Hialeah offers preview

The Baltimore Sun has an article today, "Once-proud Hialeah decays in Florida sun"
This reads like a suicide play book for Pimlico. The factors that contributed to the fall of Hialeah are the same as Pimlico. The article sites a change in the neighborhood, and competition. Boy does this sound familiar to Maryland racing fans. My favorite part of the article is the quote form Magna vice president Joe De Francis (head of the Maryland Jockey Club).

De Francis said: "Unfortunately, the area of South Florida deteriorated around Hialeah. In the face of that, Mr. Brunetti (the owner) was not willing to make the capital investment in Hialeah as we did in Gulfstream and Churchill did at Calder.

It sounds like Magna already has the press release written for the closing of Pimlico. I'm sure it will make reference to the fact that the neighborhood is a dump, and they were unable to make capital improvements without an infusion of resources from slot machines. It will also reference the competition from surrounding states with slot machines. The release would read exactly like De Francis' statement about Hialeah.