Hollywood Park Racetrack
Appearance
- For the town in Texas, see Hollywood Park, Texas.
Hollywood Park is a thoroughbred racecourse located in Inglewood, California, about 3 miles (5 km) from Los Angeles International Airport. It is currently one of the family of racecourses owned by Churchill Downs. The current track is 1-1/8 miles (1.811 km).
The track opened in 1938 as the Hollywood Turf Club. Its original chairman was Jack Warner; its original 600 shareholders included many Hollywood luminaries. Hollywood Park closed from 1942 to 1944 due to World War II, being used as a storage facility. In 1949, the original grandstand and clubhouse were destroyed by a fire; the rebuilt facility reopened in 1950.
Notable events at the track:
- Hosted the inaugural Breeders' Cup in 1984, and also hosted the event in 1987 and 1997.
- In 1951, Citation became the first million-dollar-winning horse by winning his final start, the Hollywood Gold Cup.
- On December 10, 1999, Laffit Pincay Jr. surpassed Bill Shoemaker's all-time record for race wins by a jockey.