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BETWEEN RACES ARCADIA, Calif., May 28. During our recent tour of the East,, we were asked the question, seemingly countless times, as to how the concrete and steel plant that was Hollywood Park could burn down. Frankly, we didnt know the answer ourselves, and we had to wait until our return to uaniornia to ootain the answer. The facts are that Hollywood Park did burn down and that is that. But the most amazing thing, even to Hollywood Park officials was the intensity of the blaze. Just the day before the park was gutted by fire, J. Edward Welch, assistant director of racing, made the remark, on inspecting the new wing of the grandstand, that "you couldnt burn this down with a blow torch." So it appeared. Just how the fire started will perhaps never be known. It was going strongly when discovered at the top of the turf club elevator shaft. Hollywood Park did not burn down below the mezzanine deck. Here the track is completely steel and concrete. But the roof, supported by steel girders, was inflammable, and the intermediate decks were of wood. In addition, there was extensive paneling, wooden pari-mutuel wickets, plus quantities of fresh paint all over the place. Also the fire was fanned by a brisk wind. The offices and vaults of the club were on the first level and did not burn. But the topside went up like tinder. Just how such a track could burn so fiercely no one will ever be able to say. It looked impossible, but it did. The affair will go down as one of the great unsolved mysteries of the turf. How Could Hollywood Park Burn-Answer, It Did! Hollywood Transplanted Track to Arcadia Rebuilding May See Worlds Finest Track Dharan Makes Good, Now Westerner Prospect The Hollywood Park officials have stamped their approval" on the line, "Hollywood Park at Santa Anita," and this is literally true in more ways than one. Most west coast folks are aware that the lawns and flowers at Santa Anita, and all coast tracks, for that matter, are not kept up during the off season. It is cheaper to replant every year because of water costs. Santa Anitas lawns and flower beds had been replanted to a cover crop needing little or no water. The day after the fire, Hollywood Park landscape Crews moved across tovn, replanted the lawns, which are now beginning to take on a goodly tinge of green. Entire flower beds were transplanted to the Santa Anita infield and paddock. The final touch came when thousands of cubic yards of Hollywood topsoil was placed on trucks, and then scattered over the Anita surface. A cushion almost an inch deep was placed over the old Anita track, and the strip now has a firm bottom and a velvet cushion. Santa Anita was forced to defer major construction work on its plant because of the change in racing locale occasioned by the fire, but at least part of the program is progressing. This is in the stable area. New barns are taking shape, and toilet and shower facilities are being built at the end of each and every "old barn." By OSCAR OTIS Hollywood Park will be rebuilt before another summer rolls along, and architect Art Froelich is in the happy position of being able to design a new structure which will avoid any and all mistakes of the past. As lavish and as beautiful as the original Hollywood Park, was, there were still a few items which management admitted would have been done differently had it been possible to turn back the clock. Froelich has been getting a veritable deluge of mail from the rank and file of citizenry telling him how they would build the race track if given a chance. These letters are rather remarkable in that many of the hints offered are quite sound, and Froelich will incorporate a number of them in the new Hollywood. One feature that no doubt will meet with public approval is the plan to switch the paddock from its old "underneath the grandstand" locale to the infield, or to a spot where the saddling operations can be witnessed by a number of fans in the grandstand, clubhouse and turf club. It appears to be a good idea. The indoor paddock was ideal for the number of people who could pack themselves into the amphitheatre but some horsemen insisted their charges had a tendency to nervousness in the enclosed area, and frankly stated that they would prefer surroundings more in keeping with the natural habitat of the horse, namely, open vistas. Froelich will not reveal the type of structure which Hollywood Park will raise until after his plans have received the approval of the board of directors. When that approval has been Continued on Page Forty BETWEEN RACES By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Forty-Eight given a public announcement will be made as to what the future Hollywood Park will offer. AAA Horses and People: "Mickey" Tenney, the cowboy trainer for Rex Ellsworth, insists his horse Roman In turned in a dullish race here the other afternoon because the horse is mad at Santa Anita. "Something happened to him here last winter," explained Tenney quite seriously, "and I believe he remembers the accident occurred right Jiere, and for that reason he is sulking about it." Roman In raced quite kindly and smartly at the recent Golden Gate Fields meeting. . . . Dharan, the half-brother of Phalanx owned by Abraham S. Hewitt, graduated from the ranks of the maidens here earlier in the week in a manner which indicated he may be better than the proverbial "empty stall." Dharan s races here last winter may be discounted, and the colt may now be considered timber for the "Westerner," the Hollywood Park version of a derby. AAA Last spring this department reported that the performance observer system would be streamlined. Such has transpired, the number of eagle-eyers being reduced to six, with one supervisor. . . . Jack Shettlesworth, the transplanted Texan, is a versatile fellow. He launched his career in California as a trainer, later became an owner, then a breeder Arjuna and later took over the assistant editorship of the .trade magazine of the West, the "Thoroughbred of California." He has added a breeding booking agency and the task as assistant paddock judge here to the list of activities. . . . Western horsemen got quite a kick out of that proprietor of a horse linament concern, who, suffering a heart attack, refused any other medication but a liberal painting of his chest and back with his own medicine. It seemed to work, at that, for the man is up and about as well as ever. . . . That quarter horse measure, as passed by both houses of the State Legislature in Sacramento, and awaiting a committee conference to iron out differences between the bills passed by the Assembly and Senate, makes it permissible, but not mandatory, to offer a quarter race a day on the part of major racing associations. We doubt if any major I track will see fit, to card one.
