The starting gate will spring open at 1:05 p.m. Saturday at Hialeah Park for the first racing at the historic track since 2001.

Hialeah's return will be solely for quarter horse races. The track's 40-day meet will not have any of the thoroughbreds that for more than seven decades made it and its surrounding city famous throughout the sports world.

``This is a rebirth, and there is tremendous excitement here and around the community.'' Hialeah Park president and owner John Brunetti said Friday. ``A lot of people felt it was a long shot that we would ever be back.''

Hialeah stopped racing after a change in state law kept it from having any exclusive dates in its competition with Gulfstream Park and Calder Race Course. In 2004, the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering revoked Hialeah's thoroughbred permit because it did not hold races for two years.

That state agency last March issued Hialeah a quarter horse permit, which the track hopes could lead to a return of thoroughbred racing.

The quarter horses that will race at Hialeah through Feb. 2 are sprinters and, for the most part, are shorter and stockier than thoroughbreds.

`LIKE DRAG RACING'

They are called ``quarter horses'' because many of the races are 440 yards. They usually run that distance in about 21.5 seconds -- a second faster than top thoroughbreds cover it in races shorter than a mile.

``It is like drag racing with horses,'' said Rich Chamberlain, historian for the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) in Amarillo, Texas. ``The gate opens and there is no holding back.''

Hialeah will have an eight-race card Saturday. The feature seventh race is the $25,000 Bienvenido de Nuevo Stakes at 300 yards for 3-year-olds and up.

Brunetti expects the opening-day crowd to be between 10,000 and 12,000 spectators.

Hialeah has refurbished the 6,500-seat clubhouse section of its building, and fans also will be able to watch races on the apron area near the rail. The grandstand section is closed for the return meet.

Hialeah will have eight concession stands and about 75 betting windows -- some with clerks and some self-service.

Beginning Sunday, the first post time will be 2:05 p.m. Hialeah will hold racing for 10 weeks, from Saturdays through Tuesdays.

FUTURE PLANS

Hialeah hopes to add a poker room in January.

Hialeah's quarter horse races will be at distances from 220 yards to 660 yards on its straightaway and of 1,000 yards around one turn. Horses will race on the dirt track where Citation, Seattle Slew and War Admiral were among stakes winners.

The Bienvenido de Nuevo has a 10-horse field with Gallant Ways the 3-1 morning line favorite. He is one of four entrants that have won stakes races since late last year.

Hialeah plans to average $100,000 in purses for each eight-race day. That will be among the highest for quarter horse tracks, said Chamberlain of the AQHA which sanctions races in 26 states.

Many of the 800 horses at Hialeah have been sent by owners from Oklahoma and Texas, where quarter horse tracks have ended or will soon end their seasons.

The last quarter horse meet in Florida was at Pompano Park in 1991.

A pending state law would allow Hialeah in future meets to have up to half its races as thoroughbred races with the other half as quarter horse races. Under that law, Hialeah's holding of quarter horse races also would enable it to build a casino with Las Vegas-style slot machines.

Enactment of the law is being held up amid the dispute between Gov. Charlie Crist and the Legislature over terms of a gaming compact for the Seminole Tribe of Florida.