Hollypark Is Near Deal for Pimlico, Laurel : Purchase: Price for 80% equity interest in Maryland tracks would be $15 million. Hollywood Park would also assume most of reported $40-million debt. Hubbard’s influence would increase.

Hollywood Park is close to completing a deal to buy Pimlico Race Course, the home of the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, and Pimlico’s sister track in Laurel, Md., sources close to the sale said Thursday night.

R.D. Hubbard, board chairman of Hollywood Park, could not be reached for comment, but Maryland sources said that the sale would leave the Inglewood track with an 80% equity interest in Pimlico and Laurel. Hollywood Park will reportedly pay about $15 million for its share and assume most of the tracks’ debt, which has been reported at $40 million.

Pimlico, the second-oldest track in the country, was opened in 1870 and has hosted the Preakness, the middle leg of racing’s Triple Crown, for 118 years. Pimlico is located in the heart of Baltimore, and Laurel, which opened in 1911, is located near Washington.

Since 1952, Laurel’s signature race has been the Washington D.C. International, once a fixture on the calendar for international grass horses but a race that has been squeezed out of prominence by other races in the past several years.

The late Frank De Francis and his partners bought Laurel in 1984 for $16 million and two years later acquired Pimlico for $30 million.

Since De Francis’ death in 1989, his son, Joseph A. De Francis, a 1982 graduate of the UCLA School of Law, has run the Maryland tracks, but his father’s partners, brothers Robert T. and Tommy Manfuso, objected to the younger De Francis’ operating style and retreated from the day-to-day details.

More recently, the Manfuso brothers brought the feud to a head by activating a buy-sell clause in their contract with De Francis. By next week, De Francis would have been obligated to either sell the track to the Manfusos or buy out their interest for the same price that they offered him.

Out of Hollywood Park’s $15-million payment, the Manfusos are expected to receive more than $8 million to complete their buy-sell agreement with De Francis.

De Francis will reportedly remain as president of the tracks with a multiyear contract. The De Francis family and other shareholders will wind up with a 20% interest in the tracks.

The Maryland tracks have struggled in recent years, and De Francis has been accused of letting the backstretch area at Pimlico deteriorate and not maintaining customer comforts at either track. According to the Manfusos, Laurel has operated at a loss of $6.7 million since 1990. A source close to the pending Hollywood Park purchase said that Pimlico showed a profit of about $2 million last year, much of it the result of national television rights that the track was paid by ABC for the Preakness.

There have been overlaps between the Maryland track executives and Hubbard since Hubbard ousted Marje Everett as chairman of Hollywood Park in 1991. De Francis and Hubbard were part of different groups that sought a Texas racing license in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. The group now planning to build a track there no longer includes Hubbard or De Francis, although Hubbard Enterprises, a private company, has a management contract with the new track.

Robert T. Manfuso, who owns a small amount of stock in Hollywood Park, has been a member of Hubbard’s board, but Manfuso recently resigned that post.

Even without Texas, the Maryland deal could make the 58-year-old Hubbard the most influential track operator in the United States. Besides his stake of about 14% in Hollywood Park, Hubbard is a majority owner of Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico, he owns a greyhound track in Portland, Ore., and has a 60% interest in the Woodlands, a facility that races horses and greyhounds in Kansas City, Kan.

It is not clear how the sale of Pimlico and Laurel will affect De Francis’ interest in building a track in nearby Virginia. The Maryland tracks have been one of several groups applying for racing licenses in Virginia, which currently does not have parimutuel racing.

De Francis has had recent conversations with Jack Kent Cooke, owner of the Washington Redskins, about building a new football stadium adjacent to the Laurel track.

Hollywood Park’s imminent purchase of the Maryland tracks comes about two months after its board approved in principle the purchase of the Woodlands. Business there has fallen off dramatically since it opened in 1989, but Hubbard believes that by buying the Woodlands, Hollywood Park will be strategically placed for the legalization of casino gambling, which might be placed on a referendum there next fall. Hubbard plans to open a card club at Hollywood Park in February or March.