Wait is that a pulse we hear? Is the patient not dead yet? Mr. Minor who bought a lovely historic Virginia estate house last year - to breed race horses - and owns a few excellent runners as well is the exceedingly wealthy man behind this news
Palm Beach Post July 19, 2008 “CNet founder wants to buy, resurrect Hialeah Park”
A Virginia multimillionaire with a soft spot for horses and preserving history said he wants to buy Hialeah Park, restore it to its most glorious state and resume wintertime racing at the facility, which has been dormant since 2001.
Halsey Minor, 43, founder of Nasdaq 100 technology news site CNet and owner of an also-ran in this year’s Florida Derby, hopes he can strike a deal with Hialeah owner John Brunetti, begin renovations to the hurricane-ravaged park and compete with Gulfstream Park during the prime winter tourist season.
Minor and Brunetti have not spoken, so no timetables or dollar figures have been discussed. Reached Friday on a trip to California for the opening of Del Mar racetrack, Brunetti was intrigued and said he would spend the weekend talking to horsemen to learn about Minor.
“I continue to say it: My first desire was the continuation of racing at Hialeah at the highest standard possible,” Brunetti said. "I think that Hialeah would get a lot of support from breeders, owners, fans and everyone else.
"Every place I go, I hear, ‘When are you going to open up Hialeah, John?’ And it becomes vitriolic, like, ‘Why the hell don’t you open up and get rid of these guys?’ "
As recently as this spring, Brunetti agreed that the resumption of racing at Hialeah, which opened in 1925, represented one of the longest of long shots.
He estimated it would take $25 million to $30 million to get it in racing shape, and even then, issues remain: whether a racing license can be obtained from the state, whether Hialeah can compete with Gulfstream in Hallandale Beach and Calder Race Course in Miami Gardens, and whether accessibility will deter fans.
Minor said he needs to study those issues but is determined to press forward. Hialeah last held a race on May 22, 2001, so Minor has never attended the track, not even to tour the grounds in their present state.
He said that doesn’t matter.
“What I really care about is what it looked like in its heyday,” said Minor, who has studied recent Hialeah photos on the Internet. “That’s what I want to recreate. I want to create the charm, the Hialeah everybody talks about in hushed tones. I could go down and look at it right now … I could tell you, ‘I looked at Hialeah and yes, Hialeah is falling apart,’ but it doesn’t make any difference. I don’t care about the beginning state. I care about the end state.”
From Brunetti’s perspective, the timing could be right. He bought the track in 1977 but is weary from years of seeing it empty, in disrepair and overgrown. His proposals to develop the site have stalled, and he recently requested the state restore its racing permit. He also said he recently was approached by trainers, including Eclipse Award winner Todd Pletcher, about the possibility of building stables at Hialeah for their horses.
Minor has aligned himself with Alex Fuentes, who as head of Citizens to Save Hialeah Park has fielded plenty of calls from would-be Hialeah saviors.
“A lot of yahoos saying they want to buy the park, so I’m very suspicious,” Fuentes said. “But this one intrigued me because after three e-mails that he sent me, I did my research on him. I said, ‘OK, if he is who he says he is, just his name and his background have enough clout to make a story out of it.’ … We spoke for hours at a time and he didn’t seem like a yahoo to me.”
Minor’s family is entrenched in Virginia history. It includes great-great-grandfather John B. Minor, chair of the University of Virginia law department in the 1800s, who persuaded George Custer to not to burn down the university during the Civil War.
Halsey Minor, who has a home in San Francisco but considers himself a Virginian, started CNet and Web-based communications platform GrandCentral, which he sold to Google. In December, he bought the 400-acre plantation Carter’s Grove for $15.3 million for horse-breeding and preservation. Like Hialeah Park, Carter’s Grove has historic designations. Minor said he has never lived in a house that didn’t have horse pictures on the walls.
“Hialeah is kind of at the nexus of the two things I care about most, which is preserving something which is of historical significance - which Hialeah no doubt is - and also reinvigorating the horse racing industry,” said Minor, who doesn’t feel the Gulfstream model of a racetrack and casino is the answer.
" … I’m looking for a place to plant my flag and I think there is no better place than Hialeah. If Hialeah were brought back so it’s as beautiful as it was on its most beautiful day, I think it would send a very strong signal to a thoroughbred industry that is now reeling and on its heels."
