Hollywood Park Racetrack
Hollywood Park
Aerial view of Hollywood Park. The L.A. Forum is visible to the upper left.
LocationInglewood, California, USACoordinates33°57′1.61″N 118°20′16.11″WOwned byBay Meadows Land Co.Date openedJune 10, 1938Date closedDecember 22, 2013Course typeThoroughbred. Flat: Synthetic & Turf.Notable racesHollywood 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)Official website
Hollywood Park, later sold and referred to as Betfair Hollywood Park, was athoroughbred race course until it was shut down for racing and training in December 2013. The casino still remains open, containing a poker card room located in Inglewood, California, about 3 miles (5 km) from Los Angeles International Airport and adjacent to the Forum.
HistoryEdit
Founding and early yearsEdit
The track was opened in June 10, 1938 by the Hollywood Turf Club[1] the racetrack was designed by noted racetrack architect Arthur Froehlich. Its chairman was Jack L. Warner[1] of theWarner 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 andRalph Bellamy. In addition to being shareholders film directors Raoul Walshand Mervyn LeRoy were also founding members of the track's Board of Directors with Jack and Harry Warner and Al Jolson.
War closure and rebuildingEdit
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 race track was extended from 1-mile (1.6 km) around to 1 1⁄8-mile (1.8 km) around prior to the first Breeders Cup race. In 1986, the turf course was similarly expanded from just over 7⁄8-mile (1.4 km) around to 1 mile 145 foot (1.654 km) around.[citation needed]
By the late 1980s the racetrack Hollywood Park, though frequented by celebrities, was near the point of bankruptcy.[2] As of 1989, a group of investors was working to buy Los Alamitos Racetrack in California for $68 million.[3] 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.[4][4] RD Hubbard became CEO of Hollywood Park in April 1991, after having purchased a portion of the company's stock in late 1990.[2] 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 businessmanHarry Ornest.[4] In 1991 $20 million was spent improving the racetrack. That year the park earned its first profit in five years, and despite rioting in nearbyLos Angeles in 1992, annual profits that year increased to $5.4 million.[2] By 1993, the Los Angeles Times wrote that "shareholders at Hollywood Park... are enjoying substantial investment gains."[5] 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.[2]
Hollywood Park Inc. suffered losses in 1995, though at the end of 1996, Hollywood Park bought Boomtown, Inc.for $188 million. Boomtown operated and owed 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[2] for $140 million.[citation needed] Churchill Downs acquired Hollywood Park-Casino in the process, which was in turn leased by Hollywood Park Inc. (later namedPinnacle Entertainment).[2] The previous owners of the track renamed their company Pinnacle Entertainment to concentrate on its gambling interests.[citation needed]
Sale and recent developmentsEdit
In July 2005, Churchill Downs Incorporated sold the track to the Bay Meadows Land Company for $260 million in cash. Under the terms of the deal, the company, which operates 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.[6]
Some of the Hollywood Park land was sold to real estate developers to build a new housing community called theInglewood 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 follows a similar move byMonmouth Park to build a turf chute for sprint races.
In 2010, Hollywood Park played host for the first time to Oak Tree.[7]
Betfair/Hollywood Park AgreementEdit
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 is the first naming rights agreement for a horse racing venue in the United States.[1]
ClosureEdit
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 is expected that the track will be demolished and replaced by housing units, park land and an entertainment complex, while the casino will be renovated. It is also anticipated that Hollywood Park's racing dates from 2014 onward will be transferred toSanta Anita Park, Los Alamitos Race Course and Del Mar Racetrack.
On December 22, 2013 at 6:11pm the final race[8] was run with Woodsman Luck taking first place, Depreciable in second place and Danderek in third place, concluding 75 years of continuous racing in Southern California. The complex will be demolished in 2014 to make way for a new residential complex.
NFL stadiumEdit
On February 24, 2015, the Inglewood City Council approved a plan to build an80,000-seat football stadium on the site in anticipation of the St. Louis Ramsmoving back to Los Angeles.[9] 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.
Notable events at the trackEdit
Hosted the inaugural Breeders' Cup in1984 and also hosted the event in 1987and 1997.On July 3, 1977, recent Triple Crownwinner, Seattle Slew finished fourth in the Swaps Stakes, a major upset.In 1951, Citation became the first million-dollar-winning horse by winning his final start, the Hollywood Gold Cup.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 2005American Oaks.The 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) Noble Threewitt/Charlie WhittinghamHorsemen's Lounge opened in December, 1993.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.1991 introduced Friday night racing on 12 Fridays during the summer meet.The race course is replicated in the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V.
Potential new stadium; possible return and relocation to Los AngelesEdit
Main article: City of Champions Stadium
On January 5, 2015, the Los Angeles Times reported that Stan Kroenke and Stockbridge Capital Group are partnering up in developing a new NFL stadium on the Inglewood property owned by Kroenke. The project would include an 80,000-seat stadium and a 6,000-seat performance venue while reconfiguring the previously approvedHollywood Park plan for up to 890,000 square feet of retail, 780,000 square feet of office space, 2,500 new residential units, a 300-room hotel and 25 acres of public parks, playgrounds, open space and pedestrian and bicycle access. The stadium would likely be ready by 2018.[31] In lieu of this, St. Louiscountered with a stadium plan for the north riverfront area of downtown, with the hope of keeping the Rams in the city. On February 24, 2015, the Inglewood City Council approved the stadium and the initiative with construction on the stadium planned to begin in December 2015.[29][30] Kroenke is intent on moving the Rams back toLos Angeles, but that is still up to the NFL owners.[32] It was later reported that the league would find it hard to let go of the St. Louis market if it can finance a viable stadium no matter what Stan Kroenke wants.[33]