Los Angeles racetrack to close

Betfair Hollywood Park will close by year’s end and the 75-year-old racetrack property near Los Angeles that hosted Seabiscuit and the first Breeders’ Cup in 1984 will be developed with new housing and retail facilities, reports the Associated Press news agency.

The Hollywood Park Racing Association and Betfair US, the Los Angeles-based subsidiary of Betfair plc that also owns TVG Network, completed an agreement in March, 2012 intended to transform the customer experience for fans at the venue as well as online and on television.

Under terms of the five-year deal, Hollywood Park was renamed “Betfair Hollywood Park’’ in what is believed to be the first naming rights agreement for a horse racing venue in the United States.

Betfair has in recent times been restructuring and refocusing under the new leadership of Breon Corcoran.

The track announced on Thursday that it won’t apply to the California Horse Racing Board for 2014 dates.

In 2005, when Churchill Downs sold it to the Hollywood Park Land Company, the then new owners said that racing operations would continue for a further three years.

The president of the company, Jack Libau, said this week that the land was now simply higher in value, and could be put to better use, as a property development project.

Libau revealed that a land casino on the property will continue to operate, and is expected to be renovated as part of the new development, whilst the track’s 260-acre footprint will be turned into 3,000 new housing units, including single-family townhomes and condos; 25 acres of parkland, including a 10-acre central park; and a retail and entertainment district, anchored by a movie theatre, office space and a 300-room hotel.

Hollywood Park opened in 1938 under the direction of movie moguls Jack and Harry Warner. Celebrities regularly attended the races. The Breeders’ Cup began at the track in 1984, and was held there again in 1987 and 1997.

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