stronach during a conference call to discuss second quarter financial results.

“I had the most baffling conversation in my life with a CFO, particularly one whose job depends on asset sales,” Minor said in an email to the Paulick Report, which he also copied to Tohana. “Basically, nothing is for sale. Maybe they have some time shares for you. (Tohana) said Frank misspoke when he said he was considering selling a majority interest in Santa Anita. Now it is back to a minority interest.

“You can only buy (the Maryland tracks) if you have a gaming license. (Tohana) did not specify what that meant or why it was important. …  This is despite the fact that Magna is not guaranteed any slot franchises in the current legislation, and they would need to post a $50-million bond which they don’t have to get one. At the very least if he had been on his toes he should have asked to borrow the money.

“You need to call him and hear this for yourself,” Minor suggested. “You would think you were talking to the CFO of Microsoft sitting on a pile of cash, given the attitude. Self-effacing, Blake is not. Not a good quality in a salesman. Without an investment bank, nothing sells if my experience is any guide.”

Minor said Tohana had no idea who he was when he called (“which is odd because I am the only person in America acquiring tracks right now and they claim they are selling them”) and eventually hung up on him. “I will go on record as saying these assets are going to be sold by banks,” Minor continued. “Banks don’t necessarily have good bedside manners, either, but they have good prices.”

Tohana responded to Minor with a terse email of his own, which he also copied to the Paulick Report, saying that Minor had “misrepresented” their telephone conversation. “Further, your manner of communicating to me via email and telephone was inconsiderate, rude and misinformed,” Tohana wrote. “In doing my job, I have always carried myself with dignity and professionalism. I think that view would be shared by anyone who has dealt with me during my career.”

Tohana went on to say that MEC has sold more than $400 million in assets “without investment bankers,” adding, “We will continue to pursue other asset sales and joint venture transactions as we have previously publicly disclosed. However, I do not have to take your personal insults just because you purport to have an interest in Santa Anita Park and the Maryland Jockey Club.”

Tohana also seemed irritated that Minor had called him to discuss the possible sale of the tracks during a family vacation, a comment that seemed to heighten Minor’s disdain for Magna’s CFO.

“I find interesting that you are on vacation at all and that you feel so offended I have bothered you on your vacation,” Minor wrote Tohana in a follow-up email. “My company is not imploding and yet I am fully engaged working to clean up some of your mess while here in Hawaii (on a vacation) with my family.

“Blake, you are condescending and that is no way to be with a company whose market value is less than many of our farms, whose massive debt is unserviceable and where you work in the service of the company that has literally blighted our industry.

“Enjoy your vacation, Blake, because when you get back things will only have gotten worse, not better, and you pissed off a potentially valuable ally royally. And if you haven’t noticed, you didn’t have many to start with.

“I believe results in life speak volumes, and I believe this applies equally to my career as it does to your company. Neither failure or success is an accident. A quick check would reveal that I have created billions in value, even exceeding your leader’s car parts business, while your outfit has not only destroyed massive amounts of shareholder value, but possibly the Thoroughbred business with it.”

When reached by the Paulick Report, Tohana said Minor was not “respectful” during their conversation. Tohana said he was fully aware of who Minor was when he received a call from him. “I had heard of the guy,” Tohana said, “but I wasn’t happy with some of the things he has said about our chairman (Stronach).”

Tohana has been Magna Entertainment’s CFO for more than five years, outlasting many of the executives who have come and gone in a revolving door atmosphere. He joined the company in July 2003 after serving in a number of executive positions at Fireworks Entertainment, a Toronto, Canada-based concern that produces and distributes television programs and movies.

“I’m quite a reasonable person,” Tohana told the Paulick Report. “I’m pretty straight up. Look, it’s not a secret (that we’ve had a great deal of executive turnover). This company hasn’t performed very well.”

Tohana insists Magna is “continuing to sell” some properties but said Stronach’s comments about possibly selling a majority interest in Santa Anita were “misreported.” He also said there remains the possibility that MI Developments, the real estate operating company that holds a controlling interest in Magna Entertainment, could be reorganized to relieve the debt-ridden racetrack company’s financial pressures. MI Developments recently extended by one month a bridge loan in excess of $100-million owed by Magna Entertainment and due at the end of August. Dennis Mills, a former member of Canada’s parliament and one-time vice chairman of Magna Entertainment, was recently named interim CEO of MI Developments following the departure of John Simonetti.

In the meantime, Minor continues to work on a business and operating plan for Hialeah. He has had a second meeting with Brunetti in Del Mar, Calif., and said Brunetti is working with his team on developing a business plan. “That’s a tremendous benefit,” Minor said, “and it shows that John really wants to help get Hialeah reopened.” Minor said the architects he would use to renovate Hialeah Park have inspected the long-shuttered track to get a better estimate of what the price tag would be to return it to its former condition.

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John Brunetti gave Halsey Minor an extensive tour of Hialeah Park, the racetrack Brunetti bought 30 years ago, and the two men then held extensive discussions about what it would take to have the South Florida track reopened after being shuttered since May 22, 2001.

 The meeting – the first face-to-face talks between the two men since Minor announced his interest in buying Hialeah Park and bringing back live racing – took place on Wednesday morning. Minor described it to the Paulick Report as “a surprisingly good meeting” and said we are now “in discussions.”

 “I didn’t know whether he would reject the idea out of hand, but I can honestly say that if we can get through the complex financial and emotional issues that John has a result of 30 years of ownership, that we can get Hialeah Park back running.”

 The two men drove around the facility, Minor said, with Brunetti telling stories about different places where things used to be and historic events took place. “The man genuinely loves the place,” Minor said of Brunetti. “We were all the way up in the stands, at the top level, and I literally could imagine horses crossing the finish line below us. I said to John, ‘Sometimes when I’ve looked at houses that I’m interested in I want to run because it feels so bad, and sometimes it feels like home. There is something about this place, something incredibly special.’ John told me, ‘Yes, sometimes it makes you want to cry.’ I said, ‘This place has to come back. It’s too special. There aren’t many places on earth like this. It has to be brought back.’”

 Brunetti and Minor returned to the office Brunetti maintains at Hialeah (he spends most of the year at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.), Brunetti gave him an old promotional brochure, and the two men agreed to continue the dialogue.

 “I really tried to pin him down on what does he want his legacy to be,” Minor said. “From a development standpoint, he can’t develop the property, and he really doesn’t need the money, either. I said, ‘John, I know you don’t want your legacy to be the demise of this track. I’m here to help. There are not many people like me who are young, have done projects like this or have built companies, have the financial resources, who have the deep underlying passion for the Thoroughbred industry, and who are willing to take on a project like this. I think he genuinely appreciates what I’m hoping to do. He senses the commitment I have in doing this.”

 “He (Minor) was as forthright as possible, and he has the same dream I have to re-open Hialeah,” Brunetti was quoted at Bloodhorse.com as saying. “We talked about how he might temper his idealism, in view of the realities of the political and economic situations.”

 “I think there was a breakthrough and my feeling after the meeting is that he sincerely wants to see the track running again, but he’s struggling with how to make a deal that makes him feel good,” Minor told the Paulick Report. “He has a lot of complex emotions and feelings at work, but I think his most favored outcome is that we find a way to let me go ahead and rebuild the place. I don’t think he enjoys that drive into his office there, going through a place that’s been hit by a hurricane and sustaining the kinds of damage that time brings on.

 “He referred to the fact that I’ve done my homework,” Minor continued. “There are probably certain things I believe he thinks are going to be harder than I think they are – the pari-mutuel license for instance. There have been conversations with various people who have led me to believe that if the track is put back together it won’t be much of an issue. His response did not refer to me as unsophisticated.”

 “The rebirth of Hialeah could be some good news in a downpour of bad news.”

 Minor also met Wednesday with Hialeah city officials, including Mayor Julio Robaina, and local preservationists and other government officials. “The mayor of Hialeah was incredibly supportive,” Minor said, “telling me that the city of Hialeah will do whatever it can to help bring the track back. The community and political support has been absolutely terrific, and I think I have an owner in John Brunetti who wants to find a way to work with me, and that is the best news of all.”

 Brunetti and Minor will continue to talk by telephone, Minor said. “We are now in discussions and we’ll start to identify what the issues are and to look for solutions. In the meantime, I’m doing a lot of parallel work. There’s a lot to understand: the physical infrastructure, the landscaping, all the various and different legal ramifications to bring it back online, and then of course building a business plan and operating plan.

 “I like to think about what Hialeah Park was like so many years ago, and I’ve seen what it looked like in so many pictures in its heyday. This is an overstatement, but it’s like wandering around ancient Rome and wondering what it would have been like during that time. The pink flamingos are still there; it’s the only place in America where they actually breed. There’s still so much of that place left, it doesn’t take that much imagination, and it’s not hard to imagine the track running again.

 “I call myself a pessimistic optimist,” Minor said. “Things happen, but they usually take longer and are more painful. That’s probably what the case is here.”