Hialeah's Swan Song© Greg Melikov
May 29, 2001
Cheeky Miss captured the 10th race at Hialeah Park on May 22, closing day of the 2001 meeting. Unfortunately, it’s the end of the road for the track that has survived many trials and tribulations since opening in 1925.
Tuck away the name of that winning horse in your memory because it will make a good trivia question. Naturally, more than the disappointing crowd of 3,280 who attended this fateful afternoon will say they were there to take pictures and witness the last day of live racing at the historic track.
Simulcasting will linger on until June 30. However, on July 1, Hialeah, even the proverbial cat with nine lives, will run out of miracles -- that’s when Florida’s horse racing dates go up for grabs. Deregulation sets in, thanks to the state Sunset Law.
Hialeah can choose to run its regular days in mid-March through late May, but will have competition coming and going if it decides to buck Gulfstream Park and Calder Race Course. Both tracks, sensing the kill, applied in early January to extend their meetings in 2002.
"The simulcast signal shuts off July 1," said Joe Savage, Hialeah director of publicity. "I don’t see us running head to head with the other tracks next year."
Gulfstream plans to run from early January to mid-April. Calder plans to start in mid-April and run through early November. Hialeah is left with one uncontested racing day in 2002.
But John J. Brunetti, chairman of the board, doesn’t believe the Fat Lady has sung: "While the future looks bleak, this has happened before," he wrote in the May 22 program. "In 1989, our competing tracks in South Florida closed Hialeah Park. Then, as if by a miracle, the racing fans, the public-at-large, the city of Hialeah and the community of Miami-Dade rose against such an injustice. The Florida Legislature, led by our own legislators, brought Hialeah back in 1991. Remember, what we did before. We can do again! I want to thank those who signed petitions to Tallahassee and helped in every way."
General Manager Richard W. Sacco isn’t so optimistic. "Our only hope is the Legislature. We’re going to try early next year to get regulation back and race in 2003. We’ve tried to talk to the other tracks. They don’t want to compromise. They don’t want to talk with us."
Quite a few suggestions have been floated over the years to save "the track that made Miami famous," which opened Jan. 25, 1925.
Go To Page:
1
2
The copyright of the article Hialeah's Swan Song in Horse Racing is owned by . Permission to republish Hialeah's Swan Song in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
