Hialeah Park Will Cut Racing Week in Half in Effort to Remain Open

Struggling Hialeah Park will reduce the number of racing days by half in an attempt to stay open for the rest of its six-month season.

The historic track’s financial losses could be “diminished considerably” by the scaled-down schedule, President John J. Brunetti said.

“I feel that the patient has been brought home from the hospital to recuperate,” Brunetti said. “It is in good condition and recovering.”

At the suggestion of horsemen stabled at Hialeah, it will scale down to a three-day race week from the current six days. Under the new schedule, which will be adopted beginning this weekend, Hialeah will offer cards of at least 10 races on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.

The track will institute a free admission policy.

Brunetti had wanted to end Hialeah’s 158-day meet after 22 days because the track, plagued by poor attendance, has lost more than $1.5 million. An attorney for the track predicted losses for the full meet in excess of $10 million.

But after a 2 1/2-hour meeting Wednesday that included testimony by Brunetti, attorneys and horsemen, the state Pari-Mutuel Commission wouldn’t vote on Brunetti’s request to close early. The commission cited an opinion by the state attorney general that said the commission has no power to consider the matter.

Chairman Joe Priede-Rodriguez said the commission’s inaction had the same effect as rejecting Brunetti’s request. If Hialeah closed early without commission permission, Priede-Rodriguez said, Brunetti probably would lose his racing permit.

“Everything I heard today,” Brunetti countered, “does not convince me of that.”

Revocation of Brunetti’s permit could spell the end of the 64-year-old track, which has been in decline for years. Its poor attendance this season is partly the result of running head to head for the first time against nearby Calder Race Course.

When horsemen last week suggested reducing Hialeah’s schedule, Brunetti rejected the idea. But he was swayed by concern about Bert Firestone’s ownership of both Calder and thriving Gulfstream Park in nearby Hallandale, Fla.

“If Hialeah were shut down, it would send out a terrible signal to the industry that we’re about to be dominated by a single ownership,” Brunetti said. “We in Florida have to maintain a vigil.”

Brunetti had said closing would help his chances of reopening in late 1990 or 1991. He wants the state to resume regulation of racing and wants an arbitrator involved in the determination of future racing dates for Hialeah, Calder and Gulfstream.

Later Wednesday, Calder attorney Wilbur Brewton vowed to go to state court to seek an injunction to force the state to act against’s Hialeah permit, and Gulfstream attorney David Romanik said he probably will follow suit if Hialeah stays open on weekends beyond the Hallandale track’s Jan. 16 opening.

Hialeah attorney Barry Richard said he doesn’t see why the other tracks would be troubled by the weekend racing.

“We would be decreasing the number of days we run against them,” he said. “Anybody who files a lawsuit can only be trying to eliminate Hialeah.”