Horse Race Track, Architecturally Speaking
For the reader who is unfamiliar with a typical commercial horse race track, this may serve as a guided tour.
The physical layout is functional and direct. The running track itself is usually an oval a mile in circumference with a grandstand situated along one side.
Horses are walked to the track from nearby stables shortly before the races in which they are to run; they then parade in front of the crowd to the starting gate whose position may be varied to permit races of from three-fourths-mile (requiring about one minute, 12 seconds).
An afternoon of racing consists of nine races spaced about one-half hour apart. Significantly, there is no prepared entertainment between races.
Exhibited in front of the crowd, in the infield, is a 'tote' board, a large scoreboard showing, among other things, the payoff amounts for the first three horses in the preceding race and the 'odds' against each horse entered in the following race.
The odds are actually the payoff prices determined by the relative amounts wagered on each horse.
Because these odds change as betting proceeds (betting on one race starts within a few minutes after the conclusion of the preceding one but increases in volume as the starting time approaches), the tote board commands the thoughtful attention of a majority of the crowd.
A major race track draws its patrons from a socio-economic cross-section of the city, a fact that its reflected in the division of the grandstand into three or four stratified zones.
The largest is a section (for which the term 'Grandstand' is usually reserved) that includes a large ramp for standees.
At Hollywood Park, 77 percent of the crowd is accommodated within this area. An area , usually called the 'Clubhouse' offers somewhat more elbow room and better conveniences for its patrons, but it seems primarily to serve to segregate the one-dollar extra customers from the crush of the main crowd.
Twenty percent of the total attendance is contained in the Clubhouse. A more luxurious and expressive area, called the 'Private Turf Club' contains three and a half percent of the total crowd - but they bet about 10 percent of the money.
Almost all members of the Private Turf Club attend the races in the company of friends or family. In contrast, from 35 - 40 percent of the crowd in the Grandstand attend as loners, while 33 to 35 percent of the Clubhouse attendees are loners.
On Saturdays and holidays, when the size of the total crowd almost doubles that of ordinary weekdays, a somewhat greater proportion of the patrons attend with companions.
The loners, although they number considerably less than half the crowd, are a major factor in its appearance.
Casual observers are often impressed by the somber, even gloomy, expressions of horse players; win or lose, they seem withdrawn and joyless.
However, this atmosphere is largely an artifact of the absence of conversation with companions. Animation normally requires company. It seems heedless to presume, as many commentators have, that some sort of pathology is indicated by the fact that many horse players wear serious expressions.