INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Fans crowded into Betfair Hollywood Park for the last time Sunday.
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The track closed for good after the day's 11 races, ending 75 years of racing that featured such Thoroughbred stars as Seabiscuit, Triple Crown winners Citation, Seattle Slew and Affirmed, and Zenyatta. The first Breeders' Cup in 1984 was run here. The track will be turned into a residential and retail development starting next year.
For its last day, though, the track came alive again, with jammed parking lots, lines at the betting windows, and fans and employees swapping stories about the Track of the Lakes and Flowers. Paid attendance exceeded 13,000 — more than double that of a typical weekend — and after 2 p.m. the gates were opened to everyone to alleviate congestion, a track spokesman said.
It was the largest crowd since 25,837 attended Zenyatta's last race in California on Oct. 2, 2010.
California Chrome, the 2-1 favorite ridden by Victor Espinoza and trained by Art Sherman, won the final stakes race, the $200,000 King Glorious for 2-year-olds by 6¼ lengths.
Bugler Jay Cohen announced the final post parade of horses with a medley of 'Auld Lang Syne' and 'Hooray for Hollywood' before they walked onto the track to the Etta James classic 'At Last.'
A huge cheer went up as announcer Vic Stauffer told the crowd, 'It's post time!' Fans kept up the cheers as the horses ran through the stretch to the finish line. Fittingly, it was a photo finish.
Woodmans Luck, ridden by Corey Nakatani and trained by Vladimir Cerin, was declared the winner of the turf race worth $50,000.
Rafael Bejarano rode four winners on the card to wrap up the jockeys' title with 37 winners, while Hall of Famer Bob Baffert was shut out on the final day, but won the training title with 16 winners to John Sadler's 15.
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Dick Van Patten, the 85-year-old actor who starred in TV's 'Eight is Enough,' was a longtime regular. He walked away a winner, when his horse Tanquerray won the $50,000 third race.
Amid the sadness was some bitterness as well.
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Jack Van Berg, the 77-year-old Hall of Fame trainer, blamed the cities of Inglewood and Los Angeles and the state of California for the track's closure.
'I just think it's a pathetic thing,' he said near the paddock. 'It's ridiculous to let something like this that so many people love and thrive on close. They did everything they could to kill racing.'
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Van Berg, who has raced in California for 41 years, said he's moving his operations to Oaklawn Park in Arkansas.
'I've had enough,' he said. 'I don't like California racing anymore. I don't like the way they run it and what they do.'
Betfair Hollywood Park is the second major California racetrack to close since 2008, when Bay Meadows near San Francisco was shuttered after 74 years to make way for a similar development.
Santa Anita, located in Arcadia, will open its winter meet Thursday. Los Alamitos in Orange County will pick up some of Hollywood Park's racing dates, too.
The track's future had been in question since Churchill Downs sold it to Hollywood Park Land Co. in 2005.
At the time, the new owner said racing would continue for a minimum of three years while an effort was made to revitalize the sport's business model. But the track had little luck in stemming declines in wagering and attendance, problems that plague the racing industry nationwide. Statewide initiatives to install slot machines at the track also failed.
Plans call for the track's 260-acre footprint to be turned into 3,000 housing units, including single-family townhomes and condos; 25 acres of parkland, including a 10-acre central park; and a retail and entertainment district, anchored by a movie theatre, office space and a 300-room hotel.
Hollywood Park opened in 1938 under the direction of movie moguls Jack and Harry Warner. Among the celebrity regulars years ago were Elizabeth Taylor, Jimmy Stewart and Bing Crosby.
Baffert made his first visit from Arizona in the early 1970s.
'The thing I remember most was getting up close to the winner's circle and seeing Cary Grant,' he said. 'That was a thrill.'
The track had been preparing to close for weeks. The gift shop was cleaned out of souvenirs before closing day. Some photos of jockeys on the wall in the betting areas had already disappeared.
Much of the track's items, including artwork and memorabilia, tractors and restaurant equipment, will be auctioned on Jan. 24-25.
Two errant flamingoes that escaped capture a few weeks ago sunned themselves on the edge of one of the infield lakes. They will soon be rounded up and taken to a Northern California zoo, where the track's other flamingoes were relocated.
About 50 cats living in the stable area are in search of new homes before the barn area closes at the end of January. The sprawling grandstand will be torn down and simulcasting will be moved to the adjacent casino.
The graves of three horses buried in the infield will be relocated. Native Diver, who won the Hollywood Gold Cup from 1965-67, will be moved to Del Mar racetrack near San Diego. Landaluce, the 2-year-old champion filly of 1982, will go to Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky, where she was bred. Great Communicator, the 1988 Breeders' Cup Turf winner, also will be moved.
Aerial view of Hollywood Park in 2006. The L.A. Forum is visible to the upper left. | |
Location | Inglewood, California, USA |
---|---|
Coordinates | 33°57′1.61″N118°20′16.11″W / 33.9504472°N 118.3378083°WCoordinates: 33°57′1.61″N118°20′16.11″W / 33.9504472°N 118.3378083°W |
Owned by | Bay Meadows Land Co. (Stockbridge Capital Group) |
Date opened | June 10, 1938 |
Date closed | December 22, 2013 |
Course type | Thoroughbred. Flat: Synthetic & Turf. |
Notable races | Hollywood Gold Cup (G1) American Oaks Invitational (G1) Hollywood Derby (G1) Matriarch Stakes (G1) Oak Tree Racing Association: Yellow Ribbon Stakes (G1) Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship Stakes (G1) Ancient Title Stakes (G1) |
Hollywood Park, later sold and referred to as Betfair Hollywood Park, was a thoroughbredrace course located in Inglewood, California, about 3 miles (5 km) from Los Angeles International Airport and adjacent to the Forum indoor arena.[1][2] In 1994 Hollywood Park Casino, with a pokercard room, was added to the racetrack complex.[1] Horse racing and training were shut down in December 2013 though the casino operations continued while a new state of the art casino building opened in October 2016.[1][2]
The former horse racetrack area will be the site of SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL), when the stadium is completed in 2020. Until then, the Rams temporarily play home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Downtown Los Angeles and the Chargers play at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.
- 1History
- 1.3Sale and later developments
History[edit]
Founding and early years[edit]
The track was opened on June 10, 1938 by the Hollywood Turf Club[3] the racetrack was designed by noted racetrack architect Arthur Froehlich. Its chairman was Jack L. Warner[3] of the Warner Bros. film studio. Prominent shareholders included Jack Warner's brother and fellow Warner Bros. executive Harry, Hollywood studio executives Walt Disney, Samuel Goldwyn, Darryl Zanuck, actors Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Joan Blondell, George Jessel, Ronald Colman and Ralph Bellamy. In addition to being shareholders film directors Raoul Walsh and Mervyn LeRoy were also founding members of the track's Board of Directors with Jack and Harry Warner and Al Jolson.
War closure and rebuilding[edit]
Hollywood Park closed from 1942 to 1944 due to World War II, where it was used as a storage facility. In 1949, the grandstand and clubhouse were destroyed by a fire; the rebuilt facility reopened in 1950. In 1984, the racetrack was extended from one mile (1.6 km) around to 11⁄8 miles (1.8 km) around prior to the first Breeders Cup race.[citation needed]Harness racing also took place at Hollywood Park.[4]
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By the late 1980s the racetrack Hollywood Park, though frequented by celebrities, was near the point of bankruptcy.[5] As of 1989, a group of investors was working to buy Los Alamitos Racetrack in California for $68 million.[6] Los Alamitos, owned by Hollywood Park, was still under its original ownership as of 1991, though a significant portion of the stock had been bought by external investors.[7][8]RD Hubbard became CEO of Hollywood Park in April 1991, after having purchased a portion of the company's stock in late 1990.[5] He was assisted in the ouster of the former chairman Marje Everett, who had run Hollywood Park since 1972, by company shareholder Tom Gamel and sports businessman Harry Ornest.[7] In 1991 $20 million was spent improving the racetrack. That year the park earned its first profit in five years, and despite rioting in nearby Los Angeles in 1992, annual profits that year increased to $5.4 million.[5] By 1993, the Los Angeles Times wrote that 'shareholders at Hollywood Park.. are enjoying substantial investment gains.'[9] A card club casino was added to the complex in 1994,[citation needed] as Hollywood Park underwent a $100 million expansion into Hollywood Park Casino, which opened in the summer of 1994. Also in 1994, Hollywood Park Inc. purchased the Arizona-based Turf Paradise Race Track for $34 million in stock.[5]
In May 1995 after the departure of the Rams for St. Louis, the owners of the National Football League teams approved with a 27-1 vote with two abstentions, a resolution supporting a plan to build a $200 million, privately financed stadium on property owned by Hollywood Park for the Los Angeles Raiders.[10] Then Raiders owner Al Davis balked and refused the deal over a stipulation that he would have had to accept a second team at the stadium. After the deal fell through the Raiders returned to Oakland, California.
Hollywood Park Inc. suffered losses in 1995, though at the end of 1996, Hollywood Park bought Boomtown, Inc. for $188 million. Boomtown operated and owned casinos in several cities such as Las Vegas and New Orleans. Boomtown merged with the casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment in 1998. Hollywood Park was purchased by Churchill Downs Incorporated on September 10, 1999[5] for $140 million.[citation needed] Churchill Downs acquired Hollywood Park-Casino in the process, which was in turn leased by Hollywood Park Inc. (later named Pinnacle Entertainment).[5] The previous owners of the track renamed their company Pinnacle Entertainment to concentrate on its gambling interests.[citation needed]
Sale and later developments[edit]
In July 2005, Churchill Downs Incorporated sold the track to the Bay Meadows Land Company which was owned by Stockbridge Capital Group for $260 million in cash.[11] Under the terms of the deal, the company, which at the time also operated Bay Meadows in San Mateo, was to continue thoroughbred racing at Hollywood Park for at least three years. According to Bay Meadows officials, the continuation of Hollywood Park as a racing venue after that depended on California allowing more gambling, like slot machines, to the track.[12]
Some of the Hollywood Park land was sold to real estate developers to build a new housing community called the Inglewood Renaissance. Development began in 2005.
New grass was planted on the turf course after Hollywood Park's spring-summer meet in 2005. Due to safety concerns, however, turf racing was not conducted for that year's autumn meet. As a result, several major stakes races that comprised Hollywood's Autumn Turf Festival were cancelled that year.
After the conclusion of Hollywood's spring-summer meet in 2006, it was announced that a second chute would be built inside the turf course to accommodate sprint races at six furlongs. This followed a similar move by Monmouth Park to build a turf chute for sprint races.
In 2010, Hollywood Park played host for the first time to Oak Tree.[13]
Betfair/Hollywood Park Agreement[edit]
The Hollywood Park Racing Association and Betfair US, the Los Angeles-based subsidiary of Betfair that also owns TVG Network, completed a historic agreement March 13, 2012 intended to transform the customer experience for fans at the venue as well as online and on television. Under terms of the five-year deal, Hollywood Park was renamed 'Betfair Hollywood Park in what was the first naming rights agreement for a horse racing venue in the United States.[3]
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Closure and redevelopment[edit]
On May 9, 2013 in a letter to employees, Hollywood Park president F. Jack Liebau announced that the track would be closing at the end of their fall racing season in 2013. In the letter, Liebau stated that the 260 acres on which the track sits 'now simply has a higher and better use', and that 'in the absence of a favorable change in racing's business model, the ultimate development of the Hollywood property was inevitable'. It was expected that the track would be demolished and replaced by housing units, park land and an entertainment complex, while the casino would be renovated.
On December 22, 2013 at 6:11pm the final race[14] was run with Woodsman Luck taking first place, Depreciable in second place and Danderek in third place, concluding 75 years of near-continuous racing in Southern California. The complex was demolished in 2014 to make way for a new residential complex.
In 2014, Stan Kroenke, owner of the NFL's St. Louis Rams, purchased a 60-acre parcel of land adjacent to the track property and The Forum with the intentions of building a National Football League stadium on the land.[15] Kroenke's 60 acres was not big enough for an NFL stadium and parking, but his announced partnership for the neighboring track land with Stockbridge Capital Group, would fold the stadium into the larger office/retail/residential project planned for the track site by master planner Hart Howerton.[16]
On February 24, 2015, the Inglewood City Council approved a plan to build an 70,000-seat football stadium on the site in anticipation of the St. Louis Rams moving back to Los Angeles (which was the team's previous home from 1946 until 1994).[17] And on May 31, 2015, with the Inglewood mayor on hand sporting a Rams cap, the grandstand was reduced to rubble in a flurry of timed explosions.
On January 12, 2016, the NFL voted to move the Rams back to Los Angeles by a vote of 30-2, a move of the Chargers followed. In October 2016, the last part of the former track, the Casino, was demolished and a new Hollywood Park Casino was opened next door. Construction of the new stadium and redevelopment of the former track site began in earnest.
Notable events at the track[edit]
- In 1951, Citation became the first million-dollar-winning horse by winning his final start, the Hollywood Gold Cup.
- On July 3, 1977, recent Triple Crown winner, Seattle Slew, finished fourth in the Swaps Stakes, a major upset.
- Niatross wins the American Pacing Classic in a world record 1.52 1/5.[18]
- Hosted the inaugural Breeders' Cup in 1984 and also hosted the event in 1987 and 1997.
- 1991 introduced Friday night racing on 12 Fridays during the summer meet.
- The Quarantine Barn, with four, six-stall sections, was constructed adjacent to the main stable gate for the 1992 Autumn Meet. This facility permits international shippers to come directly to Hollywood Park upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport.
- The 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) Noble Threewitt/Charlie Whittingham Horsemen's Lounge opened in December, 1993.
- On December 10, 1999, Laffit Pincay, Jr. surpassed Bill Shoemaker's all-time record for race wins by a jockey.
- Cesario (JPN) becomes the first Japanese-bred, Japan-based racehorse to win an American stakes race in nearly 50 years, winning the July 2005 American Oaks.
- The race course is replicated in the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V.
Physical attributes[edit]
The track had a 11⁄8-mile (1.8 km) dirt oval, plus a 1-mile 145 foot (1.654 km) turf oval. The track regularly seated 10,000 people. A new Cushion Track racing surface was installed in September, 2006 to replace the existing dirt, making Hollywood Park the first track in California to meet the California Horse Racing Board's guideline that all tracks in the state replace dirt surfaces with a safer artificial surface by the end of 2007.
Racing[edit]
These races were the graded stakes races run at Hollywood Park. (All turf stakes listed below were put on hiatus during the 2005 Autumn Meet.)
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Grade 1 :
Grade 2 :
Grade 3 :
Ungraded stakes :
See also[edit]
- Hollywood Park Casino, casino formerly part of the racetrack, still in operation in new facilities
- Bob Benoit (horse racing), general manager beginning in 1977
References[edit]
- ^ abcFast, Erik. 'Hollywood Park Casino's Grand Opening Oct. 21'. Card Player (October 21, 2016).
- ^ abMazza, Sandy (August 9, 2016). 'Take a peek inside the new Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood before it opens'. Daily Breeze.
- ^ abcHistory of Hollywood Park, Retrieved October 20, 2012.
- ^SC Rewind: Hollywood Park, Standardbred Canada, Retrieved 11 June 2016
- ^ abcdefStallings, Dianne (August 26, 2010). 'A complicated life'. Ruidoso News. Archived from the original on June 19, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
- ^Christine, Bill (June 29, 1989). 'Horse Racing : Get Out of Dodge: Hubbard Selling Interests in Kansas Tracks'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
- ^ abChristine, Bill (February 19, 1991). 'Hubbard Looks to Track's Future : Hollywood Park: He is working 15-hour days in his new role as president to get things ready for the April 24 opener'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-06-16.
- ^Christine, Bill (February 19, 1991). 'Hubbard Looks to Track's Future : Hollywood Park: He is working 15-hour days in his new role as president to get things ready for the April 24 opener'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
- ^Christine, Bill (November 17, 1993). 'Change for the Bettor : Hollywood Park's Hubbard Fuels Innovation'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
- ^'The day Al Davis walked away'. espn.com. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^'Churchill Downs Incorporated to Sell Hollywood Park to Bay Meadows Land Company; Racing Operations to Continue at Historic Inglewood Racetrack'. businesswire.com. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^The Orange County Register, July 7, 2005.
- ^'Inaugural Oak Tree At Hollywood Park Meet Will Begin Sept. 30; Zenyatta Scheduled To Return In $250,000 Lady's Secret On Oct. 2'. Archived from the original on March 7, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
- ^Final Race at Hollywood Park on December 22, 2013 Video on YouTube (Retrieved May 8, 2014 from the OFFICIAL Hollywood Park YouTube channel).
- ^Vincent, Sam Farmer, Roger. 'Owner of St. Louis Rams plans to build NFL stadium in Inglewood'. latimes.com. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^'Architect Paul Milana on Revitalization and Revival | Hollywood Park'. www.hollywoodparklife.com. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
- ^'Inglewood approves stadium plans'. ESPN. Associated Press. February 25, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
- ^Was this the greatest of them all?, www.harnessbred.com, Retrieved 11 June 2016
External links[edit]
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