Hollywood Park Tries New Things at Fall Meet : Earlier Post Time, Wagering Changes Will Get Their First Test Starting Today

Hollywood Park, offering new betting options, an earlier post time and a stakes program that includes five major races, hopes to follow the pattern established this year by Del Mar and Oak Tree as it opens a 37-day fall season today.

The start of the state lottery in October of 1985 was believed to be heavily responsible for business declines at Southern California’s three major tracks. But this summer, Del Mar’s attendance was steady and the seaside track showed a 5% increase in daily average betting.

The Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita, which closed Monday, showed bigger gains than Del Mar, regardless of whether Breeders’ Cup day last Saturday is factored in.

Oak Tree also offered some different betting twists, one of which--the daily triple--will be tried by Hollywood Park. The Inglewood track also has dropped the $5 exactas, offering six $2 exactas instead. Hollywood Park’s Pick Six has a carry-over provision if no one picks all six winners, something Oak Tree discontinued, and Hollywood still doesn’t offer the Pick Nine that Santa Anita continues to use.

All of Hollywood’s racing programs will begin at 1, a half-hour or hour earlier than the first post in recent years. Hollywood Park’s main summer meeting showed alarming drops of 12.1% in attendance and 8.5% in handle, and business at last year’s fall meeting finished below the 1984 levels.

The first major stake on the Hollywood schedule is the $250,000 Hollywood Derby Nov. 16. The Derby, at 1 1/8 miles on grass, may draw at least three of the runners from last Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Mile--Fred Astaire, Double Feint and Glow. They finished 3rd, 4th and 12th, respectively.

Bold Arrangement, the English-bred who finished seventh on dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, may also run in the Hollywood Derby. Because of quarantine regulations, Bold Arrangement had to return to England after he ran second to Ferdinand in the Kentucky Derby, but now he will be able to stay for the Hollywood race, and longer. Bold Arrangement, however, has been no better than fourth in six races since the Kentucky Derby and hasn’t been able to win in nine starts this year.

On a day when most of the Breeders’ Cup races ran against form, the Mile on turf was least formful. Last Tycoon, the winner, was 35-1, Fred Astaire was in the parimutuel field at 40-1 and Double Feint went off at 57-1. Of the favorites, only second place Palace Music, who went off at 7-2 with stablemate Thrill Show, ran a creditable race.

After the Hollywood Derby, Hollywood Park’s other major races are the $200,000 Matriarch Nov. 23, the $500,000 Hollywood Starlet Nov. 30, the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup Dec. 7 and the $1-million Hollywood Futurity Dec. 14. The season will end Dec. 24.

Brave Raj, who won the Juvenile Fillies, may be the only Breeders’ Cup winner to run during the Hollywood season. Trainer Mel Stute is considering running Brave Raj against colts in the Futurity.

By just finishing in the first three in the $1-million race, Brave Raj could become the first 2-year-old to earn $1 million. Her $450,000 in the Breeders’ Cup lifted Brave Raj’s purses to $911,150, which broke the record for 2-year-old fillies that had been held by Outstandingly in 1984.

Snow Chief, also trained by Stute, set the overall 2-year-old record last year with earnings of $935,740. Snow Chief, by the way, is scheduled to be breezed later this week, the first serious appearance for the Preakness winner since he had surgery July 15 to remove a bone chip.

Stute will be back from Australia and Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup by then. He didn’t have a horse running in the Melbourne, but he has an interest in a 2-year-old running in Australia.

In today’s opening stake at Hollywood, 11 3-year-olds are entered in the $75,000 Affirmed. Cheapskate, who was scratched from Monday’s Burke Handicap on the grass at Santa Anita, returns to the dirt, where he has had two of his three stakes wins this year.