Race Track

Plans for the first thoroughbred race track in north Florida have been submitted to the Jacksonville City Council by two Ocala developers. The proposal for the $30-million sports center includes a four-month racing season with pari-mutuel wagering and year-round equestrian events and horse shows, said David F. Austin, one of the developers.

Jack Klugman wasn't just known for his acting ability. He loved horses and horse racing. His death Monday in Woodland Hills at the age of 90 comes after he visited the race track several months ago, according to trainer Barry Abrams, who co-owns three horses with Klugman. They are offspring of Klugman's broodmare, Sci Fi Kin , who was sold in January. "He just loved being at the track," Abrams said. "He comes, makes bets and sits all day. That was his life -- horses and show business.

Work has started on China's first horse race track since 1949--but there will be no gambling, New China News Agency reported today. The agency said the 7,000-seat state-run Kublai Khan Equestrian Park will open in a Peking suburb this fall, featuring horse races and polo games, horse and camel rides and riding clubs. "It will be commercial and recreational and not for gambling," the track's manager said. Gambling is outlawed in China.

The numbers dwindle each year for Santa Anita Park. So how can the horse racing track draw more new customers? As Santa Anita opens its winter-spring meeting Wednesday, it remains a breathtaking venue in Arcadia set against the San Gabriel Mountains. But attendance and on-track wagering at Santa Anita have declined for more than 20 years, as they have at many tracks. The main reasons: competition since the mid-1980s from state lotteries, Indian casinos and off-track betting, that is, people at other facilities and online making "simulcast" or "satellite" bets on Santa Anita's races.

Cash-laden Japanese are going to horse races in growing numbers, boosting profits to record levels, says a government report issued Thursday. Combined profits at 34 regional race tracks across Japan reached a record annual high of $5.5 billion in fiscal 1989 ending March 1990, according to a spokesman for the Agriculture Ministry. The figure represented an 18% increase over the previous year's profits, the official said.

A Newport Beach-based development company has indicated its intention to buy for $100 million in cash the Los Alamitos Race Track and an adjacent 160-acre parcel of land. If the deal is completed, Hollywood Park Realty Enterprises, the track's present owner, would continue to operate it until 2001 under a lease-back agreement, according to Hollywood Park officials. Hollywood Park bought the property in 1984 for $63 million.

City officials have notified the county that they oppose a proposal to make part of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a horse race track after the base closes. Cypress is the home of Los Alamitos Race Track, which is a major tax source for the city. In a May 8 letter to the county, city officials said they oppose "planning for a similar facility [at the Marine base] unless studies show that the county can support two such facilities."

Documentarian Frederick Wiseman has a panoramic eye. Disdaining narration and relying on the camera to reflect its own truth, he often makes the ordinary seem fascinating. On occasion, he also makes the fascinating seem ordinary. There is some of both in his two-hour PBS documentary "Race Track," airing at 8 tonight on Channel 50 and at 9 p.m. on Channels 28, 15 and 24. This is the much-honored Wiseman's 17th documentary for public TV.

After sending six aides to Minnesota to look into a proposed buyout of Canterbury Downs' bank debt, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has decided the deal would be too risky to participate in, the Star Tribune reported in today's editions. Lawrence Greenberg, a retired Minneapolis accountant who hopes to buy the Shakopee race track, said he probably will be unable to swing the deal unless a backup company joins the sons of Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad in buying the debt.

After postponing a consultant's study of parking needs at Los Alamitos Race Course because of concerns about the cost, the city is proceeding with the review. In September, the City Council halted the parking survey because members feared that the city would have to pick up part of the tab.

NASCAR has sent a clear message to its drivers: No more Twitter, or any other type of smartphone use, in its race cars. The sanctioning body Monday levied a $25,000 fine on Brad Keselowski -- who leads the Sprint Cup Series standings -- because he used a smartphone in his car Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway. Keselowski's in-car television camera showed the 28-year-old using his phone, which included sending a tweet, during a 15-minute break when the cars were stopped so that crews could clean up a wreck involving Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer.

NASCAR levied a stiff fine on Jeff Gordon for intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer and helping trigger a wild brawl among their crews Sunday in Phoenix, but Gordon was not suspended for the season's last race this weekend. Gordon was fined $100,000 and docked 25 Sprint Cup Series championship points, although Gordon - a four-time champion - already had been eliminated from title contention. Brad Keselowski has a 20-point lead over Jimmie Johnson heading into the season finale at Homestead-Miami (Fla.)

AVONDALE, Ariz. - Dale Earnhardt Jr. is Jimmie Johnson's teammate and Brad Keselowski's former boss, so who does Earnhardt see winning this year's NASCAR Sprint Cup? "I think Jimmie is going to win it" for a sixth championship, Earnhardt said Friday. Johnson has "great equipment . . . one of the best crew chiefs in the business" in Chad Knaus, and Johnson "is one of the best drivers in the business. " "It's going to be hard to beat those guys," Earnhardt said. Johnson has a seven-point lead over Keselowski in the title standings with two races left: Sunday's AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway and the season finale a week later at Homestead-Miami (Fla.)

Josh Hamilton, B.J. Upton and Kyle Lohse were among nine free agents who turned down $13.3-million offers from their former clubs Friday as the annual general managers' meetings ended and team officials headed home for what figures to be a busy month of negotiations. Also rejecting the one-year guaranteed offers were the New York Yankees' trio of Nick Swisher, Rafael Soriano and Hiroki Kuroda along with David Ortiz, Michael Bourn and Adam LaRoche. :: Charlie Beljan had trouble breathing even before he teed off, called for paramedics when he made the turn and even told his caddie at one point Friday that he thought he might die. With his job on the line at Disney, he kept right on playing until he had a remarkable eight-under 64 to build a three-shot lead going into the weekend at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The next question is if Beljan can even play on the weekend.

Jimmy Kimmel has been kicking around some ideas for his Emmy-hosting gig, but when we talked to him recently he was a bit reluctant to delve into specifics, since he had yet to meet with the show's producers. But Kimmel did say he would probably continue to explore his self-described “obsession” with acceptance speeches that go unread, a fixation he got some laughs from during last year's ceremony when presenting with Jimmy Fallon. “If you sit in the audience at the Emmys or any of these awards shows, you can see people pulling their speeches out of their pockets and reviewing their notes,” Kimmel says.

People keep waiting for Hollywood Park to be turned into condos and office buildings, but the Inglewood track is going full speed ahead with its 31st autumn meeting, which begins Thursday and lasts through Dec. 18. The track's always optimistic president, Jack Liebau, said nothing has changed from the orders he was given when the track was purchased by Bay Meadows Land Co. in 2005 and talk about tearing down the track to make way for condos began....

A driver-trainer who allegedly hindered a state Harness Racing Commission investigation of a Sept. 17 race has been banned from The Meadows track in Washington County. In a statement, the track said it had "exercised its right of exclusion" against Lou Kiss, 38, who drove the winning horse in a disputed race. The track began an investigation of the 11th race after officials received an anonymous phone tip. Suspicion was aroused by the high number of winning superfecta tickets--10.

City voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved plans to develop a 75-acre business park next to the Los Alamitos Race Track, ending more than four years of disputes and lawsuits. "This election finally puts to rest a great controversy in our community," said Mayor Pro Tem John Kanel. "The new owners (of the race track) are to be highly commended."

A little less than a year ago in Las Vegas, Jeff Gordon was answering questions about approaching a 10-year drought as a NASCAR champion. These days, he is peppered with questions about how he has re-emerged as a force on the Sprint Cup circuit. Gordon never went away, of course. But like most everybody else, he has been relegated to a competitive spectator in the Jimmie Johnson championship extravaganza, stretching five years. But his buddy Johnson is definitely feeling the squeeze.