Hollywood Park is History today

Originally Posted by kentuckyrosesinmay

I hate the stuff too. Why is Hollywood Park going to the surface? If they are looking to prevent further breakdowns, they are going about it in the wrong way. It's most likely not the surface...

Once Hollywood Park was sold by Churchill to Bay Meadows Development Corporation there were serious questions about how committed the new owners were to racing.

Racing dates are not owned by the tracks. They are assigned by the state. Hollywood Park's dates are desired by Magna (who owns Santa Anita), the Los Angeles County Racing Association (who runs the Fairplex meet at Pomona and wants to expand that track if HP closes), and a private group that wants to expand Los Alimito's racetrack south of Los Angeles to accomadate more t-bred racing (also if HP closes).

The current owners of HP saw that the state would likely mandate synthetic surfaces. They were the first in line for a synthetic surface because they could see the writing on the wall. Unless they wanted to risk losing racing dates to a potential competitor, they would need to show their committment to racing by installing the synthetic surface.

The good news (at least if you want to see racing continue at HP) is that Bay Meadows Developement is commited enough to continued racing to make the investment.

[2Hot4TV]

It is also an effort to get owners across the nation to ship and race in California. The purse money is already here and now the notion of we don't want to race on those hard tracks in California is a thing of the past. Dislike California all you want , but the fact is you are seeing the future of horse racing. Artificial racing surfaces are here.

[Pointg5]

Originally Posted by 2Hot4TV

It is also an effort to get owners across the nation to ship and race in California. The purse money is already here and now the notion of we don't want to race on those hard tracks in California is a thing of the past. Dislike California all you want , but the fact is you are seeing the future of horse racing. Artificial racing surfaces are here.

This stuff will have the opposite effect, Frankel can't get out of there quick enough and head to New York. Owners that pay all of that money for that horse flesh, only to watch the horse spin their wheels in it, will ship out of town and you'll probably see some of the bigger trainers like Baffert follow Frankel's path East. It may actually have a positive effect, California Racing is god awful, so if their best horses ship East, it'll make for a better overall racing product, which is fine with me. California is such a messed up state, I can't believe they actually passed a law to make this stuff mandatory, I would really trust the California politicians to know what's best for the racing industry, they seem to screw everything else up....

[2Hot4TV]

Originally Posted by Pointg5

This stuff will have the opposite effect, Frankel can't get out of there quick enough and head to New York. Owners that pay all of that money for that horse flesh, only to watch the horse spin their wheels in it, will ship out of town and you'll probably see some of the bigger trainers like Baffert follow Frankel's path East. It may actually have a positive effect, California Racing is god awful, so if their best horses ship East, it'll make for a better overall racing product, which is fine with me. California is such a messed up state, I can't believe they actually passed a law to make this stuff mandatory, I would really trust the California politicians to know what's best for the racing industry, they seem to screw everything else up....

Ya, but the weathers great. The only thing we don't have is one of ya'lls FEMA express offices.