Halsey Minor files Chapter 7 bankruptcy

A number of Thoroughbred entities, including Claiborne Farm and Lane’s End Farm, have been listed as creditors in the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing of Halsey Minor, the founder of CNET who had once flirted with the idea of buying racetracks.

Claiborne and Lane’s End were among the 60-plus creditors listed in the March 24 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles. The amounts owed to any of the entities is not listed in the petition, which also includes Braeburn Training Center in Virginia, Carroll-Butler Veterinary in West Virginia, the Lexington veterinarian Steve Conboy, and T M Racing Stables of Ontario.

Halsey’s petition lists $10 million to $50 million in assets and $50 million to $100 million in liabilities. Under Chapter 7, a bankruptcy trustee will determine how to pay off creditors from the disposal of the assets.

In 2007, Minor purchased Dream Rush, a Grade 1 winner, at the Keeneland November sale for $3.3 million. He developed a farm, Carter’s Grove Plantation, in his native Virginia, but the farm declared bankruptcy in 2011.

Over the years, Minor publicly announced that he was seeking to buy racetrack properties, and he once made an unsolicited offer to purchase the debt of Magna Entertainment Corp., the publicly traded precursor to the Stronach Group.

Minor sold CNET in 2008 to CBS for $1.8 billion. Following the sale, his net worth was estimated at $400 million.