Hollywood Park has pleasing autumn meeting

By: SPORTS NETWORK

Inglewood, CA (Sports Network) - Heading into the final weekend of the 2012 autumn meet, Hollywood Park racing secretary Martin Panza couldn't be happier at the upturn in business. Sunday marks the final day of racing at the historic track for the year.

"Obviously, when there's a 10-day break between meets, it certainly helps," said Panza. "Realistically, we ran six weeks and had rain or rainy conditions during four of them. To end up doing what we did is really good."

Racing in Los Angeles will resume at Santa Anita on Wednesday, Dec. 26 more than a week after Hollywood Park closes.

Panza also expressed pleasure in the increased size of the fields the track had over last year. During the 2011 autumn meet the average field size was 7.89, but this year it increased to 8.11.

"That number could actually go up," said Panza. "Our weekend races (CashCall Futurity and Turf Cup) are good, and if we can hold off the rain, we could be up even more.

"This was probably one of our easier meets in a long time. The races (filled) and the trainers really helped. It just sort of all worked out well."