If you get a chance, check out TVG\'s documentary on 75 years of Hollywood Park. A bit too nostalgic for me as the track is closing to become condos in December, but nonetheless worth watching.
Brings back great memories of arguably America\'s premier racing venue for so many years.
Being young and inexperienced, I took all those years for granted when I could bet on trainers like Bobby Frankel and Charlie Whittingham, horses like John Henry and jocks like Laffit Pincay and Eddie D!
Everything was always new and cutting edge at Hollywood Park.
Back east they were betting win/place/show and Hollywood had the pick 6!
I also think they had the best turf racing America will ever see back in the 70s through the 90s.
It\'s all just a blurry memory now, but if you got to experience any of it, you got to experience something special.
I remember once when I took a buddy to the track for his first time on a Friday night in December. It was so foggy by the last race you couldn\'t see anything except our single coming home in the pick 6! I though we were going to get like 50K, but it only paid 5K. It was a Friday night and the place was dead. The east coast simulcasting hadn\'t kicked in yet. My friend was still pretty impressed, but I don\'t think we ever one anything else together again! That foggy night back in the 90s was typical Hollypark magic though!
The first time I ever used T-G sheets was at Hollywood. The first race I ever used sheets I hit a 3000 trifecta, and I thought, \"this is just too easy!\" I had a few lessons to learn.
Oh well, time to get real but a nice stroll down memory lane. When does the inner track at Aqueduct get rolling?
Dana666 Wrote:
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> When does the inner track at Aqueduct get rolling?
Life is unfair. I\'m still trying (after 50 years)
to figure out what the hell SoCal did to get the
lion\'s share of the nice weather, whilst I freeze
my gonads off here in Chicago every November through
March. Wahhhh.
Why\'d you stay for 50 years? There\'s a word for that--masochism. I suppose you\'re a Cubs fan, too.
I live in Jersey now. My Southern California excursion was just a blip on my radar screen--my dad almost pulled off a move there when I was a kid which would have completely changed my life, but it was not to be.
Later I also lived in beautiful, amazing Oregon, and after all that, somehow, back in Jersey. Maybe I\'m the masochist after all!
I\'ll tell you, if you pick winners at Hawthorne you are a real man!