They can't write a finish to this Hollywood script

Inquiring minds want to know about Hollywood Park.

Is it still a horse race track or just an excuse to water the grass until the bulldozers arrive? Will the best drivers here be jockeys or guys in cement mixers?

Are barns to become bungalows, the home stretch main street?

Will today's opener of the annual 40-day autumn meeting be the last time there is such a day here?

Economic realities, the favorite phrase these days of a clueless corporate America, have long been known at Hollywood Park. In 2005, the Churchill Downs owners of the fabled racing venue stood up at a news conference, whined about the horrible injustice of California's refusing to give them slot machines to further line their pockets, and announced they had sold Hollywood Park.

They took the money and ran, making way for new corporate types with a different take-the-money-and-run scheme. The Hollywood Park buyer was Bay Meadows Land Co., the Northern California group that has a real estate division and a racing division. The racing division was put in charge, while the real estate division walked outside and started to visualize lot sizes and traffic patterns.

From that moment, horse racing at Hollywood Park was on borrowed time.

But a funny thing has happened on the way to condo heaven. They are still racing. And, if you are a betting person -- as are most who follow horse racing -- your best wager is that the bug boys will outnumber the bricklayers for several years to come.

Coincidently, that's because of the current economic realities.

The plan was to build condos, but building condos right now is like an old claiming horse in a six-furlong sprint. It hasn't got a chance. In 2005, the "best use" of the Hollywood Park land was to develop it, bring in the drywall and the painted fences and 2 1/2 -car garages, divide the huge parcel by 100 lots or so, get a half-million for each, and present big bonus checks to all the top executives.

Now, for the moment, at least, it turns out the "best use" of the land is to do what has always been done with it: stable thoroughbred race horses, train them, and race them for the entertainment and wagering interests of the general public. What a concept.

True, most of the staff at Hollywood Park exists on life support. There are no guarantees past the end of next summer's meeting, which annually precedes Del Mar's meeting of turf and surf. But only the most pessimistic would think that racing at Hollywood Park won't continue on past next summer, seeing that the alternative involves huge loans and costly construction and the unrealistic home prices needed to pay for all that.