Hollywood closing now official..
 

Letter out today identifies 12/22 as closure with no plans to apply for 2014 dates..

that's sad..

Yea, pretty iconic place, guess that would be about equal to Aqueduct closing down.

Bay Meadows, part deux.

It is a very cool place. Had to grow on you, though. Not fair to compare it to the 2 other iconic tracks in SoCal. More of a city track.

Very sad to hear this... I always had hope that, somehow, it would be saved. :(

Places like this with so much history shouldn't be allowed to fade away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35bBboP-hqg

steve-

any idea where they'll replace all the stalls? i read a few months back that close to 1000 horses will need to be relocated when it closes.

that would seem to be an impossible number to handle if true.

Renovation forthcoming at San Luis Rey apparently, plus potential expansion of Pomona. Los Al another resource..

A lot will depend too on how much more racing they'll do at Del Mar. Santa Anita overdue for total rehab of their barns.

Steve Anderson's DRF piece..
http://www.drf.com/news/hollywood-pa...close-end-year

Regarding stalls: In addition, the closure of Hollywood Park will lead to significant changes in stabling for Thoroughbreds in Southern California. There are approximately 3,000 Thoroughbreds based at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park. Santa Anita has stabling capacity for approximately 1,900 horses. Barretts Racing at Fairplex Park has capacity for 1,200. Officials with that track have stated a desire to host year-round stabling.

Santa Anita is owned by The Stronach Group, which owns the San Luis Rey Downs training center in northern San Diego County. San Luis Rey Downs is scheduled to undergo a four-month renovation of its barn area and main track beginning in June to make the facility more suitable for offtrack stabling.

The world needs another Walmart :rolleyes:

I always loved the shots with the Forum in the background.

i told eric to go by there when he gets to cali, since i won't get a chance to.
a shame, and i agree with geeker! guess you can't have too many c-stores, walmarts, etc... :(

Have not been to HP in a long time, but from I recall its in a really bad area, so people are going to want to move into houses in a bad area next to LAX? I guess so but hardly seems like a high end property for houses, nothing like SA or DMR.

It's directly under the landing path, not the most desirable area even without that issue.

It's located right in the heart of Crenshaw and 10 miles away from Compton. Two of the meanest areas in So. Cal.

Nice photos Rev......
I hit my largest payoff at HP singling Game on Dude with the infamous Undaunted Rally anchoring the P4 on Gold Cup Day. At least we will have the photos :(

a lot of history going away when it closes..

probably my best memory of hollywood park was having seats at the finish line for the 1st breeders cup at just $15 each. they brought in temporary seating on the apron so we had to sit in the sun all day but i still can't believe how well positioned they were for that price.

i still have the program which i was wise enough to write all over so it has absolutely no value as a collectible and i can never forget the dopey bets i made.

i don't really have any particular sense of tragedy at it's closing though. i regret what it may mean for the future of socal racing overall. but i haven't set foot there since a devo concert 3 years ago so it's hard to bemoan it's passing. it never had the spot that santa anita or del mar do to most local race fans.

If Del Mar goes from 40 dates to 100 dates its going to ruin that place as well.

What happens to the Hollywood Gold Cup wall and the Native Diver monument? The final resting places of Great Communicator and Landaluce, the statue of Swaps... what happens now?

The first time I ever went to the track was for the 2004 Hollywood Derby. I was awestruck and those horses were always my favorites to follow.

Inglewood or not it's a fantastic place overflowing with history. Not a great neighborhood but once you're inside the track itself it is its own world.

I'll miss going there.

This day at Hollywood Park was amazing back in 1977. We had to get there around 9am to get a seat and the place was packed. I just remember getting goosebumps as everyone was yelling Shoe, Shoe, Shoe coming down the stretch of the swaps Stakes!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFmKe4t-V8s

i believe the Great Native Diver is buried there:(

He is buried in the Garden Paddock under a monument

you are correct, its sad....... the track was influencial in so many ways.

socal racing dates 2014
 

12/26-7/6 santa anita
7/16-9/3 del mar
9/4-9/23 fairplex
9/25-11/2 santa anita
11/5-12/7 del mar
12/11-12/21 los alamitos

http://www.drf.com/news/california-d...ns-next-agenda

Opening day on a Tuesday ?

Mike Pegram said today on the Roger Stein show that it would cost the Ca horse industry about 13k a day more to stable at Fairplex compared to Los Al, which adds up to a lot of money! Also James Cassidy said he liked Fairplex so much more then Los Al for stabling because it is so much closer to Santa Anita. First of all its like 8 miles closer and Los Al is an easy drive to S.A. plus the weather is so much better since its closer to the ocean, so it sounds like politics per as usual in Ca!

it's a wednesday. double check your calendar. 2014.

Partial update...

http://www.drf.com/news/hollywood-pa...find-new-homes

Maybe the Zoo will take the Flamingos :)

Any one else see a problem with running from Christmas to the 4th of July at SA, then giving the turf course 9 weeks to recover, then run the fall meet over it, THEN hosting the Breeders Cup on it?

Details, details.

Rest assured, Rick Hammerle is working on those details and expects he'll be able to engineer 'turf rest periods' at certain junctures to alleviate potential overuse.

Sad to hear this.

There is an episode of Dragnet 1970 where Joe Friday narrates about Hollywood Park and how many thousands of people go there each day to try their luck.

It hasn't been that kind of track for a long time but it is sad to think that it will be physically gone and permanently deprived of any chance of improving.

Yea, I don't care if they close it. Way too many 5, 6 and 7 horse races. Been saying it for a long time. That crap is not good entertainment. Enough already. Way too many obvious outcome races, too. They have no clue what entertainment is. I don't see where building condos (or whatever) there is that much worse than running all these 5,6, and 7 horse races. The area is not great, but it's not as bad as people on here are saying it is.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-b...#axzz2vUK5tqYh

remains will eventually go to del mar.

fyi: don't click the link if sight of the remains will disturb you. there's a photo.

LA Times photos and video
http://framework.latimes.com/2013/12...ywood-park/#/0

CBS News brief on Native Diver
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/remain...-closed-track/

Still hard to believe and sad to look at, but Thank you for sharing OD.

Picture of the year.

Los Angeles Times
"The Lights Go Out at Hollywood Park"
Videography- Spencer Bakalar, Bethany Mollenkof; Production- Spencer Bakalar; Executive Producer- Robert St. John

http://www.poyi.org/71/22/index.php

Not to beat . . .

but the local ABC news team is on the story, too.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?se...les&id=9461573

I wonder, did they give as much attention to the actual closing of the track?