HOLLYWOOD PARK: A SEASON OF ANTICIPATION.Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer INGLEWOOD - Hollywood Park Hollywood Park may be several places:
The Inglewood thoroughbred track has a hard act to follow in the recent Santa Anita Santa Anita may refer to:
One of the classic U.S. Thoroughbred horse races. It was established in 1875 and run annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs track in Louisville, Ky. With the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, it makes up U.S. racing's coveted Triple Crown. favorite Brother Derek, top-ranked U.S. older horse Lava Man and strong attendance figures. At Santa Anita, which ended its four-month run Sunday, the daily average on-site attendance (9,144) and total wagering ($11.5 million) were up sharply from 2005's rain-soaked meet. ``We're hopeful that it spills over to us,'' said Eual Wyatt Jr., Hollywood Park's vice president and general manager. Lava Man should be a force at the 61-day Hollywood Park meet. He's scheduled for Sunday's Khaled Stakes on turf (part of the California Gold Rush  The California Gold Rush 1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. card), the June 17 Californian and a title defense in the July 8 Hollywood Gold Cup The Hollywood Gold Cup is a Grade I stakes race for thoroughbred horses inaugurated in 1938 at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California. It was run as a handicap race until 1997 when it was switched to weight-for-age conditions. . Hollywood Park installed new turf after the course failed to take root last year, reducing the 2005 fall meet to a monotonous series of main-track races. After Lava Man worked on the turf Sunday, trainer Doug O'Neill proclaimed the grass ``in good shape.'' Martin Garcia, 21, who is about to end Hall of Famer Russell Baze's long championship streak in the Bay Area, said he plans ride at Hollywood Park after the Golden Gate Fields Golden Gate Fields is a horse racing track straddling both Albany, California and Berkeley, California along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay adjacent to the meet ends May 7. Garcia should make up for the loss of Garrett Gomez, leading jockey at this meet in 2005, who is going to Kentucky and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of to fill in for injured John Velazquez as stable rider for trainer Todd Pletcher. This is the first spring-summer meet since Hollywood Park was sold last summer by Churchill Downs Inc. to Bay Meadows Land Co., which threatened to sell the land for development in three years unless state legislators improve racing's economic conditions. Wyatt said Tuesday: ``This company is committed to running races here, and it may be (for) a lot longer than the (three-year) commitment.'' kevin.modesti(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3616 CAPTION(S): box Box: AT A GLANCE |
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