Hollywood Park move to Los Al affect handicapping?

[fishorsechess]

I was wondering if Hollywood Park closes and Los Al absorbs
all of its racing would this affect my handicapping? I am
assuming Los Alamitos would be classified as a major track
similar to Hollwood Park so there should be no problem
after all the upgrades there at Los Al. Plus if things go
gravey some of that big Orange County money may flow
into the handles.

[Zaf]

Is there a proposal on the table for this scenario?

ZAFONIC

[garyoz]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-horse19mar19,0,1123194.story?coll=la-home-sports

LA Times article (may have to register).

[so.cal.fan]

Nothing has been decided as of now.
Hollywood Park (Churchill Downs Inc.) has 3 offers on the property they paid $140,000,000 for. The value has doubled and Churchill Downs wants out of So. Calif. racing.
The property will be sold to the highest bidder.....UPS, a Japaneese firm, and a large Los Angeles based construction company.
It will likely go to UPS....they currently lease some of the parking lot property....and they want to use the entire property for a large distribution center....because of it's close proximity to LAX.
The racing dates are up for grabs.
Some well financed owners want to make Los Alamitos a major track.
We have heard Stronach turned down Churchill's request to use Santa Anita to run their dates in the near future, but I question if this is really off the table or not.
If Churchill backs out of Calif. racing......Los Al will probably be converted to a mile track with a turf course, eventually.
Santa Anita and Del Mar will get a additional dates from the CHRB.
All this said, really as far as we can figure....NOTHING has been agreed on.
This was the latest update from Santa Anita officials that we heard Sunday.
I'll keep y'all posted with the latest rumors....but they are just that...rumors. ;)

[Zaf]

Thanks Gary & SoCal, very interesting.

ZAFONIC

[rrbauer]

socalfan:
What happened to the UPS sale that you reported the other day?

[rrbauer]

If Los Al does start running TB meets, it will be after they rebuild their track and change the configuration of the main track to a 1-mile oval and add the 7f turf course. So, until that time there's nothing to ponder from a handicapping perspective vis-a-vis track-to-track comparisons.

[so.cal.fan]

The UPS bid is still on, Richard.....the last we heard....there were three bids.....UPS the probable winning bid.
It is not official...but will be within the next month.
That's the last we heard on Sunday.
We also heard Churchill wants out of Cal. racing.......again, just a rumor.

[rrbauer]

socalfan....here's your quote from another thread last Thursday:

"Just got back from Santa Anita where they announced the final sale of Hollywood Park to UPS.
They will run this meet and next year.....moving to Los Al in '07.
They are going to expand.
They wanted to run at Santa Anita, but Stronach turned them down.
That's the latest as of 5:00 pm pst."

Now maybe you backed away from that in another post but when I read this it says "Done Deal".

[so.cal.fan]

Yep, that was what was being said last Thursday, Richard.
I have since posted that the rumors are flying around like flocks of sparrows.
We will hear many different scenarios.
The latest was Sunday.......three bids for the property are in.....UPS, a Japanese company, and a Los Angeles based construction company.
The highest bid will probably be accepted by the stock held Churchill Downs Inc.
Churchill may or may not......probably not be willing to fork out money to build another racetrack in another location.....so a group of Cal. owners/breeders are trying to rebuild Los Alamitos. The plan to convert Fairplex is said to be off the table.
At this point.....I don't think anything is off the table.......including a change in plans by Stronach to not allow any Churchill dates to be run at S.A.
There will be rumors for the next month.....by the end of April or the start of Hollywood Park, we should get some concrete facts.

[46zilzal]

Amazing. My little old "home away from home" getting to be BIG TIME.

The ghost of Kaweah Bar will be happy to hear that.

[BeatTheChalk]

and the track is simply nothing like Hollywood Park ...in any case we could
see this coming years ago...

[ratpack]

"We have heard Stronach turned down Churchill's request to use Santa Anita to run their dates in the near future, but I question if this is really off the table or not"

Well I am sure of one thing those Hol race dates will not go unused, California needs the tax money too badly and if those race dates need to run at Santa Anita I don't care what Stronach says Arnold and the CHRB will have the last word.