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CNET.com founder Halsey Minor will try to get a court to stop the sale at auction of two of the premier racetracks in the country — Santa Anita and Lone Star.

The technology news Web site Pulse2 reported on March 25 that Minor is being sued for $60 million by creditors who say he has not paid for paintings that he purchased at auction and by investors in a Charlottesville, Va., hotel project.

But Minor, who is contesting the lawsuits and has filed some countersuits of his own, told msnbc.com that he has the resources to carry out his plan.

“I have sources of capital,” he said. “I have people like Billy (Teinowitz of the Chicago investment banking firm Kingsbury Capital), who’s helping raise funds. I’ve got Ron Volkman , who was on the board of Magna when Frank bought the tracks … and then I have the best professionals in gaming  and restructuring working on this.”

Minor said he and his team are in continuing discussion with officials of Magna Entertainment, the company’s biggest shareholders and its creditors to try and work out a deal in time to forestall the Sept. 8 auctions.

“I talk to everybody …. and I’m hopeful that a solution can be put together that prevents tracks from being put in harm’s way,” he said. “If I succeed, then obviously that will be great for the sport. And if I fail, it will not be through a lack of effort.”

If Minor succeeds in gaining control of Magna’s racetrack empire, he said he intends to invest in the tracks to enable them to compete in what he calls the “play space entertainment” sector.

“The U.S. tracks, by and large, have not been updated in 40 to 50 years,” he said. “They’re dilapidated. Horse racing needs facilities that are beautiful to look at, comfortable to be in and provide a level of entertainment that is consistent with what you spend and with how long it takes to get there.”

He also said he would market the tracks by emphasizing racing as a sport rather than as a form of gambling. 

“More money is wagered on pro foot ball on an order of magnitude than is wagered on thoroughbred racing and yet nobody even talks about gambling,” he said. “The reason is they have a fan base that is vested in the sport. For some, the emotional high and low is enough; for some it has to be financial as well.”

Minor said that despite his background in technology, both at CNET and through his venture capital firm, Minor Enterprises, he does not emphasize its use in revitalizing racing because so much investment has to be made first.

“I don’t talk about it because I don’t want to give the false hope that you can bring technology in and everything will change,” he said. “The first order is hammers and nails. Once you get the tracks rebuilt, the technology comes afterward.”

He also said that he would prefer to be working on tech issues and innovations, and would be so if he didn’t see racing’s situation as so precarious. 

“We’re really kind of grabbing the last knot on the rope, and if we weren’t I’d be doing something else,” he said. “But I ‘m terrified that thoroughbred racing in America is going to either vanish or be so decimated …  and that the memories that I had as a child are memories that my children and my children’s children can never experience.”

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