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j....„,.,,.,...::, ...... *t S WQ ■ mm California By Oscar Otis Wests Richest Summer Season at Hand Anticipate New Purse, Attendance Highs Swaps Arrival Sparks W. Coast Interest HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., May 12.— Californias verdant summer season of racing gets under way here Friday afternoon for a 53-day spin. If past past records records mean mean anything, anything, it it j....„,.,,.,...::, ...... past past records records mean mean anything, anything, it it promises to be the top meeting in the nation insofar as average daily attendance and purse distribution are concerned. Last season saw a daily average of 30,-681 fans click through the turnstiles, and it just might be that this figure could be substantially increased in the 53 days ahead. The track has added 2,000 new seats since last year, and has expanded panded its its clubhouse clubhouse consider consider- - panded its its clubhouse clubhouse consider consider- - ■ mm ™™tt-ably, so it is just possible that more people than ever will enjoy racing at this seashore littoral plant. However this writer still clings to the notion that as long as Hollywood Park does not utilize its infield for people, instead of concentrating on "lakes and flowers" its true capacity for attendance will never be realized. On big days, and which there are many, the track accommodates about all the people it can in reasonable comfort. Estimated distribution is ,340,000, of which non-stake races, or overnight purses, are expected to total ,325,000. The horsemen have had no quarrel in this part of the country over ratio between stakes and overnight purse distribution for the simple reason that ,500 platers have run for purses as high as ,000, and it is hard to muster up an argument about "the poor cheap horse who is the backbone of racing" under such a circumstance. Like most western tracks, Hollywood is a completely motorized race track, the only way to get to the place being by private car, cab, or bus. The system of handling traffic has been worked out to a high degree of efficiency, and, by actual test last summer, the gates emptied out at the rate of about 1,000 people per minute on a Saturday. In other words with a crowd of 50,000, the people were gone within an hour of the posting of the official sign on the last race. Hollywood Nearing Long Desired Goal The Hollywood people tell me they are more than satisfied with the quality of thoroughbred representation this summer, which indicates that Hollywood is nearing a goal it has long desired, a reasonable parity • with Santa Anita in the matter of worthwhile horseflesh. Santa Anita, of course, just cant miss, running as it does in the winter. But Hollywood is in active competition, more or less, with some of the biggest tracks in the country. A great deal of its improvement in racing has been due to the growing "base" of western ownership, many of whom have been liberal purchasers at the Keeneland summer yearling sales, and, last summer at Californias own vendue at Del Mar. The arrival of Swaps on Wednesday from Kentucky solved, at least for this season, a problem that has always been a trifle annoying to Hollypark executives. The pre-season public relations build-up has always been hard here because the Los Angeles turf writers have been in Kentucky covering the Derby, and writing about Kentucky. This time, Swaps created such a wave of enthusiasm that his de-training was accompanied to the tune of headlines, pictures, news-reels, and the like, giving the Hollywood inaugural its best splash yet. Far more people and cameramen were on hand to greet Swaps than was the case with Determine last year. The Hollywood people cant figure it out, except to venture the guess that Determine, while California owned, was not a California horse in any sense of the word, and therefore, his win in the Kentucky Derby could not properly be classified as a Golden State victory. "Swaps has captured the imagination of the West more than any horse since Seabiscuit," observes Bob Benoit of the public relations staff. High-Priced Nalur to Make Debut "I think youll find that our two-year-old division will be better than ever, too," says Benoit. "Weve not only got the best of the California crop, also some of the tops from Kentucky, if you can judge by price. That 6,000 colt by Nasrullah — Lurline B., who has been named Nalur, is training smartly and will make his debut early in the meeting. And as for the older horses, weve got almost every horse, save Joe Jones, which raced in the Santa Anita Handicap last winter. The allowance group is more voluminous than ever, and that is always a help." To the north, Golden Gate Fields swings to a close on Saturday, there being a two-day overlap with the opening of Hollywood. Whether this will provide a fair test of overlaps, a situation in general opposed by managements of Northern California tracks, is doubtful. But some ideas, perhaps, will be gained from the "conflict." Golden Gates meeting to date has been solid and substantial, but has failed to shatter any records. To the contrary, spring racing of all sorts in the South has been markedly up, the harness racing at Santa Anita, the quarter horses at Los Alamitos, and the Saturday-Sunday programs at Caliente, home of the future books, all being on the plus side compared with the year previous. Caliente is even making the bold experiment of continuing its Saturday programs throughout the Hollywood Park season, the Saturday cards being first introduced successfully following the close of Santa Anita.
