He’s Got the Dirt on Hollywood Park

Sixty years ago, the big horses at Hollywood Park were Seabiscuit, on his way to a horse-of-the-year title, and Lawrin, the recent winner of the Kentucky Derby.

On that first opening day--June 10, 1938--Barbara Stanwyck, so good in “Stella Dallas” the year before, presented the feature-race trophy in the winner’s circle. She was surrounded by cohorts, for the original Hollywood Park was bankrolled by Hollywood--charter investors included Al Jolson, Jack Warner, Raoul Walsh, Walt Disney, Mervyn LeRoy, Ronald Colman and that ubiquitous racetracker, Bing Crosby, who had helped start Del Mar in 1937.

The crowd for the inaugural, reported as 25,258 but estimated to be much higher, would be a nice turnout now, as Hollywood opens for the 59th time tonight. There was no off-track betting, of the legal kind, in 1938; there was no full-bore 24-hour casino operating next door; and with a tidy 34-day race meet, Hollywood’s racing office didn’t have to scramble to fill the cards.

Hollywood Park lost three seasons along the way--two for World War II, when the track became a storage facility for the North American Aviation Co.; and one in 1949, when racing was moved to Santa Anita after a fire badly damaged the grandstand and clubhouse shortly before opening day. In 1938, the average bettor wagered about $30 at the track. Of course, you could buy a newspaper then for three cents. The average now is well over $200.

The $2 bet has survived, and there are even $1 bets now on the exotic wagers such as exactas and trifectas. And the horses may enjoy this year’s 67-day season more than horseplayers, if early notices about Hollywood Park’s rebuilt dirt track are any indication.

The track plowed a reported $500,000 into a racing surface that had escaped criticism despite many last-minute defections from the Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park last fall. General Manager Eual G. Wyatt Jr., whose father was the track’s leading trainer in 1938, said the new strip was built because the track wants “the best conditions possible.”

R.D. Hubbard is so happy with the new surface that he’s planning a similar overhaul for Ruidoso Downs, the quarter horse track he owns in New Mexico.

Many trainers running horses at Santa Anita have kept their stock at Hollywood year-round. One of them, Neil Drysdale, who led the Santa Anita winter meet in stakes victories, says the new Hollywood surface is among the best in the country.

“There’s very little kickback [of dirt],” Drysdale said. “And the track behaves well no matter how much water it takes. Twenty-four hours after a good rain, it bounces back.”

Before Dennis Moore came to Hollywood Park, he had been the track superintendent at Los Alamitos. The new Hollywood Park surface is similar to what Los Alamitos had, and what Hollywood Park experimentally used on its training track early last year.

The final week of last year, the top 2 1/2 inches of the old track were removed and replaced.

“We wanted something that would survive the wet months of the year and also remain a kind surface during the dry months,” Moore said. “This mixture is sandier and has binding materials of silt and clay. This track won’t ball up and give you clogs.”

Maintenance should also be easier.

“We won’t have to do all the ripping and tilling that we used to do,” Moore said. “We should have a much more consistent track.”

Kent Desormeaux has worked many horses over the new track.

“I love it,” he said. “Some tracks sound like thunder, but when horses travel over this surface, you can’t even hear them hitting the ground.”

Desormeaux expects running times to be slower but says the surface should be fair for everyone. In the Breeders’ Cup in November, in five dirt races involving the best horses, four of the winning times either set or tied records for the series, which began in 1984.

Trainer Ron McAnally, who has been working some of his horses at Hollywood Park in recent weeks, will have more of an opinion of the new surface after the season starts.

“I’d like to see some races over it,” McAnally said. “If it’s not cupping out, then it’s going to be all right. My criticism of Hollywood Park in recent years is that front-runners seemed to dominate most of the races.”

Hollywood Park’s $7.7-million, 55-stake season begins tonight with grass features--the $100,000 Senorita for 3-year-old fillies and the $70,000 Blaze O’Brien for California-breds. Sunday’s $100,000 Inglewood Handicap, also on grass, may draw McAnally’s Rajpoute, who ran 1 1/8 miles last month at Santa Anita in a sparkling 1:46 1/5.

The focal point of the meet won’t come until the $1-million Hollywood Gold Cup on June 28. Seabiscuit won the first running, in 1938, and trainer Richard Mandella has won the last two, with Gentlemen and Siphon. Gentlemen, who bled internally while finishing last in the Santa Anita Handicap last month, will try to become the first repeat winner of the stake since Native Diver’s three in a row in the 1960s. Mandella probably will need a prep, which would be the $250,000 Californian on May 31.

Horse Racing Notes

Conectis, winner of the La Habra at Santa Anita, and Gourmet Girl, winner of the Bay Meadows Oaks, are among the fillies running in the Senorita. . . . El Angelo, winner of the Inglewood Handicap, will try to repeat in the stake on Sunday. . . . R.D. Hubbard, managing partner for the group that races Gentlemen, says it is unlikely that the horse will be supplemented to the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 7. Gentlemen, not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, could run only if his owners paid a penalty of $800,000. He was supposed to be supplemented last year, when the Breeders’ Cup was run at Hollywood Park, but a virus knocked him out of the race. “I know that you should never say never,” Hubbard said, “but this is real close to that. Under the new Breeders’ Cup rules, if we had paid the $800,000 last year, that would have covered him for that race and this year’s. But now, since he’s going to stud next year, the $800,000 would only be for the one race, and that’s too costly.”

Hubbard is optimistic that Skip Away, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, will ship from the East for the Hollywood Gold Cup. “If [trainer Sonny Hine’s] going to run in California this year, the Gold Cup would have to be the race,” Hubbard said. “I know Skip Away won’t be running in the Pacific Classic [at Del Mar in August].” Skip Away is scheduled to run in the Pimlico Special on May 9. . . . Hubbard also said he believes Silver Charm will run in the Gold Cup, although Churchill Downs officials are trying to coax trainer Bob Baffert into running in the $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap on June 13. Silver Charm is in training at Churchill with Baffert’s Kentucky Derby hopefuls, Indian Charlie and Real Quiet.

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Hollywood Park at a Glance

* Dates: Tonight through July 20.

* Racing days: Wednesday through Sunday, except May 11 and 25, June 8 and July 20.

* Post times: 1 p.m., except 7 p.m. tonight, May 8, 15, 22, 29; June 5, 12, 19, 26; and July 3, 10, 17.

* Stakes highlights: May 25, $400,000 Hollywood Turf Handicap; May 30, $250,000 Milady Breeders’ Cup Handicap; May 31, $250,000 Californian; June 7, $250,000 Gamely Breeders’ Cup Handicap; June 14, $400,000 Shoemaker Breeders’ Cup Mile; June 27, $350,000 Vanity Handicap; June 28, $1-million Hollywood Gold Cup, $300,000 Triple Bend Breeders’ Cup Handicap, $250,000 A Gleam Handicap; July 4, $300,000 Beverly Hills Handicap, $150,000 American Handicap; July 12, $200,000 Hollywood Oaks; July 19, $500,000 Swaps, $350,000 Sunset Handicap, $100,000 Hollywood Juvenile Championship, $125,000 Answer Do, $125,000 Valkyr Handicap.