A Track By Any Other Name

As I'm sure you're all aware by now, earlier this spring, through the magic of money, Hollywood Park became Betfair Hollywood Park; and so it shall remain, at least for the next five years, under the terms of the agreement.


While the sale of naming rights is quite common in other sports (think Citi Field in New York) this is a first for a U.S. racetrack.  Fortunately for the good people of Betfair, it appears that the major players in the industry are on board with the name change (as opposed to, say, Candlestick Park).  As just one sign that this is so, Hollywood Park's abbreviation has gone from HOL to BHP in both the Past Performances and in the charts.


And therein seems to lie the problem.


It appears that the change from Hollywood Park (HOL) to Betfair Hollywood Park (BHP) has confused the software that creates a lot of the racing information that we horse players receive.  Apparently, the databases used to create the charts and Past Performances and so forth do not realize that BHP is just HOL by another name.  Because of that, track diagrams have disappeared from the top right hand corner of DRF.com Past Performances at Hollywood Park:

Likewise, track records set prior to the name change have disappeared from the Equibase.com race charts for Hollywood Park:

As you can see (clicking on the image should give a better view) the Equibase chart of the 2011 Shoemaker Mile shows that Monterey Jazz holds the track at Hollywood for a mile on the turf, having covered the California grass on May 24, 2009 in 1:32.59.  If you look at the Equibase chart of the 2012 Shoemaker Mile, that information is now gone.  Only those track records that have been set since the name change (such as the six furlong turf record set by Streakin' Mohican on April 28 of this year) are included in the Equibase.com race charts from what was formerly known as Hollywood Park.

Yet, while information has disappeared from certain places, it has multiplied in others.  Check out the stakes schedule over at DRF.com:

As you can (hopefully) see (again, try clicking on the image to see if that helps), stakes races running in Inglewood, California now get listed twice on the Daily Racing Form's stakes schedule: once for Hollywood, and once for Betfair Hollywood (note the Swaps Stakes on Wednesday, July 4, and the Hollywood Gold Cup on Saturday, July 7).

As mentioned previously, this naming rights deal is slated to last for five years.  If it's a success, I'm sure that it will be just the first of many such deals in the future.  That being the case, it would be nice if the various information providers in our sport would take the time to fix this problem, and update whatever they need to update, so that they'll know that a rose (or a racetrack) by any other name still has the same courses, records, and, yes, smell, that is always had.

Peace and Love,

Jimbo