Now That Lakers Are Done, ‘Friday Night Fever’ Is Back

Rick Baedeker, the president of Hollywood Park, says he’s a staunch Laker fan. But not on Friday nights.

“The figures are unmistakable,” said Baedeker, looking at how telecasts of Laker playoff games torpedoed his track’s attendance on Friday nights. Hollywood took an attendance hit on Sundays too. In May and June, Laker games invariably seemed to fall on Fridays and Sundays, usually two of the biggest days for attendance at Hollywood.

Six of the track’s first seven Friday nights were bucking Laker basketball on TV. Opening night, April 28, brought a crowd of 11,302, but after that the turnouts nose-dived, to a low of 7,700 on June 16. Then on June 23--the first Friday after the Lakers had clinched the NBA title--attendance recovered, almost reaching the 10,000 mark.

When the Lakers played on Sundays, Hollywood Park’s attendance also dropped under the 10,000 mark. Big crowds on Friday nights are more crucial for business, because many of those fans are more party-minded than inclined toward serious betting. Hollywood Park needs extra bodies to make up for what the track loses in demonstrably lower per-capita betting.

Hollywood Park inaugurated Friday-night racing with a couple of one-shot cards in 1988 and 1989, then by the early 1990s, with R.D. Hubbard assuming control of the track from Marje Everett, Friday night racing became a regular thing, to the disdain of trainers and their backstretch employees.

For them, Fridays are long days, starting with regular training hours early in the morning. After a late night of racing, the horsemen are back early Saturday morning for more training, followed by another day of racing in the afternoon.

By making racing a once-a-week nighttime sport, Hubbard hoped to attract a younger crowd, perhaps developing a fan base that would pay off when the same people grew older and were better positioned economically to increase their horse-betting. By 1993, Hollywood Park was offering Friday-night cards every week of its spring-summer meet. Friday-night crowds began to lag by 1998, and in 1999 there were only five evening programs scheduled.

Hubbard is gone, the track having been sold to Churchill Downs, but this year “Friday Fever,” as the track calls it, has returned. Friday night’s card was the ninth of the 12 on the schedule.

“Like anything else, the Friday nights will be evaluated when the meet ends,” Baedeker said.

Before this meet, Hollywood Park had run 95 Friday-night cards at its main meet. Of those, only one--on June 12, 1998--drew fewer than 10,000. And the 9,737 turnout that night was still more than four of the nights this season when the Lakers were playing.

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The $70 million that’s being paid for the stud career of Fusaichi Pegasus is definitely good for Fusao Sekiguchi, the man who paid $4 million for the colt as a yearling. And the $70 million might also be a sound investment for Coolmore Stud, providing the Irish outfit is able to fill the stallion’s book of mares at $200,000 a pop over a number of years.

But James Bond, the trainer of Behrens, sees the early retirement of the Kentucky Derby winner as a negative for racing.

“It’s hard to believe that a horse could be worth that much after winning just one or two races,” Bond said. “I don’t know, but I don’t think this is good for the industry. When horses like Cigar and Skip Away stayed on the track, rather than being rushed off to stud, it was great for the public, to be able to watch them run again and again. Losing the Derby winner this quickly doesn’t help.”

Bond remains loyal to Behrens, a 6-year-old who has cranked out $4.2 million via an extended career.

“He’s not the most perfect horse, but he’s the most durable,” Bonds said. “Durability-wise, I think he’s worth twice as much as Fusaichi Pegasus.”

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Behrens, who has been slowed by a bruised foot, hasn’t run since a second-place finish behind Dubai Millennium in the Dubai World Cup on March 25 but returns to the races in the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park on Tuesday, the Fourth of July. Also in the field will be Lemon Drop Kid, winner of the Brooklyn Handicap in his last start.

“Behrens has been training fabulously,” Bond said. “But it’s a lot to ask of him, running a mile and a quarter the first time off the bench. I can’t go out on a limb and say he’s going to win, but I never bring a horse over there unless I think he can.”

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Neil Drysdale, the trainer of Fusaichi Pegasus, traveled to Royal Ascot in his native England to see Dubai Millennium win the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. The perfect matchup for the Breeders’ Cup would be Fusaichi Pegasus against Dubai Millennium in the $4-million Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

“I was very impressed with Dubai Millennium,” Drysdale said. “He’s a serious racehorse.”

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Arthur B. Hancock III and Bob and Janice McNair, who bred Fusaichi Pegasus and consigned him to the Keeneland auction in 1998, will send another highly regarded yearling to the same sale July 17-18. This colt is by Mr. Prospector, Fusaichi Pegasus’ sire, and is out of the mare Fineza, who produced Keeper Hill, winner of the 1998 Kentucky Oaks.

“He’s another good-looking colt, and I just hope we can get him to the sale in good shape,” Hancock said. “I’m losing a pound a day just thinking about it.”

Horse Racing Notes

The early morning line on the Sempra Energy Hollywood Gold Cup, to be run July 9, lists General Challenge as the 9-5 favorite. Behind him come Out Of Mind, 2-1, and David at 9-2. Cat Thief is 6-1.

Astra and Happyanunoit, who were separated by half a length when they ran 1-2 in the Gamely Handicap on June 4, will collide again Sunday in the $250,000 Beverly Hills Handicap. Happyanunoit will carry 121 pounds, one more than Astra. Bobby Frankel, who trains Happyanunoit, has also entered Spanish Fern in the 1 1/4-mile grass race. Frankel’s Keeper Hill was third in the stake last year, behind Virginie and Tranquility Lake. Others running Sunday are Polaire, Country Garden and Sweet Life.

Secret Status, making her first start since winning the Kentucky Oaks on May 5, faces Finder’s Fee, the Acorn winner, and Heavens Above, who has won two starts by 18 1/2 lengths, in today’s $250,000 Mother Goose at Belmont Park.