Sale of Los Alamitos Track to Sacramento Group Now Official

Hollywood Park Realty officially announced the sale of Los Alamitos Racecourse to a harness-racing group from Sacramento. The group, headed by Lloyd Arnold, president of Cal Racing Expo Assn., paid a reported $71 million for the 297 acres, which include a golf course and undeveloped land.

Joining Arnold in the venture are Buzz Oates, one of the leading builders of commercial and industrial buildings in Sacramento, attorney Chris Bardis and developer Frank Ramos. Group members said they will continue to use the race track for both harness and quarter horses, but they also hope to rebuild the golf course and develop some of the land.

“Nothing is settled, but we hope to run 23 or 24 weeks each of both harness and quarter horses,” Bardis said from his law office in Sacramento. “We’re striving for parity and we’re hoping that the quarter horse people will cooperate.

“If we don’t get cooperation, it will only become a factor for the next 10 years of the property (which is when a quarter horse lease on the property runs out.).”

Cooperation doesn’t appear likely. Ed Allred, who also headed a group that offered to buy the track and is president of the Horseman’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn., expects litigation before the issue is settled.

“What we do depends on what they say they will do for us,” Allred said. “It could be done peaceably, but I suspect it will not be that way. Under an agreement with Hollywood Park, we were entitled to 30 weeks of racing and there is no way way we will ever accept anything less than that. We have a lot of options, even if that means running at another track.”

The Quarter Horse Racing Assn. has a lease with Hollywood Park that extends to 2002.

The Arnold group was selected because it was making a single offer for all the property, according to Bob Forgnone, an attorney representing Hollywood Park. The Allred group was putting together two separate transactions, one to his group for the track and a separate land transaction to Pacific Telesis. Allred said the combined offer with PacTel was worth $76 million.

“The (Hollywood Park) board felt it was better to go for the one offer,” Forgnone said. “It was more of a sure thing.”

Bardis said that the immediate plans are to try to make harness and quarter-horse racing profitable. He said there would be no major improvements in the physical state of the facility until that is done.

Arnold, who says he intends to move to Southern California in a week, plans to bring horses in from the East Coast in order to improve the quality of racing. He also plans to step up promotions. A harness meet is planned from Nov. 25 to May 1.

The sale is expected to greatly reduce Hollywood Park’s debt of nearly $100 million. The money will transfer on Nov. 20 and escrow will close at that time.

Forgnone said the track will now attempt to reduce the remaining debt. He said two options open to the track are selling off property near the Inglewood track making a public stock offering.