Hollywood Park set to close in December
It can be argued that when the worlds of big business and horse racing collide, good things rarely happen.
Some who believed that statement sadly nodded their heads Thursday, when it was announced that Betfair Hollywood Park would be closed in December and destroyed for the purpose of redeveloping the valuable Southern California land it sits on.
According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the track will close for good on Dec. 22 of this year, after its fall-winter meeting concludes. The Hollywood Park Land Company is reportedly planning on building a real estate and shopping development on the land, which it purchased from Churchill Downs, Inc., for $257.5 million in 2005.
“Ownership has been upfront from the beginning that the property would eventually be developed unless there were significant changes in the horse racing business,” said Betfair Hollywood Park president Jack Liebau in that same article. “Despite the Hollywood Park Land Company financially supporting two statewide initiatives with varying degrees of support from other segments of the racing industry, the attempts to upgrade the business model were not successful.
“From an economic point of view, the land now simply has a higher and better use, so, unfortunately, racing will not continue here once the 2013 Autumn meet is completed.”
That statement, while partisan in nature, does raise a number of questions. For one, what, precisely, did the Hollywood Park Land Company think would change between 2005 and now? If they bought the land solely to plow over the track down the line, how was the sale approved in good conscience?
Additionally, what will the California racing circuit do to compensate for the lack of dates at Hollywood Park? Will they add dates at Santa Anita? Will the fair meets that run for a week or two at a time see a sudden increase in field sizes? Will the synthetic surface at Golden Gate draw the horses that relished the artificial main track at Hollywood?
This is a sad end to a track that deserves better. Hollywood Park opened in 1938, and has housed such races as the Hollywood Gold Cup and the CashCall Futurity.
In 1951, Citation became the first equine millionaire by winning that year’sGoldCup. Laffit Pincay, Jr., supplanted
Bill Shoemaker as the winningest jockey in racing history on those grounds in 1999, and the track hosted the Breeders’ Cup three times, in 1984, 1987 and 1997.
Unfortunately, despite all the history at the venue, Hollywood Park will go the way of several tracks before it that were destroyed when owners saw dollar signs elsewhere. It’s a sign of the times, and with the state of New York racing still very much in flux after the takeover of NYRA by Governor Andrew Cuomo, those queasy about the future of the Sport of Kings in the Empire State now have even more reason to wonder what the future holds.
Path to the Preakness
I’ll be in attendance a week from Saturday when Orb looks to capture the second leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. We’ll have wall-towall coverage leading up to the race, which will include a live chat and a special edition of The Pink Sheet Insider on Saratogian.com.
Orb figures to face several of the foes he vanquished in the Kentucky Derby. Oxbow, Will Take Charge, Itsmyluckyday, and Goldencents are already confirmed to be targeting the race, while Normandy Invasion, Mylute, and Vyjack may also contest it.
The group of newcomers is led by Departing, who finished third behind Revolutionary in the Louisiana Derby before romping in the Illinois Derby last out. Additionally, Bob Baffert, who did not have an entrant in the Kentucky Derby, will send Govenor Charlie to the Preakness off of his win in the Grade III Sunland Derby.
Correction
I misspoke in last week’s column when I mentioned the curse of the Toyota Blue Grass. While it is true that no winner of the race since Strike the Gold in 1991 has gone on to win the Kentucky Derby, two Derby winners, Thunder Gulch and Street Sense, have come into the first Saturday in May off of that race at Keeneland since Strike the Gold’s victory. Thunder Gulch was fourth in 1995, while Street Sense was second in 2007.