Advertisement

MOVING ON Hollywood Park to race only four days

Share
Staff And Wire Reports

Hollywood Park will switch from a five-day to a four-day racing week effective immediately, with no racing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, under a plan approved Friday by the California Horse Racing Board. Live racing will be conducted Thursdays through Sundays with the exception of a special Memorial Day program on Monday, May 25.

The track was put in the embarrassing position last month of having to cancel a Thursday race card because there were not enough horses for eight races.

“Due to the tough economy, the number of horses available to race has been reduced as evidenced by the entry box,” track President Jack Liebau said.

Advertisement

The four-day race week is approved through June 14, and the CHRB will consider Hollywood Park’s request to maintain the four-day week for the remainder of its meeting at a June 5 board meeting.

-- Eric Sondheimer

TENNIS

Federer beats Roddick; Nadal wins

Roger Federer’s dominance of Andy Roddick continued on clay with a 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-1 victory, and Rafael Nadal beat Fernando Verdasco, 6-4, 7-5, to also reach the Madrid Open semifinals in Spain.

Top-ranked Dinara Safina advanced to the women’s semifinals with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Alona Bondarenko. Patty Schnyder beat Jelena Jankovic, 7-6 (6), 6-3.

PRO FOOTBALL

Salary cap increases by $12 million

NFL teams will have nearly $12 million more under the salary cap this season, the final year with one in place unless the league and its players’ union can reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

The cap was due to increase $7 million to $123 million this season, but additional adjustments stipulated in the current agreement will increase the amount teams can spend on player compensation to about $128 million. The $12-million increase is the largest in three years.

GOLF

Lincicome takes a two-stroke lead

Brittany Lincicome shot a three-under-par 69 to take a two-shot lead over Suzann Pettersen and Ji Young Oh in the LPGA Sybase Classic in Clifton, N.J.

Advertisement

Paul Goydos shot a five-under 65 in the Texas Open to take a three-stroke lead over three-time champion Justin Leonard and four others in San Antonio.

MOTOR RACING

Hornaday gets first trucks win this year

Ron Hornaday Jr. earned his first NASCAR trucks victory of the season and the 40th of his career, holding off Kyle Busch at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Jimmie Johnson won the pole for tonight’s Sprint Cup All-Star race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch will start second in the 100-lap non-points shootout that pays the winner $1 million.

ETC.

Bruce Smith charged with drunk driving

Former NFL star Bruce Smith was charged with drunk driving, speeding and refusal to take an alcohol breath test after a traffic stop, in Virginia Beach, Va., police said.

Edvald Boasson Hagen won the rainy seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia in Chiavenna, Italy, beating four riders in a sprint finish on a slippery road. Danilo Di Luca kept the overall leader’s pink jersey.

Point guard Dominique O’Connor of Westchester, the City Section boys’ basketball player of the year, signed with San Francisco. The Dons earlier signed All-City guard Michael Williams of Woodland Hills Taft and 6-foot-8 forward Perris Blackwell of Etiwanda.

Advertisement

-- Eric Sondheimer

PASSINGS

Tisdale, former basketball star

Wayman Tisdale, a three-time All-American at Oklahoma in the mid-1980s before playing a dozen years in the NBA and later becoming an accomplished jazz musician, died at a hospital in Tulsa, Okla., after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 44. Story, Section A.

Bob Rosburg, who won the 1959 PGA Championship and spent three decades with ABC Sports as the first reporter to call the shots from the golf course, has died. He was 82. Story, Section A.

Bill Passmore, a former jockey who rode in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, and later became a Maryland racing steward, died Thursday night at his home in Annapolis, Md. He was 76.

Advertisement