New Jersey investor and horse racing enthusiast...

New Jersey investor and horse racing enthusiast John Aglialoro reached an agreement that could make him the new owner of Canterbury Downs, a race track in Shakopee, about 40 miles southwest near Minneapolis. For $4 million to $5 million, Aglialoro agreed to purchase the stock owned by Canterbury president Brooks Fields Jr., Fields’ nephew Brooks Hauser and Santa Anita Realty Enterprises Inc. of Los Angeles.

Aglialoro faces purchasing the track’s $43-million mortgage and must obtain an operating license from the Minnesota Racing Commission, his attorney, John Broeker, said.

Without an infusion of cash, Canterbury won’t operate this year, Royce McKinley, chairman and chief executive officer of Santa Anita Enterprises, and Hauser said. The track has lost $70 million since it was built in 1985, helping to drive the real estate firm shared by Hauser and Fields into U.S. Bankruptcy Court, where it is being reorganized under Chapter 11. McKinley said Santa Anita Enterprises has lost $17.5 million on the venture and would get 45% of Aglialoro’s purchase price.