Marje Everett, a legendary and controversial figure in the sport of horse racing for more than four decades and the chief executive of the Hollywood Park racetrack for six years, has died. She was 90.

Everett’s longtime associate, Dorothy Carter, said Everett had been in declining health the last year and died Friday morning at her Los Angeles residence.

Everett was a major female force in sports well before that was considered a possibility. When she lost a takeover battle with businessman R.D. Hubbard for control of Hollywood Park in 1991 — after turning away several other bids in previous years — she had been a director at the Inglewood track since 1972 and its chief executive since 1985.

Before that, she had owned and operated Washington and Arlington parks and Balmoral Track in Chicago. When those were purchased by Gulf +Western in 1968, she stayed as top manager at the request of Gulf+Western officials, but after a year was asked to step down. As part of that deal, she was given stock worth 10 percent of Hollywood Park.

From the moment she arrived until the day she left, she was an undeniable force in a sport that, for much of her time, was in its prime. In 1984, for example, Hollywood Park’s revenue was $74 million. That was the year of the initial Breeders’ Cup, then and now a showcase of top racing for enormous purses. The current Breeders’ Cup has as its grand finale the Classic, worth $5 million.

When the initial Breeders’ Cup organizers narrowed the host sites to Santa Anita or Hollywood Park, Everett battled to get it to her track. During the decision-making, she made a personal contribution of $200,000 to the Breeders’ Cup. The Oak Tree Association, which was trying to host that first Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita, was critical of Everett. Her response was typically crusty.

“I have little regard for most of the people at Santa Anita,” she said, in an interview with Los Angeles Times horse racing writer Bill Christine. On the same issue, about another opponent, she said, “I will never bury the hatchet.”

Still, many horsemen remember her for her love of the sport, her drive for it to prosper and her vision for it. She was usually the first to arrive at the track in the morning. In a 1969 interview in Sports Illustrated, well before racing had sold its future and soul to offtrack betting, Everett said, “I insist that the mutuels (betting handles) are of secondary importance to the attendance at the track. Build your attendance, and everything else, including the mutuel handle, will fall into place.”

She was the daughter of Ben and Vera Lindheimer. Lindheimer was a wealthy real estate executive and Chicago politician who owned horses and eventually owned Arlington, Washington and Balmoral. Everett was one of their three adopted children. She was born June 8, 1921, in Albany, N.Y., adopted at age 1 and said years later that she had known and forgotten her real name, “because it was on a piece of paper somewhere and I lost it.”

Quickly, it became clear she was the child most interested in carrying on the Lindheimer racing pursuits. She would spend hours at the track with her father and loved everything there — even when her father fired her from her first job as a phone operator because her voice wasn’t friendly enough.

From the start, she was involved in everything her father did. In the 1940s, he was part-owner, along with Bing Crosby and Don Ameche, of the Los Angeles Dons of the All-American Football Conference. She did player acquisition and even recently spoke glowingly of the fledgling league.

Her closest associates over the years included Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Angie Dickinson, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart and John Forsythe.