Hollywood Park laid off approximately 18 employees on Wednesday, including Allen Gutterman, the vice-president, marketing, and James Miller, paymaster of purses. Employees in accounting and information technology were also laid off, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
The layoffs occurred a month after the Bay Meadows Land Co. purchased Hollywood Park from Churchill Downs Inc. for $260 million. The transaction is expected to close on Sept. 23.
The total average daily handle increased slightly during the Colonial Downs summer meet, but average attendance and ontrack handle were down significantly, according to figures released by the track.
Colonial closed Tuesday after a 40-day meet, up from 34 days last year, with its total average daily handle up 2 percent, to $1,082,819 a day. Average daily attendance dropped 6 percent to 2,028, while average ontrack handle declined 14 percent to $170,125.
Cole Norman has saddled the last two winners of the $100,000 Evangeline Mile, this meeting's premier race in the handicap division, and he comes into Saturday's edition packing a powerful one-two punch. He will send out Absent Friend, winner of the Grade 3 Essex Handicap at Oaklawn Park earlier in the year, and Shaky Town, recent winner of the Bobby Johnson Memorial Stakes at Lone Star Park.
The two horses are not coupled in the wagering.
Graded-stakes winner Savorthetime will race at her seventh different track this season when she meets 10 other filly and mare rivals in the $40,000 Dean Kutz Stakes, the 6 1/2-furlong feature Saturday at Canterbury Park.
The Kutz, being run for the first time, is named after the former leading rider at Canterbury, who died of cancer at age 48 last September.
Hesluckytoo is a tepid selection facing nine other 2-year-olds, all in search of their first career stakes score, in the $60,000 Iowa Stallion Futurity at Prairie Meadows.
Hesluckytoo was one of the most impressive maiden winners during the Thoroughbred meeting here. He dueled to midstretch before drawing clear for a two-length debut victory going five furlongs on May 30 for trainer Larry Hunt.
Waupaca's tour of the region will continue when he ships from his Oklahoma City base to San Antonio for the $50,000 Retama Park Turf Breeders' Cup Handicap. Already this summer, Waupaca has won stakes at Lone Star Park and Louisiana Downs.
On the strength of those wins, he will start as the 121-pound highweight in the Retama, a 1 1/16-mile race on turf. Waupaca will be spotting his rivals between five and seven pounds and will break from the outside post in the field of six.
Saturday invariably is a stakes day during the Ellis Park meet, but this Saturday provides a rare exception. In large part because the Henderson, Ky., track has set aside Aug. 20 as the richest stakes day in its history, the rather modest highlight on an 11-race card is an overnight handicap with a $29,750 purse.
The speedy What About David faces off against 10-year-old High Dice for the sixth time this year, as the pair headline a strong field of six Nebraska-breds in the $15,000-added Amadevil Handicap at six furlongs.
High Dice is the elder statesman of the Nebraska-bred ranks. A homebred trained by Herb Riecken, High Dice has posted a career mark of 20-14-13 from 68 starts for more than $318,000 in earnings and has won his last pair of stakes outings.
There are at least two reasons to think that Eclipse Winner should win the Bay Meadows Fair feature on Saturday, a two-other-than allowance at a mile on the turf with a $50,000 claiming option. Eclipse Winner won the last time she raced on the Bay Meadows turf and she drops in class after finishing fifth in the Luther Burbank at Santa Rosa July 30.
Seven fillies and mares from some of the East's leading trainers are scheduled to gather at Suffolk Downs on Saturday for the $50,000 My Fair Lady Breeders' Cup, including a runner from reigning Eclipse Award champion Todd Pletcher.
Suffolk officials, fans, and bettors need to watch the weather, because ground conditions will determine how many of the out-of-towners make their way to Boston for the mile and 70-yard turf race.