Big Florida weekend plans help revive blog

This blog has stagnated since mid-November, ironically when my gainful employment ended and my free time -- that easily could be used for blogging -- increased.

That stagnation is going to get a bit of a stir this weekend, as my promised and much-anticipated (by me, anyway) trip to Florida for a visit to the reopened Hialeah Park is set for this weekend.

I've actually picked the ideal weekend to be in Miami -- as if there's a bad time, I suppose. The weekend forecast here at home in North Carolina is for a high of 28 and low of 14 with a "wintry mix."

I'm not sure I've ever traveled in the direction of warmth during winter. But this is also perhaps the ideal week of the "cold" weather racing season to be in Miami.

Saturday I plan to be at Gulfstream Park, where I will take in three of the six races in the annual challenge series between Florida and California, Sunshine Millions Day. Races being run at Gulfstream include the $300,000 Sunshine Millions Turf for all horses age 4 and up at a mile and an eighth, the $300,000 Sunshine Millions Distaff for older fillies and mares at an equal distance on the main track, and the $200,000 Sunshine Millions Sprint for older horses.

The other half of the Sunshine Millions Card, of course, will be run at Santa Anita in California. There, entrants will contest the $200,000 Filly & Mare Sprint, the $300,000 Filly & Mare Turf, and the $500,000 Sunshine Millions Classic.

On Sunday, I'll focus on the revived Hialeah Park, and it's the biggest day of the resurrected track's Quarter Horse-racing season.

Sunday's feature race will be the $100,000 South Florida Quarter Horse Derby; 3-year-olds, of course, going 440 yards. But there are other big events on the card as Hialeah marks its last weekend of its comeback season.

Race 6 of the nine-race Sunday card is the 440-yard South Florida Quarter Horse Invitational Stakes, also for 3-year-olds. The purse is $30,000 in this "consolation race" for those horses that did not earn entry into the South Florida QH Derby, later on the card.

And, Race 7, immediately prior to the Derby, will be the $25,000 Sunshine State Stakes for 3-year-olds and up, going 220 yards.

Since my flight back to the Tar Heel State actually departs quite late on Monday night, I might even make a return trip to Hialeah that afternoon. If so, there's another stakes race to be witnessed -- and a long one for Quarters -- the $30,000 Sailfish Stakes at 1,000 yards for ages 3 and up.

I hope to have some more news and insights on the trip before jetting away from North Carolina on Friday. I'll try to handicap the Sunshine Millions card and post my picks (for you to bet against) from both the Gulfstream and Santa Anita races. And with a bit of help, there might be a surprise or two in store. ... Hopefully for readers only, and not for me.

Meanwhile, anyone who is a South Florida racing scene veteran -- or knows what I ought to do with the rest of my time in Miami, when the racing is over -- please post your tips in the comments section or send me an e-mail.

First track on the 'unexpected vacation' circuit

Just a post before I go, to whom it may concern.

Traveling today to Laurel Park, winning wagers to be earned.

(The above introduction, apologies to Crosby, Stills & Nash, must be attributable to falling asleep with Playlist.com on continuous-loop.)

Since my surprise departure from an employer of 11 years the Thursday before Thanksgiving, I decided that the unexpected vacation was the perfect time to actually get out to the races. I'm working up plans for a trip to Hialeah and Gulfstream in January or early February, but the circuit begins this morning with Maryland's Laurel Park Racecourse.

The weather forecast is probably decent for December near D.C.; no precipitation is predicted. But with a projected 12:35 post-time temperature of 40, Florida is already sounding a lot better.

Nevertheless, I'll get a chance today both to see Laurel, watch racehorses in action (which, like Pete Rose on playing baseball, I might walk through Hell in a gasoline suit to do) and hopefully cash a couple of winning tickets, but I'll also have the chance to hang out again with a friend from an online horse racing discussion group who once traveled to Gordonsville, Va., to meet me and my horses.

Thanks for the invite, Rob. And for the worthy diversion from worldly worries.

Hialeah, here I come

There's something to be said for losing one's job.

It really frees up the social calendar.

That thought hit me the other day as I was contemplating what to do after departing unexpectedly, and unexplained, from my position at the North Carolina newspaper where I'd worked for nearly 11 years to the day. But what to do with my time?

Ah, Hialeah.

Historic Hialeah Park and Race Course reopened for Quarter Horse racing on Nov. 28 after some eight years on the shelf. Its last thoroughbred race was run in 2001.

So, sometime between now and the close of this "resurrection meeting" on Feb. 2, I shall venture to South Florida and stand trackside at a true American racing treasure. I won't be able to see any races run over more than a few hundred yards. But I can check out the distinctive architecture, the infield flamingos, the statue of Citation and learn a little bit about handicapping Quarters.

I haven't picked a date yet, though the quick trip won't take place between Christmas and New Year's. So the month of January or closing weekend, Feb. 1 and 2, are most likely. ... And I might as well hit Gulfstream Park while I'm in the area. Racing there resumes Jan. 3.

All hail Hialeah, may she live to race again

Far as horse racing news goes, it really couldn't get much better than this.

John Brunetti, owner of the defunct Hialeah Park race track in Florida, believes racing will return to that once-spectacular venue that was picture-postcard-perfect (inset) in its heyday.

Brunetti was quoted by bloodhorse.com as saying Hialeah will be back in business "as soon as possible." Hialeah issued a press release on the track's pink-flamingo letterhead for the first time in years, the site reported, noting that the facility had been granted a permit to host Quarter Horse racing and that officials including Brunetti and his son, John Jr., had trekked to Oklahoma's Remington Park to learn the ropes of hosting races for cow ponies. (No griping from the QH people; I love your horses, too!)

Hialeah's Quarter Horse permit, granted in March, requires the track to begin hosting races within a year. Former Florida state Rep. Luis Rojas, who lobbies on behalf of Hialeah in the legislature, estimated the cost of renovations at $40 million to $90 million, though Internet multimillionaire Halsey Minor, who tried to buy the track from Brunetti to refurbish it and was rebuffed, told The Miami Herald the cost would be more like "one hundred and twenty million bucks. It's in really bad shape ... you can see the bones."

Remington -- with slot machines driving purses for Quarter Horse racing to a stellar $265,577 per night -- ended its Quarter Horse meeting May 31 by reporting increases in both on-track attendance and handle. The latter was up 4.9 percent over 2008, this despite a recession.

The Blood-Horse reports that recent Florida legislation has opened the possibility of slot machines at Hialeah, which had initially been specifically written-out of voter-approved initiatives that permitted slots elsewhere in the Sunshine State. Hialeah has been closed since 2001, when it shuttered the place after losing a series of disputes about racing dates with competing Calder Race Course and Gulfstream Park. But with slots -- and bigger plans -- Brunetti thinks Hialeah can again give the other contenders a run for their money.

"Since Hialeah already has an existing facility," the press release stated, "we are moving forward with plans to refurbish the track and return to racing as soon as possible."

"It is our hope that the new Hialeah Park will not be limited to Quarter Horse Racing," said John Brunetti Jr. "We also envision adding a casino, a card room with poker and dominoes, and slot machines, along with 'Class A' Thoroughbred racing."

Florida law ... and this is interesting ... has an allowance for "poker rooms" specifically at Quarter Horse tracks. Go figure.

I can't picture a more rewarding site for horse racing right now than a renovated Hialeah Park -- pink flamingoes and all -- playing host to throngs of gamblers, be they horseplayers, card-players, or slot-handle-pullers. The city of Hialeah is probably thinking the same thing. Officials there said that more than 9,000 job applications have already been submitted in hopes of gaining employment at the reopened track.

Certainly Hialeah Park is a national treasure. Construction originally began in 1921 under the ownership, among others, of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss. It survived a 1926 hurricane and in 1930 was sold to wealthy Philly horseman Joseph Early Widener. Hialeah Park in 1932 installed the first totalisator in the United States -- the device was imported from Australia -- to facilitate parimutuel wagering. The track features some of the nation's most striking architecture; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979; and, it was also the setting during 1987 of most of the principal photography for one of my favorite flicks, the Richard Dreyfuss picture "Let It Ride."

For more on the racetrack, visit "Save Hialeah Park," which touts the track as among the "11 most endangered historic places in America." It ain't the most-updated site in the world, but there's some interesting Hialeah Park information there. Also be sure to check out this photo essay on the track since its closure, and this Myspace page dedicated to saving Hialeah.

And if people in or around Inglewood, Calif., had that sort of interest in their local track, maybe Hollywood Park wouldn't, as it now seems, be doomed.

But there's still some trepidation regarding Hialeah's resurrection. Minor thinks Brunetti doesn't have the bucks to do the job. And Ray Paulick noted in 2008 that Brunetti's management of Hialeah was far from the sharpest.

Let's hope that the combination of a Quarter Horse permit (requiring new stables as the original ones were demolished) and gambing that includes poker and slots (to reward renovation of the front-side facilities) will get Hialeah back on its feet.

It would be nice to see the track back in action, flamingoes and all, and to see Hialeah make a serious case for good race dates -- the kind of case Brunetti couldn't make in the past.