A day at Hollywood Park

If you’ve never been to L.A. then you’ve never been to Hollywood Park unless you live in Inglewood in which case you’re all too familiar with life there. So for our guests who’ve never been I’ll paint my picture starting with the trip there, losing money, and finally being tortured the whole trip home because of the traffic in Los Angeles it was a complete cluster fcuk of fun!

In a word, the area around Hollywood Park  is congested. It’s the lower part of Los Angeles and close to LAX. Trying to get out of the area after a day of losses at the track will put you over the top.  It did me!

Don’t get me wrong the track is a grand old symbol of the past when Hollywood Park played host to many of racings all-time greats of equine and human varieties –  it’s just in the wrong place for these economic times. You can see a complete list of historical events recorded at Hollywood Park here. We had written about the impending closure of Hollywood Park and the life saving days that the CHRB awarded to keep it open through next year and employees working during tough times.

However, in the end the track can’t succeed in it’s current crowded and congested neighborhood of Inglewood and will eventually give way to a more feasible use of the land where available and affordable living space for people is at a premium.

Today’s race of the day past performances are brought to you by DRF.com. America’s Turf Authority Since 1894. Wow. That’s a long time! Can you imagine being the authority of anything for any amount of time? And, to be ‘America’s Turf…’ well, you get the idea. It’s pretty big stuff!

There’s no denying that the Daily Racing Form (DRF) has always been the favorite of professional handicappers and ‘”infernal” horse players. Those that know what it means to have money burn a hole in your pocket. The pros thrive on the novice or occasional bettor who come out for the Breeder’s Cup just for the fun of it. Most often they buy the daily track program which has limited data like the horses names, jockeys, trainers, owners, and basic pedigree information.

All of the information provided in the DRF is invaluable for handicapping horse racing.

Let’s look at the race of the day for today from BugBoy.net and the DRF. It’s an old classic 6 furlong dash on the grass from Hollywood Park which opens its annual fall meeting and was able to pull together nine runners. It’s an OClm62K NW2X. For those of you knew to horse racing the conditions are what makes the races competitive and bet-worthy.

If you’re not familiar with the ’sport of kings’ then check out our page on terminology of the game and what you must know to win.

BREAKDOWN

This is a pretty good race where you have the top jocks that will be competing at the meet each riding a horse that has competed against each other before in Rob, Bob and Dave, Lt. Hopeful, Sassou, and Shadow of Illinois.

This looks like the race to us. We have multiple turf winners against horses who are non-winners of four and we have an east coast horse for Christophe Clement in Perfect Casting. Remember in the BC the east coasters didn’t fare well the past two years out west but Clement has success out west. This one will be closing late as the luke warm favorite.

The speed from the inside and the pressure from WiredforTwoTwenty will succumb to the stalker and the deep closer.

Rob, Bob and Dave will be the stalker and get the first jump on the leaders. He’s non-winners of four but with all the shifting of riders the race appears to be his with Solis and Go Go as the closers.

Good luck!

P.S. — Remember this is a hypothesis until it happens.

Hollywood Park lives to race another day. Gets racing dates for 2010

Fox Sports reported that Hollywood Park was granted dates for the annual spring-summer meeting for April 21 through July 18, 2010. You can read the rest of the story at their site.

In July, Inglewood City Council approved a $2 billion retail and residential development on the site where the track has stood since 1938 when it was opened as the place for Hollywood stars to party with the ponies. Some of the more famous players at the track were the stars of yesteryear when men wore derbies and ladies like Joan Crawford smoked cigarettes from long holders.

Over the past several years Hollywood Park has struggled to fill races during their meets while the better quality horse racing products of Santa Anita and Del Mar reigned supreme on the west coast.  As a result the property was sold several times including once to Churchill Downs, Inc. until they realized their mistake.  And, in recent times the track was sold to it’s current owners, Hollywood Park Land Co., who plan to make it a residential mega-plex of homes and convenience for living. One day.

Until then Hollywood Park lives to race another day in Inglewood. And, isn’t it ironic that the same economic conditions that caused it to be scheduled for a final dramatic exit into the Hollywood entertainment archives is keeping it alive and, well let’s just say alive.

The track will open this year’s 27-day fall meeting on Nov. 13. It will be 13 days shorter than last year, with four stakes races dropped.

There’s an effort to help SaveHollywoodPark that’s underway but a bet on it’s success isn’t one you’ll want to make.