Hollypark Stars Out at Night : Horse racing: Experiment a success as 24,529 fans turn out for program under the lights.

With a likeness of Robocop walking through the crowd, a Dixieland band playing in the grandstand and celebrities such as James Caan and Andy Williams posing with trainers and jockeys in the winner’s circle, Hollywood Park held its first of four experimental night racing programs Friday.

The nine-race, four-hour program, which began at 7 p.m., attracted a crowd of 24,529. A year ago, on a Friday afternoon, the crowd at the track was 11,740.

“How many businesses can double their business, just like that?” asked Marje Everett, Hollywood Park’s president. “We’re delighted with the turnout. And you can tell that it’s a different kind of crowd: More young people, people that racing will need for support years from now.”

Hollywood Park will have racing on three more Friday nights--June 29, July 6 and July 13. To get trainers to cooperate, the track said it will put up an extra $500,000 in purse money for the season, and promised that the night racing experiment would not go beyond Friday nights for the next five years.

“I’d still rather be doing this under the sun,” said trainer John Russell, who ran a 4-year-old filly that was nosed out at the wire in the third race. “With these hours, I’ll just show up at the barn tomorrow morning in my top hat and tails.”

Because of early-morning training hours, many horsemen are routinely in bed by 10 p.m., which was the time Hollywood was running Friday night’s seventh race, the $75,000 Star Dust Stakes. A regular schedule of night racing could result in added expense for extra stablehands.

At Los Alamitos, where a quarter horse program was held Friday night, a track spokesman reported that the night racing at Hollywood was not going to affect the handle. “We’re going to do about $1.2 million, the same as last Friday night,” he said. “They’re not betting as much on track, but at the off-track sites they’re making up the difference.”

Brent Small and Jenelle Sanders, a young couple from Northridge, attended the races at Hollywood and said night racing would bring them to the track more often.

“Usually, we only come two or three times a year, because we both work in the daytime,” Small said. “But we’re planning on coming to all four of these Friday nights.”

Another fan, Dale Becker of Santa Ana, took refuge in the pavilion. Becker goes to Hollywood about 10 times a year.

“The pavilion’s not a good place to see the races, but at least it’s comfortable,” said Becker, who is in his 30s. “When they made it official after that photo (finish) in the third race, it was like a war zone in the grandstand.

“But the track is doing the right thing by going to nights. You can bring a date, and it’s more of an event.”

Gary Stevens, the leading rider nationally based on purse money, won three of the first five races, but Predecessor, his mount in the Star Dust, ran second as Tight Spot, under Eddie Delahoussaye, scored a two-length victory in the 1 1/16-mile grass race for 3-year-olds. Tight Spot paid $7.20 to win.

In the race before the Star Dust, Hat Parade, a tiring 3-year-old filly, stopped abruptly about 30 yards past the finish line, unseating apprentice jockey Carlos Navarro. The rider suffered a bruised shoulder and was sent to a hospital for X-rays.