As Lava Man and Congrats hit the stretch turn in the $750,000 Grade I Hollywood Gold Cup on Saturday, one couldn’t help but have mixed feelings. Lava Man was running well and the race was exciting, but looming in the background was the prospect that this might be one of the last Gold Cups at the storied track.

Churchill Downs Incorporated announced last Wednesday that it had sold Hollywood Park to a land development company called Bay Meadows for $260 million. That the announcement was made on the same day as the draw for the biggest race of the year – the Gold Cup – only served to underline the contempt with which Churchill Downs has treated the legendary track and its fans.

Churchill Downs has not made money at Hollywood Park, but neither has the company tried to. They bought the track wholly to cash in on slot machines, but when the relevant legislation – California Proposition 68 – fell through, they decided to walk away. They did not attempt to improve the racing there, nor did they attempt to offer an environment that would foster success. Instead, they waited for the government to legalize another form of gambling so that they could utilize Hollywood Park as a venue.

If the state doesn’t allow Bay Meadows to put in slots – or offer some other relief from the competition with Native American Casinos – Hollywood will likely close in three years, and the land will be repurposed.

“This will not be an economically viable track over the long run,” Terry Fancher, President of Bay Meadows, told the press last week. “We feel it is better to put that on the table and state that right away.”

Racing companies that want slots are fond of saying that racing without them is impossible. But what about Del Mar, Keeneland, and Saratoga, where the atmosphere is pleasant, the grounds are beautiful, and the racing is excellent? Those tracks are crowded, and not with slots players.

Despite all this messy background, Saturday’s Gold Cup was a good race. Jockey Patrick Valenzuela read the field like it was a comic strip, blowing past Congrats on the turn and opening up 8 3/4 lengths by the time Lava Man was done tearing down the stretch. Just two months ago, Lava Man was in a claiming race and could have been bought for $100,000. Now, he’s pointed toward the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

Although he’s not yet nominated for the Breeders’ Cup – and his connections have said it is unlikely that they’ll put up the $800,000 – it would be good to see Lava Man added to the mix. After all, it would be a fitting piece of irony to see a horse that made his career at Hollywood Park run in the event that was inaugurated at Hollypark back in 1984, when then-owner Marge Everett was trying, through the investment of millions of dollars, to restore the park to its original Tinseltown glory.

The Hollywood Park story began in the late 1930s,when Jack Warner of Warner Bros. decided that California needed another racetrack. Santa Anita was a cowboy track – deco and glamorous, yes, but very much about the San Gabriel Mountains – while Del Mar was a sea-side resort. Hollypark, which opened in 1938, would wrap itself in the silver screen. When Cary Grant, Betty Grable, or Lucille Ball went to the races, they went to Hollypark. And they saw great racing there. They saw Seabiscuit win the Gold Cup. They saw Citation and Swaps.

After a fire in the 1950s, the track was rebuilt as a kind of racing diner, all aqua and salmon, tubular and streamlined. Over the years, it has gradually gotten rougher and rougher, much like Inglewood, the neighborhood surrounding it. It’s obvious now that Churchill Downs was not buying into a piece of racing history when it purchased the park in 1999 for $140 million, but rather purchasing a lucrative position in the potential legalization of slots in California. Not surprisingly, Churchill is dangling a carrot for the legislature in California, reserving the right to re-invest as a majority partner should the laws change over the next eight years.

The sale price, $260 million, is notably similar to the cash price tag that will be hung on the NYRA franchise in 2007. Take note, New York. Churchill Downs went to Los Angeles chasing slots, and instead of diving in to West Coast racing, they made a loose gamble with a piece of racing history. They’ve got the cash to buy the NYRA franchise, but is this the company you want stewarding New York’s Racing?