At Hollywood Park, history is priced to sell
Jan 23, 2014 9:48:43 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on Jan 23, 2014 9:48:43 GMT -5
Is anyone partaking?!
At Hollywood Park, history is priced to sell
By Jay Hovdey
DRF
One month after its going-out-of-business, final day of Thoroughbred racing, a call was placed to the main number at Hollywood Park. The cheery, recorded message imparted the following information: “Watch and wager on exciting live racing from Betfair Hollywood Park now through Sunday, Dec. 22 . . . general admission is $10, and Turf Club admission is $20 . . .
Okay, so the message hadn’t been updated. Never mind. Who hasn’t called the home of a good friend, recently passed, and gotten goose bumps from the sound of his voice on the answering machine?
Anyway, the call to Hollywood was being placed to nail down a couple of details about the online auction of assorted stuff scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Presumably, the switchboard would be the last to go.
The auction is being conducted by GA Global Partners, an international firm with a long track record of such organized dismantlings. GA Global handled the auction of physical assets after the closing of Bay Meadows, owned by the same developers who will be leveling Hollywood Park.
Any auction of physical assets comes with an emotional component, and despite the cold-hearted commerce that doomed the track, Hollywood Park is no different. It is, however, a little hard to get choked up over the sale of a Garland double-stack oven from the fourth-floor kitchen, a Traulson two-door aluminum cooler from the Park Deli on the third floor, or an Ingersoll-Rand 175 portable air compressor with just 959 hours logged.
Still, no one could be blamed if he listened to his heart and bid on the Crystal Tips ice machine from the Charlie Whittingham bar, or one of the heavy-duty park benches that dotted the paddock grounds, or a genuine Hollywood Park metal turnstile.
At Hollywood Park, history is priced to sell
By Jay Hovdey
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One month after its going-out-of-business, final day of Thoroughbred racing, a call was placed to the main number at Hollywood Park. The cheery, recorded message imparted the following information: “Watch and wager on exciting live racing from Betfair Hollywood Park now through Sunday, Dec. 22 . . . general admission is $10, and Turf Club admission is $20 . . .
Okay, so the message hadn’t been updated. Never mind. Who hasn’t called the home of a good friend, recently passed, and gotten goose bumps from the sound of his voice on the answering machine?
Anyway, the call to Hollywood was being placed to nail down a couple of details about the online auction of assorted stuff scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Presumably, the switchboard would be the last to go.
The auction is being conducted by GA Global Partners, an international firm with a long track record of such organized dismantlings. GA Global handled the auction of physical assets after the closing of Bay Meadows, owned by the same developers who will be leveling Hollywood Park.
Any auction of physical assets comes with an emotional component, and despite the cold-hearted commerce that doomed the track, Hollywood Park is no different. It is, however, a little hard to get choked up over the sale of a Garland double-stack oven from the fourth-floor kitchen, a Traulson two-door aluminum cooler from the Park Deli on the third floor, or an Ingersoll-Rand 175 portable air compressor with just 959 hours logged.
Still, no one could be blamed if he listened to his heart and bid on the Crystal Tips ice machine from the Charlie Whittingham bar, or one of the heavy-duty park benches that dotted the paddock grounds, or a genuine Hollywood Park metal turnstile.
Fortunately, we still have a few of those around the house.
The jockeys’ room has an inventory rife with historic significance. Imagine the money Iggy Puglisi took from everyone who tried to beat him at pool. And only a glutton for punishment would ever play Bill Shoemaker at ping-pong. Both tables are for sale, along with an assortment of scales, saunas, whirlpools, exercise equipment, bunk beds and couches. If furniture could talk . . .
It is pretty easy to predict which items will generate the most action. Any one of the lawn jockeys surrounding the winner’s circle would be a catch, although some need repair. Pony pens and hotwalking machines lead the list from the stable area. Then there’s the famous Hollywood Park Swan Boat, in which Goose Girls from a bygone era paddled across the infield lakes, feeding Hollywood’s menagerie of water fowl.
Among those items not cataloged is the prize of the Hollywood Park artwork – Albert Stewart’s free-floating bronze of Swaps and Shoemaker attached to the side of the marble Gold Cup monument just inside the clubhouse entrance. Speculation has been rampant as to the disposition of the bronze, which was installed in 1958, but according to a track spokesman, it will find a home in a local Inglewood park.
As for other souvenirs missing in auction action, this collector was ready to bid serious bucks for the arrangement of white rocks that could be found in the infield, visibile from a considerable distance and organized to spell out the abandoned “Go Baby Go” advertising catch phrase of the NTRA. Add a few more rocks and you’ve got the track’s lasting message: “Gone Baby Gone.”
At Hollywood Park, history is priced to sell
By Jay Hovdey
DRF
One month after its going-out-of-business, final day of Thoroughbred racing, a call was placed to the main number at Hollywood Park. The cheery, recorded message imparted the following information: “Watch and wager on exciting live racing from Betfair Hollywood Park now through Sunday, Dec. 22 . . . general admission is $10, and Turf Club admission is $20 . . .
Okay, so the message hadn’t been updated. Never mind. Who hasn’t called the home of a good friend, recently passed, and gotten goose bumps from the sound of his voice on the answering machine?
Anyway, the call to Hollywood was being placed to nail down a couple of details about the online auction of assorted stuff scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Presumably, the switchboard would be the last to go.
The auction is being conducted by GA Global Partners, an international firm with a long track record of such organized dismantlings. GA Global handled the auction of physical assets after the closing of Bay Meadows, owned by the same developers who will be leveling Hollywood Park.
Any auction of physical assets comes with an emotional component, and despite the cold-hearted commerce that doomed the track, Hollywood Park is no different. It is, however, a little hard to get choked up over the sale of a Garland double-stack oven from the fourth-floor kitchen, a Traulson two-door aluminum cooler from the Park Deli on the third floor, or an Ingersoll-Rand 175 portable air compressor with just 959 hours logged.
Still, no one could be blamed if he listened to his heart and bid on the Crystal Tips ice machine from the Charlie Whittingham bar, or one of the heavy-duty park benches that dotted the paddock grounds, or a genuine Hollywood Park metal turnstile.
At Hollywood Park, history is priced to sell
By Jay Hovdey
Comments
20
One month after its going-out-of-business, final day of Thoroughbred racing, a call was placed to the main number at Hollywood Park. The cheery, recorded message imparted the following information: “Watch and wager on exciting live racing from Betfair Hollywood Park now through Sunday, Dec. 22 . . . general admission is $10, and Turf Club admission is $20 . . .
Okay, so the message hadn’t been updated. Never mind. Who hasn’t called the home of a good friend, recently passed, and gotten goose bumps from the sound of his voice on the answering machine?
Anyway, the call to Hollywood was being placed to nail down a couple of details about the online auction of assorted stuff scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Presumably, the switchboard would be the last to go.
The auction is being conducted by GA Global Partners, an international firm with a long track record of such organized dismantlings. GA Global handled the auction of physical assets after the closing of Bay Meadows, owned by the same developers who will be leveling Hollywood Park.
Any auction of physical assets comes with an emotional component, and despite the cold-hearted commerce that doomed the track, Hollywood Park is no different. It is, however, a little hard to get choked up over the sale of a Garland double-stack oven from the fourth-floor kitchen, a Traulson two-door aluminum cooler from the Park Deli on the third floor, or an Ingersoll-Rand 175 portable air compressor with just 959 hours logged.
Still, no one could be blamed if he listened to his heart and bid on the Crystal Tips ice machine from the Charlie Whittingham bar, or one of the heavy-duty park benches that dotted the paddock grounds, or a genuine Hollywood Park metal turnstile.
Fortunately, we still have a few of those around the house.
The jockeys’ room has an inventory rife with historic significance. Imagine the money Iggy Puglisi took from everyone who tried to beat him at pool. And only a glutton for punishment would ever play Bill Shoemaker at ping-pong. Both tables are for sale, along with an assortment of scales, saunas, whirlpools, exercise equipment, bunk beds and couches. If furniture could talk . . .
It is pretty easy to predict which items will generate the most action. Any one of the lawn jockeys surrounding the winner’s circle would be a catch, although some need repair. Pony pens and hotwalking machines lead the list from the stable area. Then there’s the famous Hollywood Park Swan Boat, in which Goose Girls from a bygone era paddled across the infield lakes, feeding Hollywood’s menagerie of water fowl.
Among those items not cataloged is the prize of the Hollywood Park artwork – Albert Stewart’s free-floating bronze of Swaps and Shoemaker attached to the side of the marble Gold Cup monument just inside the clubhouse entrance. Speculation has been rampant as to the disposition of the bronze, which was installed in 1958, but according to a track spokesman, it will find a home in a local Inglewood park.
As for other souvenirs missing in auction action, this collector was ready to bid serious bucks for the arrangement of white rocks that could be found in the infield, visibile from a considerable distance and organized to spell out the abandoned “Go Baby Go” advertising catch phrase of the NTRA. Add a few more rocks and you’ve got the track’s lasting message: “Gone Baby Gone.”