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P w ~ BETWEEN RACES *os™or,s HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., June 27. — Hollywood Park has finally sold a tidy piece of its real estate holdings, most of which lies east of the track, or from the stable area to busy Crenshaw Boulevard. This property, with a buffer strip retained by the club between the stables stables and and the the new new construction, construction, will will stables stables and and the the new new construction, construction, will will be developed for business, multiple dwellings, and high-class single residences. One portion, which sits on a sloping hillside, will be reserved for really expensive homes. One of the Hollywood Park architests has suggested that the present training track be moved eastward about a sixteenth of a mile, and partly into the present buffer strip. It also is planned to build a roadway off Century Boulevard and create a new entrance into the overflow parking lot, which includes the infield of the training track. The 43 acres which was sold was for a reported half -million dollars. In case you are interested, there are still two producing oil wells on the Hollywood Park property. These yield the club about ,000 per year in royalties. One oddity of the layout of the two wells is that one would become p pole marker on the proposed new training track, while the other would be smack in the middle of a parking area. This does not strike Southern Californians as strange, for not too long ago there was a producing well in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Los Angeles, and at least one bloodstock farm, that of Mrs. H. C. Morton, is literally dotted with wells. These wells are carefully fenced in the pastures, and the broodmares and young stock graze among them. While the old adage has it that oil and water do not mix, oil and thoroughbreds do, at least in this part of the nation. A Huge New Hollywood Housing Development Hugh Blue Explains Import Plan Details Bill Tunney Outlines Centennial Prospects Mackenzie Talks About Hollywood Park Infield Hugh Blue, secretary of the Los Angeles Turf Club, adds a word of explanation to his recent announcement that Santa Anita would actively sponsor the development and racing of British-owned stock at Santa Anita in particular, and California in general. He admits there may be many difficulties to overcome before the project becomes a reality, but comments, "There were a lot of difficulties to overcome to legalize racing in California, but they were surmounted successfully." Our plan already has aroused a great deal of interest, and we are merely making a different approach to international racing. The plan has two things to recommend it. Under our lease and co-ownership idea, one part owner British, the other American, it will be possible for an English breeder to develop his young stock in this country, under American racing methods, and earn good American dollars in purses. The part-American ownership gives the Cal-ifornian an incentive to enter into the partnership. The fact that most foreign horses have failed to run to their foreign form after being imported to this country makes our plan just that much more appealing and attractive. Santa Anita would benefit from successful operation of the plan in two ways, prestige and public interest. Can you imagine the interest that would be engendered if a horse owned by, say, Winston Churchill, were to com pete in Santa Anita stakes? The response from England to date has been encouraging enough to make me feel that we have better than a fair chance of success." AAA Blue did not say so, but we have reason to believe that such a plan would make more extensive travel in the United States by pound-bound Britishers, for earnings in American dollars would give English sportsmen the wherewithall to survive in this country, for a spell. As we explained in the original article, all travel and training expenses of the horses brought to California would be defrayed by the American partners. The English contribution to the partnership would be the horse, with no pounds involved. There is just a chance, too, that more travel to Santa Anita on the part of our friends from England could result in an improvement of the public treatment of English race fans, which admittedly is pretty poor, judged by our standards. The English patron is given few comforts and almost no luxuries, which American race fans take more or less for granted. Almost without exception, the few foreigners from either Europe or Australia who have seen either Santa Anita or Hollywood Park have commented upon the differences, and all are in favor of the American style. In any event, one has to admire Santa Anita for trying, and if the management there believes a thing is possible, they relegate the word "difficulties" to the dictionary. AAA Willard F. "Bill," Tunney, vice-president and executive manager of Denvers natty Centennial Turf Club, has departed for Colorado following a trip to Hollywood Park, and remarks that the course on the banks of the Platte River will not lack for horses during its meeting opening Continued on Page Thirty-Nine BETWEEN RACES I By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Forty-Eight Saturday. "We can accommodate just under 1,000 head," says Tunney, "and even with this space, we will be forced to refuse stalls to about 700 head through sheer lack of room. We are reserving a few stalls for horses of a caliber to be able to compete in our rich stakes program. We feel that this season will be, perhaps, better than last in respect to quality of thoroughbreds, and it may just be that our stock was underestimated last season. We had Phil D., of course, and he didnt create more than a ripple of excitement at the time. His smashing fourth in the Kentucky Derby has done more to convince, perhaps belatedly, that our inaugural racing season at Denver last summer had far more class than was generally realized at the time. Prior to the Derby, Phil D. established his reputation against the best in California." AAA A number of people have asked why Hollywood Park does not convert its infield into an area of public use, such as prevails at Santa Anita, so we asked vice-president and general manager Jack F. j Mackenzie about the matter. Explains Mackenzie: "We dont think the conver- sion would be worth it for two reasons. First, we havent the mountain backdrop which prevails at Santa Anita, and so have concentrated upon making our infield serve in place of the mountain as a background of beauty. Second, much of our infield is not level, and it would take a tremendous amount of fill to make it even and thus available to the public. The stands have proven quite ample to accommodate the largest crowds, and we feel that what we might gain on a few Saturdays would not compensate for the loss of our infield as an inspiration to our visitors." Hollywood Park has six lakes, a waterfall, trees in the hollow, and which do not interfere with the vision of the race, stately palms and, most spectacular, vast flower banks which are situated on sloping elevations. In the background there are rows of eucalyptus trees, which hide the stable area from view, but not tall enough to screen a bank of oil wells and part of the residential section of Inglewood. A patron looking for scenery at Hollywood centers his gaze upon the infield rather, as at Santa Anita, of staring up at the mile-high mountains which, on clear days, seem to rise almost sheer from the backstretch.
