As proxy battles go, the fight for Hollywood Park racetrack ranks as a minor contest. But the cast of characters could have been plucked from the plot of a Dick Francis novel and plunked down in an episode of Dynasty. In fact, actor John Forsythe, the patriarch of the defunct TV show, is a star defender of Majorie Everett, the eccentric chairwoman of the company that manages the track in Inglewood, Calif.
Some stockholders charge that Everett, 69, has turned "the track of lakes and flowers" into a second-class operation. The main challenger is R.D. Hubbard, a Texas glassmaking mogul and...