Hollywood Park to Remain Open for Training Through January 2014

[Socalracefan]

It was announced at last Thursday's CA Horse Racing Board meeting that Hollywood Park would stay open for training for at least through January 2014. CHRB Chairman David Israel also said that it might remain open "considerably longer."

The stabling issue in So Cal is expected to be finalized at next month's meeting. Los Alamitos is expected to accomodate 700 Thoroughbreds, and San Luis Rey can hold 495, and is in talks to add 300 more stalls. And Fairplex and Santa Anita would stable the remaining Thoroughbreds.

Also, Los Alamitos will get a two week Thoroughbred meet in early July, and a three week meet in early December, taking some of the dates that were originally given to Santa Anita and Del Mar, respectively. And it will expand its track to one mile in the coming months.

That's not all. There is a possibility of a Thoroughbred race meet at Los Alamitos, but it would be operated by Hollywood Park.

There has been divided opinions on all of this. Some believe it's Hollywood helping out racing in So Cal, while others think that financing for the proposed development is not in place. And no one representing Hollypark spoke at the meeting.

Here are the articles about the meeting. What's your take?

http://www.paulickreport.com/news/th...-breeders-cup/

http://www.drf.com/news/hollywood-pa...ng-extra-month

[Stillriledup]

Hopefully we will see you in April of 2014 for a live race meet!

[Socalracefan]

That's what many are hoping for, including yours truly.

[Stillriledup]

Originally Posted by Socalracefan

That's what many are hoping for, including yours truly.

Believe. They're not dead till the fat wrecking ball sings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBEXSiFzOfU

[Fingal]

And no one representing Hollypark spoke at the meeting.

Interesting. I wonder why not ? I would think if a facility was dead man walking & got even a small reprieve they'd want to say something.

Also, Los Alamitos will get a two week Thoroughbred meet in early July, and a three week meet in early December, taking some of the dates that were originally given to Santa Anita and Del Mar, respectively. And it will expand its track to one mile in the coming months.

Hmm........ I wonder where this proposal came from ?

[dilanesp]

1. BHP will close.

2. There is no chance of a mile LosAl track for at least 2 years and probably a lot longer.

3. They have restored the year round schedule even though fans don't care and our racing stinks. That's a nice welfare program for horsemen, but will ensure tge further decline of SoCal racing.

[dilanesp]

By the way, to follow up on point 2, this is Los Alamitos:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=los+a...alifornia&z=16

It is currently a 5/8 mile bullring with very tight turns. Take note as well that to its immediate west is a golf course which is not going anywhere. To the east, the property ends at Vessels Circle, providing a little more than 1/8 of a mile to further expand the stretch. 1/8 of a mile on each side would make a 7/8 of a mile track with extremely tight bullring-style turns. To the north is Cerritos Avenue. Not only is there little room for expansion there, but the building north of the current 4 1/2 furlong chute on the backstretch is privately owned, which would basically block any attempt to move the backstretch farther north.

This means if you want a mile track with normal turns, you have to tear down the grandstand and move the homestretch. And bear in mind, this is at a facility that races quarter horses year round and probably cannot close the track for 9 months a la Gulfstream to move everything around. They would need to remodel on the fly while continuing to race, which would stretch it out a lot longer.

In actuality, there has been talk for at least 20 years about expanding Los Al and Fairplex. But people talk about lots of things that never get done. It's true that now we have a much more urgent situation due to the closure of BHP. Obviously, a lot of horsemen would really like to get back to a year round racing situation in Southern California that doesn't involve bullrings, and Los Al's owners have had their foot in the thoroughbred door for years and would probably love to have more thoroughbreds run there. Nonetheless, there's no way a mile track at Los Al can happen without a long, drawn-out process.

[wisconsin]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

By the way, to follow up on point 2, this is Los Alamitos:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=los+a...alifornia&z=16

It is currently a 5/8 mile bullring with very tight turns. Take note as well that to its immediate west is a golf course which is not going anywhere. To the east, the property ends at Vessels Circle, providing a little more than 1/8 of a mile to further expand the stretch. 1/8 of a mile on each side would make a 7/8 of a mile track with extremely tight bullring-style turns. To the north is Cerritos Avenue. Not only is there little room for expansion there, but the building north of the current 4 1/2 furlong chute on the backstretch is privately owned, which would basically block any attempt to move the backstretch farther north.

This means if you want a mile track with normal turns, you have to tear down the grandstand and move the homestretch. And bear in mind, this is at a facility that races quarter horses year round and probably cannot close the track for 9 months a la Gulfstream to move everything around. They would need to remodel on the fly while continuing to race, which would stretch it out a lot longer.

In actuality, there has been talk for at least 20 years about expanding Los Al and Fairplex. But people talk about lots of things that never get done. It's true that now we have a much more urgent situation due to the closure of BHP. Obviously, a lot of horsemen would really like to get back to a year round racing situation in Southern California that doesn't involve bullrings, and Los Al's owners have had their foot in the thoroughbred door for years and would probably love to have more thoroughbreds run there. Nonetheless, there's no way a mile track at Los Al can happen without a long, drawn-out process.

The golf course is closed.

[ronsmac]

Dilanesp,
you seem pretty knowledgeable about SoCal, was pomona a 4f track years ago, expand it to 5f? I thought I read that somewhere.

[iwearpurple]

Fairplex (Pomona) originally was a 4F track. Was expanded to 5F I am guessing about 15 years ago.

[dilanesp]

1. The Los Al golf course isn't going anywhere and isn't owned by the track. It is part of the San Gabriel River flood control system.

2. Fairplex did expand from 4 to 5 furlongs. The area for the expansion was taken out of the barn area. Unlike Los Al, Fairplex sits on and is surrounded by its own property and the track management could theoretically expand it however they want.

The problem for Fairplex is different, and that is that the LA Fair (the primary use of the fairgrounds) is a huge moneymaker, far bigger than what they get out of racing. And the second biggest moneymaker is the NHRA winternationals, held on the drag strip there. They need lots of parking and lots of fairgrounds. Expanding Fairplex to a mile would mean that the fairgrounds or parking would have to be shrunk and everything would need to be reconfigured.

It's not impossible (I'd give it better odds than Los Al), but it would still take several years to do.

[Al Gobbi]

I believe Pomona's expansion from 4F to 5F in the mid 80's was to hold harness racing and add lights. Harness only lasted a few years but the lights are still there.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Al Gobbi

I believe Pomona's expansion from 4F to 5F in the mid 80's was to hold harness racing and add lights. Harness only lasted a few years but the lights are still there.

Correct. Although even then there was talk of improving the thoroughbred product. For awhile, they were upping their purses and hoping to lure jockeys, trainers, and big horses to treat Fairplex as an equal to the other SoCal tracks. That was when they upped the Pomona Handicap purse to $100K, created the Barrett's sale and stakes races, and changed the track's name to Fairplex. Talk of expanding out to a mile or 9 furlongs was also being thrown about during that same period, although nothing serious ever went forward.

The basic thing is that if it was straightforward for Fairplex or Los Al to become full-fledged major league thoroughbred tracks they would have done it. It wasn't for lack of trying that they didn't. The talk we are hearing now is basically born of the fact that the horsemen are looking at an incomplete schedule and hoping for someone to step in and just take over BHP's role, and the tracks are saying things like "of course we'd like to expand". There's no real thought about the economic viability or logistics of this.

[Dan Montilion]

Put Hollypark out of its misery. They have been a lame duck for years. CHRB should have awarded their days to SA and DMR years ago. I hope California racing never sees or hears from Bay Meadows land development and F. Jack.. ever again.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Dan Montilion

Put Hollypark out of its misery. They have been a lame duck for years. CHRB should have awarded their days to SA and DMR years ago. I hope California racing never sees or hears from Bay Meadows land development and F. Jack.. ever again.

Part of the issue here is that for several different reasons, Santa Anita and Del Mar have never wanted all the dates. For Del Mar, they conduct the San Diego County Fair in the early summer and can't run races during that time. For Santa Anita, the grandstand doesn't have modern climate control (it was built to just have ambient air pass through it because Santa Anita was a winter track and most of the time it would be 65 to 70 degrees) and the turf course gets torn up.

And both tracks' managements think that they benefit from fewer dates on the racing calendar. For Del Mar, this is obvious-- a short "special" vacation meet with big attendance is one of the most profitable racing operations in the entire country. For Santa Anita, they certainly would not mind a break in racing before December 26 when they have their big opening day every year.

As I said, what you have here is horsemen who are scrambling around trying to find people to run races on the dates that Del Mar and Santa Anita don't want. That panic is what is driving this conversation; the tracks don't necessarily want what the horsemen want.