Coming Friday: Christina Olivares, straight from the host's mouth

The 27-year-old USC grad out of Mayfield High in Pasadena needs little introduction to horse racing's viewers of TVG, the 24/7 network devoted to the sport that's celebrating its 10th anniversary this week.

She's the one down in the dirt, breaking stories and then cleans up nicely for a weekday studio spot on the "Coast to Coast" show.

Christina Olivares, doing a TVG interview with the Lakers' Luke Walton at the opening of Del Mar last summer, gives her take in Friday's media column on what its like in a male-dominated profession and what she has to do to stand out, aside from wearing shorter dresses and bat her eyes around on the TV screen.

But, yes, she does have fun.

A trivia question asked during Wednesday's "Coast to Coast" show presented as an on-screen graphic asked: How much money did Christina spend this weekend on clothes for Del Mar and Saratoga?

She leaves Monday for the opening of Del Mar and then attends Saratoga later this summer.

"Bear in mind, I do enjoy discount stores such as Marshalls and Loehman," she said, giving a clue.

Give up?

Our guess was $215. The right answer: $490

So you know her job does pay something.

More background on TVG and Olivares:

== A 2008 story on her from Multichannel News that really nails her ability to dig up stories (linked here)

== Her TVG bio (linked here)

== A TVG Wikipedia entry (linked here) as well as a rundown on what the network does from its home site (linked here).