Everett Nominates Wynn : Hollywood Park: She wants Las Vegas casino owner to replace her. The track’s board of directors will meet Thursday to vote on her choice.

In a surprising move, an embattled Marje Everett has nominated a Las Vegas casino operator and promoter to replace her as board chairman and chief executive officer of Hollywood Park.

Steve Wynn, who has gone from a family bingo business to owning one of the glitziest hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas strip, is expected to be elected to both positions at a special meeting of the Hollywood Park directors that Everett has called for Thursday.

Everett, who is trying to win a proxy fight started by R.D. Hubbard in a campaign to take control of Hollywood Park, controls at least six of the votes on the 10-member board.

Hubbard does not interpret the introduction of Wynn as a sign that Everett is bowing out in their expensive, long-running struggle, which has already cost Hubbard personally and the Hollywood Park shareholders millions of dollars.

Hubbard said in a statement, “I fear that given (Wynn’s) lack of qualifications to run a race track, Mrs. Everett would seek to play an active and controlling role in Hollywood Park’s management. This is obviously something the stockholders cannot afford.”

Louis Wolfson, a former Hollywood Park stockholder and onetime ally of Everett, questioned Wynn’s role at the track. Wolfson’s son, Steve, went to school with Wynn at the University of Pennsylvania and is director of marketing at Wynn’s Mirage, a 29-story, 3,100-room Las Vegas hotel-casino that reportedly does more than $1 million in business per day.

“I can’t see how Steve Wynn fits in at Hollywood Park,” Wolfson said. “He might own one or two horses, if that, but he’s an unknown in racing.”

In introducing Wynn, Everett said: “I welcome the opportunity to turn over my responsibilities to Steve Wynn, who brings proven expertise and creativity to the company. I am pleased to recommend him, because of the enormous contributions that he can make toward the race track’s future growth.”

Everett, 69, a controversial fixture at Hollywood Park since 1972, is fighting for her corporate life.

In a consent solicitation of the track’s 4,000 shareholders earlier this month, Hubbard fell less than 1% short of the votes he needed to oust Everett. Based on that count, Hubbard would need to gain about 25,000 additional shares for a majority of the proxies at the annual shareholders’ meeting Feb. 18. Hubbard received more than 1.9 million consents.

Everett has been scrambling to persuade Hubbard’s supporters to change their minds.

Wynn, who will turn 49 Jan. 27, arrived in Las Vegas when he was 25. He was one of the investors in the reorganization of the Frontier Hotel and Casino and in 1971, according to a biography supplied by the Mirage, he bought some property next to Caesars Palace for $1.2 million and in a year sold it to Caesars for $2.25 million.

The property was the first piece of land sold by the Howard Hughes estate. After Wynn bought the land, Caesars officials complained that they were supposed to have the right of first refusal on the land.

Wynn used those profits to buy stock in the Golden Nugget and in 1973 he became president of that casino. The Mirage, which is located on 86 acres next to Caesars, reportedly needed $1 million per day in revenues to break even and is said to be exceeding that.

In his statement, Hubbard referred to a remark that Everett made about him last year. “In August,” he said, “a Hollywood Park spokesman on behalf of Mrs. Everett said, ‘It makes no sense to turn the company over to someone with no experience managing a major thoroughbred track.’ This is one position of the company that I couldn’t agree with more.”

Hubbard, who owns and races about 150 thoroughbreds and quarter horses, is a millionaire glass-making executive from Texas whose experience in race track management came at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico and at the Woodlands in Kansas City, Kan.

Wynn was traveling Tuesday and was not available for comment.

Hubbard doesn’t consider Wynn’s arrival as a threat to his campaign. “I am delighted that Mrs. Everett has announced her intended resignation as chairman and chief executive officer,” Hubbard said. “And I am delighted that our (proxy) effort caused this very beneficial result for the company’s stockholders. I fully intend to continue the proxy battle on behalf of the many hundreds of shareholders who support me. I am confident that at the annual meeting, my slate of directors will, in fact, be elected.”

Everett, who declined to discuss Wynn when reached at her home Tuesday night, said in her statement that Wynn plans to become a significant shareholder in the company. There are unconfirmed reports that he has already bought about 3% of the stock. Hubbard owns almost 10%, the most allowed according to the way the company is structured, and Everett has voting control of slightly more than 6%.

In a news release issued by Hollywood Park, Wynn said his role at the track is subject to approval by Nevada’s regulatory authorities, approval that he expects to receive.

The news release also said that the Everett-led committee of board members calls upon Hubbard “to stop his costly and ill-conceived proxy fight and urges him to join in welcoming Wynn.”

Everett’s allies on the board are John Forsythe, Merv Griffin, Allen Paulson, Stan Seiden and Aaron Spelling. Her opponents, besides Hubbard, are Harry Ornest, Tom Gamel, Warren Williamson and John Newman.

Hubbard has been unsuccessful in gaining a board seat and Gamel recently resigned from the board. Another board member, Bruce McNall, once supported Everett, but his position recently has been unclear.

A source close to Hubbard indicated that his expenses in the proxy fight could total $3 million. A Hollywood Park official recently estimated that the track’s expenses might total $5 million. Should Hubbard win the proxy battle, the track’s shareholders would be responsible for reimbursing him.

“The track’s expenses are the biggest disgrace to the shareholders that I’ve ever seen,” Louis Wolfson said. “I don’t know Hubbard well, but I know Tom Gamel and I have a lot of confidence in him.”