John J. Brunetti Sr., Owner of Hialeah Park, Dies

John J. Brunetti Sr., the colorful and sometime controversial owner of Hialeah Park and three Florida-based Thoroughbred racing and breeding farms, died peacefully at his Boca Raton home on March 2. Brunetti, 87, had been in tenuous health since undergoing the removal of a cancerous lung last year.

The Bronx-born son of an Italian immigrant who instilled a tenacious work ethic in his children as they grew up in New Jersey, the younger Brunetti's first exposure to horse racing was a visit to South Florida tracks, including Hialeah, with college buddies in the early 1950s. Brunetti first got involved in the sport by splitting shares in a racehorse with his father a few years later, and in 1977, the younger Brunetti secured a longshot deal to buy Hialeah, outbidding a number of better-connected Thoroughbred insiders to do so.

Over the next four decades, Brunetti oversaw the waxing and waning of the fortunes of Florida's once-grand showcase race place. But even as the racing circuit in the state shifted abruptly amid years of dates conflicts and the infiltration of non-racing gaming, Brunetti still held out hope nearing the end of his life that Hialeah could be restored to its prominence as one of the nation's most beautiful and most opulent places on the planet to watch Thoroughbred races.

Brunetti's passing was confirmed by Richard Sacco, his operations and racing manager.

“He's been active right up until the very end, both here at Hialeah and with traveling to watch his horses run,” Sacco said on Friday. “Last summer, he was at Monmouth Park to accept the leading owner trophy for Red Oak Stable. We went to the Breeders' Cup in California. He was at Gulfstream Park in December to see Bal Harbour (First Samurai), who is trained by Todd Pletcher, win a stakes race. And two weeks ago on Friday, he was present for a street-naming designation in his honor where the city of Hialeah renamed East Fourth Avenue, which is the clubhouse entrance street that fronts our 200-acre property, to John J. Brunetti Sr. Avenue.”

Sacco said that Brunetti's three principle Ocala properties–his private 252-acre Red Oak Farm, the public/private Good Chance Farm training center, and Ocala Stud–which Brunetti has leased out since 2012–will continue to operate under the direction of Brunetti's sons, John Jr. and Stephen (the president and secretary-treasurer, respectively) of Hialeah Park and Casino.)

Sacco added that Brunetti had been downsizing the operation over the past few years after peaking at around 200 horses in an attempt to focus on quality over quantity.

“This is probably Mr. Brunetti's best crop of homebred 2-year-olds that we've ever had,” Sacco said. “Now his two sons will carry on with his plans. The key to this family is, a lot of times when a patriarch leaves, the kids kind of sell out the horses and go off to do other things. But his kids love horse racing like their father did, and they are 110% committed to keep racing with their homebreds, continuing with the farms in Ocala, and being a major part of it.”

At the age of 13, Brunetti attended New York Military Academy. He later served in the U.S. Army and graduated from the University of Miami with a Business Administration Degree in 1952. He and his father split shares in a racer named Vertex in 1957 and Brunetti expanded his stable over the next several decades.

According to a recent biographical profile in the Miami Herald, in 1974, Brunetti learned the owners of Gulfstream Park were attempting to buy Hialeah Park. Brunetti called then-owner Bert Galbreath, and said, “I'm just a little person, but may I come talk to you?” It took until 1977 to close the deal, and Brunetti said Galbreath, who he felt was rooting for him, accepted Brunetti's mother's $400,000 certificate of deposit as a down payment.

Hialeah's hallmarks into the 1980s centered on beautiful architecture, a safe racing surface, the tradition of flamingos in the infield and its stronghold on the prime winter racing dates. But squabbling over those dates within the racing circuit forced the track to close twice, and Brunetti later had to fight all the way to the Florida Supreme Court to secure casino rights, creating no shortage of enemies and critics. The track hasn't hosted Thoroughbreds since 2001, and even the Quarter Horse meets have recently devolved to the point where the match races between aged ponies are clearly just a formality to satisfy licensure for the property's casino gaming.

Yet Sacco said people might not be aware that Brunetti remained committed to maintaining Hialeah's infrastructure over the past several years in hopes of better things to come.

“He got to envision everything he wanted in the structure of Hialeah Park,” Sacco said. “John Brunetti Sr. was talking right up until a couple of months ago about bringing back Thoroughbred racing to Hialeah.”

Brunetti told the New York Times in 2014, “Why can't we be holding a Breeders' Cup here? There's no reason why not? How do you get the Breeders' Cup? How do you get anything in life? You hope, you work, you pray.”

Beyond his long association with Hialeah, Brunetti was known in South Florida for his philanthropy. The Brunetti Foundation actively supports the University of Miami's athletics, medical research and higher education programs, and it recently branched into donating for human-rights causes.

“I'm rounding third base and headed for home,” Brunetti told the Herald in December. “I'm starting to expand the foundation, and a program for giving back. I'm growing my giving the way I grew my business. You have to ask yourself, `Where do you get your satisfaction?'”

Brunetti had been hampered by health issues in the final decades of his life. He had a triple bypass in 1996 and a kidney transplant in 2013.

Brunetti is survived by his wife, Tracee, his two aforementioned sons and numerous members of his extended family. A memorial service will be held in the clubhouse on the third floor of Hialeah Park on Monday, March 12, at 12:30 p.m. Sacco said retired track announcer Tom Durkin, who called at Hialeah prior to gaining wider fame as the announcer for the New York Racing Association and the Breeders' Cup has been asked to be one of the lead eulogizers.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Office of Medical Advancements, 150 NW 12th Avenue, Suite 1020E, Miami, Florida, 33136, or Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm, 1841 Paynes Mill Road, Georgetown, KY 40324.