Hollywood business slips

Hollywood Park showed declines in average attendance and handle through Saturday's program, the 19th day of the 60-day spring-summer meeting.

According to figures compiled by track officials, average daily ontrack attendance was 5,930, a drop of 5 percent from 2007. The average ontrack handle of $1,583,940 marked a decline of 11.8 percent from last year. The preliminary all-sources average handle of $11,560,123, which includes advance deposit wagering, was down 0.4 percent. The number is not final because some advance-deposit wagering handle figures were not immediately available, according to track officials.

"For a long time, I thought wagering was recession-proof," said Hollywood Park's president, Jack Liebau, "and I'm not too sure that's the case. We're getting bit by the economy."

Liebau said the drop in business is unlikely to lead to a reduction in purses.- Steve Andersen