Analysis : It Was a Follywood Park Production : Track’s Performance on Breeders’ Cup Saturday Left a Lot to Be Desired

California, which has had a stranglehold on the Breeders’ Cup races, probably won’t get them again until 1991.

And there is talk within horse racing circles concerning whether Hollywood Park will ever get the Breeders’ Cup again.

In running the seven races worth $10 million Nov. 21, the Inglewood track soured many of the 57,734 fans who attended and disappointed racing officials from around the country.

There were massive traffic jams, shortages of programs and giveaway sweater vests, and interminable lines at betting windows and concession stands. Even visiting turf reporters were victimized when a large area of the auxiliary press box was turned over to the public.

“The Breeders’ Cup was the worst-managed major event that I’ve ever attended,” one veteran newspaper columnist said.

One of the five members of the Breeders’ Cup site committee that selected Hollywood Park for the 1987 event is regretting the choice. And in a telephone interview this week, John Nerud, a member of the committee, was critical of Hollywood for underestimating the crowd and being unable to cope with it.

Nerud was also critical of his own committee, which included chairman Nelson Bunker Hunt, John Mabee, Gibson Downing and Brownell Combs.

“We didn’t do our homework,” said Nerud, referring to the date of the Breeders’ Cup races, which were run on one of television’s heaviest college football days. Besides the problems at the track, the Breeders’ Cup wound up with the lowest television ratings in its four-year existence, a 2.9. Even its best rating, a 5.1 in 1984, was not considered good.

Marje Everett, chief executive officer of Hollywood Park, said the track would like to hold the Breeders’ Cup again. This was the second time the races were held at Hollywood, with the series going to Aqueduct in 1985 and Santa Anita last year.

“We know there were glitches, we know we had problems,” Everett said. “But many of them were in areas beyond our control. As the problems piled up day by day, leading up to the Breeders’ Cup, you got the feeling that you should start walking West (toward the ocean) and not stop walking.”

A month before the Breeders’ Cup, Hollywood Park officials were publicly projecting a crowd that would break the record of 69,000 that was set at Santa Anita last year.

Privately, though, Hollywood Park must have been believing pessimistic newspaper forecasts, which said that the crowd would be much smaller.

“The track kept telling us (Breeders’ Cup officials) that they were figuring on 35,000,” Nerud said. “We kept telling the track that they better be ready for 60,000.”

Indications that Hollywood Park was in for a troubled day were evident as early as 9 a.m., when fans came in complaining about the traffic.

Naturally, the congestion worsened. At 10 a.m., Dave Gorman, a racing official from Woodbine, near Toronto, left his Century Boulevard hotel and started a drive of about two miles to the track.

Near the corner of Century Boulevard and Prairie Avenue, which runs by the track, it became obvious to Gorman and his wife that they weren’t going to reach Hollywood Park in time to see the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, the first race of the day, at 11:17.

“At that corner, the traffic police appeared to be contributing to gridlock rather than preventing it,” Gorman said.

Gorman, who thought the Sprint was going to be one of the best races of the day, left his wife with the car in traffic and ran for the track. Gorman is 6 feet 9 inches, with legs to match, and he got there in time to see Very Subtle upset heavily favored Groovy. But he wasn’t joined by his wife until 1 p.m.--three hours after she had left the hotel.

Actor Robert Wagner was supposed to present the trophy to the winner of the Sprint in the winner’s circle. Despite an early start, he didn’t reach the track until the third race.

People arriving after the first race were further exasperated when they found that there were no programs.

“Running out of programs, that was unforgivable,” Nerud said.

According to Everett, the track didn’t actually run out of programs, but the result was the same.

“Because a four-color process was involved, we had to use an outside printer,” Everett said. “Breeders’ Cup people were still making changes in the program at midnight the night before the race.

“So it wasn’t the printer’s fault. He got a late start, and we just couldn’t get enough of the programs to the track in time to handle the crowd.”

Everett also said that Hollywood Park was not responsible for the traffic bottlenecks.

“We had meetings with the City of Inglewood long before Breeders’ Cup day,” Everett said. “They didn’t handle the situation well. It wasn’t an effective job. And then they closed two (parking lot) gates on us without telling any of our people. Fans were denied access to parking lots without our knowledge.”

A representative of a national hotel chain, furious because his group from Orange County arrived at the track so late that it missed several races, wrote Hollywood Park and the California Horse Racing Board, saying he would never organize another trip there again.

Zack Soderberg, a fan from Los Angeles, said that he figured he’d reach Hollywood Park an hour before the first post.

“I couldn’t get parked and seated until the third race,” Soderberg said. “My clubhouse seats turned out to be cheap grandstand seats about two furlongs from the finish wire. My $4 preferred parking space turned out to be located in the farthest reaches of the remotest parking area.

“I attended the Santa Anita Handicap one year when there were more than 80,000 people and there was none of the stress, confusion and chaos that prevailed (on Breeders’ Cup day). Apparently, Hollywood Park has developed a failure-prone mind-set that keeps them from doing anything right.”

Paul Eckles, the city manager for Inglewood, said that the city gets about $1.5 million a year as its share of Hollywood Park’s betting revenue and spends about $500,000 of that for extra traffic control at the track. Inglewood sent its traffic experts to Churchill Downs for the 1984 Kentucky Derby, to prepare for the first Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park.

Told about Everett’s remarks, Eckles said: “I don’t want to get into a debate. But we worked very hard on traffic this year. We had 62 people on duty--21 officers and 41 civil traffic controllers. We used a helicopter with a spotter, and we had people stationed at the freeway off ramps.

“When you have twice as many people in one day than what you’ll have for a peak day the rest of the year, there are going to be problems. But we can only get the cars as far as the track gates. If they’re not moving from there, then the streets become parking lots.”

A crowd of 35,000 would have been the lowest in Breeders’ Cup history, and the sweater giveaway seemed to be planned as insurance against that embarrassment.

“But Hollywood Park made one serious mistake,” one New York racing executive said. “On a day when you know you’re going to be crowded, anyway, you never give anything away that comes in a size and in different colors. This item had both of those things, and caused a distribution problem.”

Everett said that Hollywood ran about 5,000 sweaters short.

“I guess you can say we goofed,” she said. “But we were misrepresented by a jobber who was our contact with the manufacturer. He kept some of the money, didn’t give it to the manufacturer, and then we had to deal with it the rest of the way.

“We were supposed to have all the sweaters on hand by the Monday before the Breeders’ Cup. On the telephone, we got double talk. We sent one of our people back to the plant, in New Jersey, and he found one woman working on 28 extra sweaters. I almost had a stroke when I found out.”

Perhaps as many as 40 out-of-town turf writers went to their seats in the auxiliary press box--seats that they had been using earlier in the week--and found that those seats had been replaced by dining tables. Happy Alter, a trainer from Florida who had a Breeders’ Cup horse on the also-eligible list, was sitting at one of them with friends.

“My paper paid about $150 to install a phone,” said Bob Roberts of the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. “I showed up on Breeders’ Cup day and found some guy breaking bread sticks over the phone.

“I found a place somewhere else, and bribed a telephone man with a $5 daily-double ticket to move the phone. He didn’t win the double.”

Early in Breeders’ Cup week, newsmen were issued credentials that supposedly were good for all areas of the track. But on the day of the races, most of them were denied admission to the paddock because the credentials needed to have special yellow stickers attached. There was a different sticker for each of the seven races, and by the end of the day, one reporter said that he thought he had the look of a five-star general.

Despite the nightmares, the Breeders’ Cup races amounted to good theater. A horse of the year was determined--be it Ferdinand or Theatrical--and several divisional championships were settled.

“Naturally, the TV ratings are disappointing,” Nerud said. “But I still have confidence in the Breeders’ Cup. Unlike football and baseball championships in America, this is truly a world event, and it accounts for most of the Eclipse Awards. People in the sport came up to me afterward and said that these races give them reason to risk $1 million to buy a yearling.”

The Breeders’ Cup next year will be held at Churchill Downs, a track that should be accustomed to big crowds since it accommodates more than 100,000 at the Kentucky Derby every year.

After that, it’s likely that the 1989 races will be in New York. In 1990, one of two Florida tracks--Gulfstream Park or Hialeah--may be the host, with Santa Anita a possibility for 1991.

Hunt, a Texas oil tycoon who is having serious financial problems, is selling his horse farms and his racing and breeding stock. His Breeders’ Cup site committee is being disbanded and will be replaced by a new group later this month.

Nerud lists several reasons for not returning the Breeders’ Cup to California in the near future.

“It’s already been there three times,” he said. “And California breeders don’t nominate as many of their sires and foals to the program like they should. And the California horsemen don’t give up much of their share of the betting from Breeders’ Cup day like the horsemen did the year it was in New York.”

Don Johnson, executive director of the California horsemen’s group, estimated that his members realized about $500,000 in future purses from Breeders’ Cup day.

“We gave $100,000 to the Breeders’ Cup--the same amount that we gave them the year before at Santa Anita--and they seemed happy with that,” Johnson said. “We just feel that that’s enough of a contribution. After all, most of the $10 million the horses are running for comes from the horsemen, too.”

One reason the Breeders’ Cup has been a fixture in California has been the theory that an early West Coast start would help television ratings in the East.

In 1984, the 5.1 rating from Hollywood Park was the best. The rating last year from Santa Anita was a 4.4, and this year’s slipped another 34%.

Those numbers, and the traffic at Century and Prairie, apparently give the Breeders’ Cup reasons to put California on the back burner for a while.