Hollywood Park Tries to Recapture Glory

In bygone years, Hollywood Park was the racetrack of movie stars, a thriving, glamorous place of lakes and flowers.

Today, its new chief is trying to recapture the racetrack’s lost splendor while guiding it into the future.

R.D. Hubbard, who wrested control of Hollywood Park’s board earlier this year, has given the track a facelift that has driven attendance at the spring meeting up almost 20%.

The new Hollywood Park will be on display Saturday for the nationally televised $1 million Hollywood Gold Cup.

As soon as the racetrack opened April 24 for the spring-summer meeting, Hubbard felt he had redeemed Hollywood Park in the eyes of bettors.

“I think the significant thing is the attitude of people,” Hubbard said. “I walk through the grandstand and I have people coming up to me, shaking my hand, thanking me. Everything’s upbeat and everyone’s having a good time.”

His perceptions were quite different when he bought his first shares in Hollywood Park last summer. The 53-year-old track was some $40 million in debt and attendance was in its 10th year of decline, from an average of 31,150 in 1980 to 14,475 last fall.

Horse racing as an industry has been staggering of late, but Hubbard, who also has interests in New Mexico’s Ruidoso Downs and Kansas’ The Woodland, felt he could turn the track around.

“Hollywood Park was too important a racing facility for the whole thoroughbred racing industry to continue the decline,” he said. “If racing in Southern California fails, it’s got no chance of making it anywhere. It’s the best market, the best purses, the best horses.”

It was Hubbard’s belief in the continued viability of thoroughbred racing that led him to wage a costly and bitter proxy battle to gain control of Hollywood Park.

To get control of the track, Hubbard had to garner enough support on the board, whose members included John Forsythe and Merv Griffin, to oust Marje Everett, who had run Hollywood Park since 1972.

Hubbard, a 55-year-old native of Kansas who talks with a Texas drawl and favors jeans and cowboy boots around the office, became involved in racetrack management just four years ago after owning and breeding thoroughbreds for years.

He is the president and chief executive officer of Fort Worth, Texas-based AFG Industries Inc., a glass manufacturer, but since February has put long hours into steering Hollywood Park toward what he sees as the future of thoroughbred racing.

Since taking over just two months before the start of the meeting, Hubbard has implemented changes ranging from new official colors to an expanded wagering menu.

Hubbard has launched a $15 million physical improvement plan that includes revamping the grandstand, adding a study hall where bettors can view replays of horses’ previous starts, constructing new lakes, renovating the back side and building new stables, a saddling paddock and walking ring.

The construction is taking place during the racing season and most should be completed by the fall meeting.

“I think the physical changes we made no doubt have added a lot to the excitement,” Hubbard said. “If you go out behind the grandstand, you’ll see people lining up after every race to view the horses in the walking ring and saddling paddock. One of the big reasons people go to the racetrack is to be able to see the horses and get close to the horses.”

Instituting a seniors day on Thursdays with a $1 exacta has proved to be a strong draw. Thursday is now the track’s strongest weekday. On suggestions from track patrons, an express line for people making one bet only was started. There’s a new ninth-race trifecta and every race on the nine-race card features an exacta.

“We want to be the horseplayer’s track, so we’ve tried to listen to the horseplayers, the $2 bettors,” Hubbard said. “We’ve tried to provide what they want and what they can afford.”

Determining who the audience is and what they want is the key to racing’s survival, said Hubbard. To prove his point, he went out and hired a marketing director who spent 16 years in the gaming industry, at Harrah’s in Reno, at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

And Hubbard thinks the horse racing industry could learn a thing or two from the evolution of the gaming industry.

“We have not done a good job in identifying our patron and doing things for our patrons that we should,” he said. “Once we are able to market our product to the right group it will make a big difference in our attendance and our handle.”