This is the eighteenth of a major series of articles concerning racetracks in the USA. We continue our review of USA racetracks with a further look at the closed harness racing tracks of California.
California –
Golden Gate Fields (GG)
Competitive horse racing in the eastern part of San Francisco Bay commenced with the Oakland Trotting Track (see later in this series on Californian tracks) situated about two miles south of Golden Gate Fields in Emeryville. The Oakland Trotting Track operated from 1871 to 1911 when forced to close due to a state wide ban on horse racing which was repealed by the state in 1933. A fire destroyed all remaining structures in 1915.
Golden Gate Fields racecourse is a 225 acre, two track thoroughbred racing facility owned by The Stronach Group. Situated in both Albany and Berkeley along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay adjacent to the Eastshore Freeway (Interstate 80) approximately eight miles from Oakland town centre and eleven miles from the city of San Francisco. The tract of land on which it is positioned lies to the west of Fleming Point, a rocky promontory on the eastern shoreline of San Francisco Bay. To the north, it is bordered by the Albany Bulb, Albany Beach and Albany Plateau, all undeveloped terrain of a former landfill owned by the City of Albany. Interstate 80 is to the east and the Berkeley Meadow to the south.
This land lies on what was once a part of the slough into which three creeks drained : Schoolhouse, Codornices and Marin Creeks. It originally had been a portion of the Rancho San Antonio, owned by Jose Domingo Peralta and sold in July 1852 by Codornices and Marin Creeks to John Fleming. Fleming used the land as a transhipment point for sending his cattle across the bay to San Francisco for slaughter and processing. In the late nineteenth century, it became the site of the Giant Powder Company, a manufacturer of dynamite and nitro-glycerine. The plant having blown up twice between 1879 and 1892.
From its grandstand the track provides views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island and the skyline of San Francisco from its grandstand. Following the closure of Bay Meadows in 2008, Golden Gate Fields is the only remaining non-Fair track in the bay area of Northern California.
Shortly before World War II, Golden Gate Fields construction took place with a new grandstand built up against the eastern slope of Fleming Point with the adjacent marshland filled in for the track. Prior to the war, the track was used as the scene of a crime central to the plot of the movie Shadow of the Thin Man prior to the war. Running for only five days due to inclement weather the track officially opened on 1 February 1941. During World War II like most Californian tracks the land came under control of the military, in this case the US Naval Landing Force Equipment Depot, which was used as a storage area for hundreds of landing craft destined for use in the Pacific theatre. Following the conclusion of WWII horse racing commenced in 1947 with the reopening of the track.
Only limited harness racing took place on the Golden Gate Fields track ceasing for harness racing in 1949 and restarting in 1977.
In 1971 a turf course was added to the track opening for use on 22 February 1972. Current Golden Gate Fields facilities include a) main track of one mile dirt (sandy loam) oval with 1,000 ft straight (was also used for harness racing), now synthetic** b) Lakeside turf course 9/10ths of a mile (seven furlongs 132 ft). There are six furlong and 1¼m chutes. The main grandstand seats 7.960, clubhouse seats 5,230, turf club seats 1,560 (total seating capacity 14,750) with parking for 8,500 vehicles and stalls for 1.420 thoroughbreds. Normal betting facilities, dining outlets and more are offered with live bands and other festivities provided for the enjoyment of patrons.
** polymer synthetic surface installed during summer of 2007 as mandated by California Horse Racing Board.
On 5 March 1977 an on course attendance record of 26,108 patrons were at Golden Gate Fields. On 7 February 1980 the track introduced one window wagering through the American Tote 300. On 10 March 1981 Sunday racing returned to California. Northern California attendance and betting records were set on 7 May 1988 with a crowd of 34,408 and betting of $5,715,683. This record later fell when on 6 May 1995 $7,093,420 was bet at Golden Gate Fields and its satellite facilities.
Owned and managed for twenty five years by San Francisco foreign car importer and horseman Kiell Ovale, Golden Gate Fields was acquired by UK based Ladbrokes in 1989. Ten years later in 1999 it was purchased by Magna Entertainment Corporation as Ladbrokes wanted to divest its non-European holdings. Magna filed for bankruptcy in March 2009 with current owners The Stronach Group acquiring Golden Gate Fields on 3 July 2011. It was a year when Golden Gate almost ran throughout the entire year only taking time out for the Northern Californian Fair Circuit.
A deal that would have seen the demise of Golden Gate Fields was rejected on 23 January 2012 when its use as an academic addition/expansion site for Cal-Berkley was not approved. It does seem that Golden Gate Fields could be living on borrowed time although it currently continues with live racing and simulcasting.
Hollywood Park (HOL)
Hollywood Park was in existence for seventy five years’ operating from 1938 to 2013 as a thoroughbred track and until 1994 as a one mile harness racing venue. Located in Inglewood, three miles from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) adjacent to the Forum indoor arena, eight miles from its namesake Hollywood and ten miles from downtown Los Angeles. Built on 340 acres it had strong links to the entertainment capital of Tinsel Town.
The track’s prominent shareholders included Jack L Warner (Chairman), brother and fellow Warner Brothers film studio executive Harry, Hollywood studio executives Walt Disney, Samuel Goldwyn, Darryl Zanuck, actors Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Joan Blondell, George Jessel, Ronald Colman and Ralph Bellamy. In addition to being shareholders film directors Raoul Walsh and Mervyn LeRoy were founding members of the track’s Board of Directors along with Al Jolson, Jack and Harry Warner.
Designed by acclaimed racetrack architect and Beverly Hills local Arthur Froehlich, the track opened for business on 10 June 1938 as the Hollywood Turf Club. Closed during World War II from 1942 to 1944 it was used as a storage facility for North American Aviation. The California Horse Racing Board allowed Hollywood Park to hold a new charitable season in 1944. The board approved an “extensive war relief programme” for both 1944 and 1945 with raising more than $1 million for charities and schools.
In 1941 Hollywood Park had the first film patrol when cameras were fixed to binoculars and film was taken by eight patrol judges and in 1945 the binocular cameras were replaced by film towers.
In 199 shortly after $1m in upgrades were completed a devastating fire levelled the facilities grandstand and clubhouse and meetings moved temporarily to Santa Anita. The rebuilt facility opened in 1950 with the grandstand and clubhouse area stretching over a quarter mile with seating for around 30,000 , the Turf Club accommodating a further 2,200 patrons. Car parking was available for 30,000 vehicles. Both thoroughbred and harness racing took place at the venue over the years.
On 5 November 1966 record attendance of 23,787 patrons and betting of $1,773,380 occurred. The Hollywood Park turf course debuted on 10 May 1967. Marie Everett who sold Arlington Park to Gulf and Western became part-owner of Hollywood Park in 1968, becoming a director in 1972 and CEO in 1980. Sunday racing began on 15 April 1973. Hollywood Park provided the backdrop for a 1975 made for TV movie “Winner Take All” about a housewife addicted to gambling that starred Shirley Jones. On 4 May 1980, 80,000 fans were on hand for a tote bag giveaway.
With respect to harness racing, a particularly notable event occurred on 15 November 1980 when Niatross won the American Pacing Classic in a world record 1.52.1US for 1 1/8 mile (9 furlongs). A number of high class North American and Australasian bred horses performed with distinction at Hollywood Park – these included Genghis Khan, Direct Scooter, Shadow Wave, Scott Frost,, Mister Karamea, open class horses/Cup winners Vanadium, Tricky Dick, Final Decision, Stella Frost, Hoover, Intrepid as examples. In 1983 all harness racing was transferred to Los Alamitos leaving Hollywood Park for thoroughbreds.
In 1984 Hollywood Park was averaging 22,000 people daily only surpassed by Santa Anita and Saratoga at the time that it was to host the inaugural running of the prestigious Breeders Cup. The track regularly seated 10,000 people with ample parking for cars and an ability to house around 2,500 horses at the time of its closure. The overall track size reduced to 260 acres (originally 340 acres) making it more valuable for real estate purposes.
To facilitate the running of the Breeders Cup, the mile dirt oval was expanded to 1 1/8 mile (1,014 ft straight), with seven furlong and 1 3/8m chutes, used for the first time on 7 November 1984. The seven and a half furlong turf course enclosed the infield lakes and lush vegetation. A new cushion track racing surface was installed in September 2006 replacing the existing dirt track with Hollywood Park the first track in California to meet the California Horse Racing Board’s guideline that all state tracks replace dirt surfaces with a safer artificial surface by the end of 2007.
By the late 1980s Hollywood Park was close to bankruptcy with threats of closure in 1989. A group of investors were attempting to buy Los Alamitos Racetrack in 1989 for $68 million. Los Alamitos, owned by Hollywood Park, was under its original ownership in 1991 although a significant portion of the stock had been bought by external investors. Having purchased a portion of the company’s stock in late 1990, RD Hubbard became CEO of Hollywood Park in April 1991. He had ousted previous CEO Marie Everett with assistance from company shareholder Tom Gamel and sports businessman Harry Ornest.
In 1991 twenty million dollars was spent on upgrading and improving the racetrack, a year when the park made its first profit in five years, increasing to $5.4m in 1992. In 1993 the Los Angeles Times wrote that “shareholders at Hollywood Park… are enjoying substantial investment gains.” Hollywood Park Inc. purchased the Arizona based Turf Paradise Race Track for $34 million in stock in 1994.
Undergoing a $100 million plus expansion into Hollywood Park Casino and adding a poker card room, the new facilities added to the race track opened on 1 July 1994. In May 1995 Hubbard’s plan for the owners of the National Football League teams to build a $200 million, 65,000 seat privately-financed stadium on property owned by Hollywood Park for the Los Angeles Raiders ultimately failed to progress. Hubbard envisaged a sports complex combining the new stadium and racetrack.
Suffering losses in both 1995 and 1996, Hollywood Park bought Boomtown Inc, operator and owner of several casinos including those in Las Vegas and New Orleans for $188 million. Boomtown merged with casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment in 1998. Churchill Downs Incorporated purchased the entre Hollywood Park Corporation for $140m on 10 September 1999 acquiring Hollywood Park-Casino in the process, which was leased by Hollywood Park Inc., in effect Pinnacle Entertainment the previous owners of the track decided to concentrate on their gambling interests.
Churchill Downs Incorporated sold the complex to Bay Meadows Land Company which was owned by Stockbridge Capital Group in 2005 for $260m cash and a tidy profit. The deal required the company which also owned Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo to continue thoroughbred racing at Hollywood Park for at least three years. Bay Meadows officials considered the continuation of a racing venue at Hollywood Park after that was dependent on California allowing more gambling on track viz slot machines. Some Hollywood Park land was sold to real estate developers to build a new housing community called the Inglewood Renaissance whose development began in 2005.
New grass was planted on the turf course after Hollywood Park’s spring/summer meeting in 2005. Turf racing was not conducted after that year’s autumn meeting due to safety concerns. A synthetic/cushion track was installed in 2006 (first used 13 September) to comply with California law. Made of a combination of elastic and artificial fibres mixed with sand, easier to maintain, this surface became the standard for thoroughbred racing in California. After the spring/summer meeting in 2006, a second chute was added to the turf course following a similar move at Monmouth Park to accommodate six furlong sprint races.
By the close of the 2011 season Hollywood Park’s survival appeared unlikely. As with many tracks across the country, their real estate was more valuable to develop (mall, housing projects) than race on.
An historic agreement was reached on 13 March 2012 between Hollywood Park Racing Association and Betfair US, the Los Angeles based subsidiary of Betfair that also owns TVG Network (Television Games Network). It was proposed to transform the customer experience for fans at the venue as well as online and television. Under the five year deal Hollywood Park was renamed “Betfair Hollywood Park”, the first naming rights agreement for a horse racing venue in the United States.
Hollywood Park president F. Jack Liebau advised employees by letter on 9 May 2013 that the track would be closing at the end of their 2013 autumn racing season. Stating the 260 acres the track land sits on without a favourable change in racing’s business model, would ultimately be subject to property development. It was expected the track would be demolished, replaced with housing units, park land and an entertainment complex while the casino would be renovated.
Horse racing and training were brought to an end following the track’s final meeting held on 22 December 2013 bringing to an end seventy five years of near continuous racing in Southern California. The complex was demolished in stages from 2014 to 2016 making way for a new residential complex though the casino operations continued until a new state of the art casino building opened in October 2016. The remodelled casino features two rooms – General Admission and VIP where simulcast racing is available from throughout the USA, South America and Australia. Self-service terminals as well as pari mutuel clerks are available together with numerous food and beverage outlets.
Now the site of a neighbourhood development designed by master planner Hart Howerton, the office/retail/residential/entertainment venue is named Hollywood Park after the former track, most prominent parts being :
a) SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers of National Football League (NFL). Stan Kroenke, owner of St Louis Rams purchased a sixty acre parcel of land adjacent to the track property and The Forum Stadium with the intentions of building a National Football League stadium. Finding this too small for the NFL stadium and parking, in partnership with Stockbridge Capital Group owners of the neighbouring track land, he looked to fold the stadium into the larger office/retail/residential project. The Inglewood City Council approved the 70,000 seat football stadium on 24 February 2015. The former racetrack grandstand was demolished on 31 May 2015 in a series of timed explosions which allowed the commencement of construction of the stadium
b) 6,000-seat performance arts venue
c) Hollywood Park Casino
d) NFL Media building, home to NFL Network, NFL Red Zone, NFL.com and NFL app
Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park (SoFi) was unveiled to the public in 2020. The indoor/outdoor stadium as well as being home to two NFL franchises : Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers will also host the 2022 Super Bowl, NCAA Football National Championship Games and later the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games opening ceremony and multiple events.
Next ArtIcle : Closed Californian tracks – part three
Peter Craig
25 January 2023
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
