New owner keeps status quo

Hollywood Park has made only minor changes to the stakes schedule for the upcoming fall meeting, which runs from Nov. 9 to Dec. 19. It's the first meeting since the Bay Meadows Land Company bought the track from Churchill Downs Inc. earlier this year.

Hollywood Park will run 20 stakes, including six Grade 1 races. The meeting is one week shorter than last year, but the same stakes are being offered.

Four Grade 1 stakes will be run over Hollywood's newly renovated turf course.

The richest weekend of the meeting, Nov. 25-27, features the six-stakes Autumn Turf Festival. The Turf Festival includes three Grade 1 races - the $400,000 Citation Handicap on Nov. 26 and the $500,000 Matriarch Stakes and $500,000 Hollywood Derby on Nov. 27.

There has been a slight change in scheduling for the Turf Festival. The Miesque Stakes has been moved from Friday to Saturday, while the Generous Stakes has been moved from Saturday to Friday.

Hollywood Park has grouped the two stakes for statebreds - the Cat's Cradle and the On Trust Handicap - on the same program, Dec. 4. The races had previously been run in November. The new date of those races allows horses that ran on the California Cup program at Santa Anita on Nov. 6 to return at Hollywood Park.

The final weekend features two Grade 1 races - the Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 17 and the Hollywood Starlet for 2-year-old fillies on Dec. 18.