Race Track Struggle for Power Continues : Hollywood Park: Realty board won’t allow sale of facility. Company sues three shareholders, charging conspiracy.

The battle for control of Hollywood Park was active on two fronts Wednesday:

--The track’s realty board rejected a proposal by the operating company to put the track up for sale.

--Earlier in the day, the operating company filed a lawsuit against three of the track’s largest shareholders, accusing them of conspiring to take over control.

The realty company’s rejection of the sale proposal, by a 7-0 vote, was not surprising, because Warren Williamson, chairman of realty, had questioned the timing of a sale in an interview last week, and because the realty board appears to be controlled by R.D. Hubbard, catalyst in the attempt to unseat Marje Everett as Hollywood Park’s chief executive officer.

Hollywood Park Realty controls the 347-acre Inglewood site where the track is located, and leases it to the Hollywood Park Operating Co. Shares in both companies are traded together.

Williamson and Hubbard both voted against the sale proposal, along with John Newman, Jeffrey Rhodes, Gay Firestone Wray, Tom Gamel and John Underwood Jr. The other members of the board, James M. Nederlander and Leo Jaffe, did not attend the meeting.

Everett controls the board of the operating company, which had suggested that in order for shareholders to have the opportunity to realize the highest value from their investments, the track should be put up for sale.

The operating company’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. Distrct Court’s Central District of California, names as defendants Hubbard, Gamel and Harry Ornest. The suit charges that they violated numerous federal laws and acted together to take control of the track.

The suit also says that Gamel and Ornest “fronted” for Hubbard when he bought 100,000 shares of stock earlier this year. The suit says that if Hubbard, Ornest and Gamel take control of the track, they will make the track private, eliminate live racing and remove Hollywood Park as a competitor of Santa Anita.

Hubbard, who has initiated a proxy fight and announced a slate of directors who oppose the Everett faction, owns 9.9% of the company. Ornest and his family own 9.8%, and Gamel has 5.6%. The way Hollywood Park is structured, no shareholder may own more than 9.9%.

Gamel and Ornest are members of the operating company’s board. Gamel could not be reached for comment on the suit, and Ornest declined to comment.

Hubbard released a statement that said: “Although I have not yet had the opportunity to see this suit, it appears to be no more than a desperate act on the part of Marje Everett and some of the directors. Clearly, she is trying to cling to her position in the face of what I perceive to be over-whelming shareholder and horse racing community support for my slate of directors and my program to improve racing.”

Earlier this week, Hubbard sued Everett and five other operating company directors--John Forsythe, Merv Griffin, Aaron Spelling, Allen Paulson and Stanley Seiden--for allegedly violating Securities and Exchange Commission rules. In that suit, Hubbard said statements made by Everett about his wanting to take the company private were incorrect.