Pointing to an insufficient number of entries, Hollywood Park announced that it has canceled its May 26 program. Live racing will resume at the Inglewood, Calif., track on May 27.
Track officials were planning to draw entries for both days on May 23, but could not fill the programs. Races that had at least six entrants for May 26 will be brought back for the Memorial Day weekend cards, the track reported.
The track will be open for simulcasting on May 26 and there will be free general admission on May 27.
“We have determined that it is in the best interest of the industry for the races we do have sufficient entries for on (May 26-27) to be combined into a single card on (May 27),’’ said Jack Liebau, Hollywood Park president, in a statement. “The action we are taking will result in Hollywood Park being able to present a representative card and assure that there will be racing concurrently that day in both Southern and Northern California.’’
This is the first cancellation of the Hollywood Park season, which began April 21. Anticipating a horse shortage following the Santa Anita season, Hollywood scheduled four-day weeks for the first two weeks of meet, then switched to five days for the next three weeks. For the Memorial Day week, it had planned to race six days through May 31.
The track has already decided against running Thursday cards on July 1, 8, and 15.
Due to the horse shortage last summer, Hollywood Park canceled the final nine Wednesdays of the meet as well as one Thursday program early in the season.
Golden Gate Fields announced earlier that it would not race May 26 because of a lack of entries.
