Horse vans began streaming into the Del Mar stable area on the afternoon of July 9, signaling another great migration from blistering hot L.A. County to racing's seaside Shangri-La. The horses love it, while the humans swallow exorbitant summer rental rates and head for the beach. It goes by fast.
Jerry Hollendorfer will be back at Del Mar for another season, with a dozen stalls allotted that will be occupied by horses coming down Interstate-5 from his Los Alamitos Race Course base. He has another division doing well at Monmouth Park this summer under the direction of assistant Dan Ward, where the barn's nine wins from 33 starts was good enough for fourth in the standings entering the weekend.
Hollendorfer is marking his 10th anniversary as a member of the racing Hall of Fame. Of more visceral significance, however, is the fact that for the third straight Del Mar season Hollendorfer will be training and racing there under the protection of a preliminary injunction that forbids track management from enforcing its decree from July of 2019 that sought to ban the trainer from its meet.
For those who need reminding, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club tried to mirror the decision of The Stronach Group management in banning Hollendorfer from its facilities in the wake of his fourth equine fatality of the 2019 Santa Anita meet, despite the fact that he was still in good standing as a licensee of the California Horse Racing Board. Hollendorfer sought temporary restraining orders in three different California venues to continue training until he could secure a legitimate hearing on his status; two judges sided with Stronach tracks—Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields—while a judge in San Diego County Superior Court granted the TRO in the Del Mar case.
Later, Hollendorfer secured an injunction that would remain in place until a settlement with Del Mar was reached in the trainer's claims of damages done to his livelihood. Del Mar officials confirmed that the court process was ongoing and declined further comment. Hollendorfer also has actions pending against Santa Anita, Golden Gate, and the CHRB.
The Hollendorfer ordeal has been echoed in the legal challenges mounted by Bob Baffert in reaction to his banishment from New York Racing Association tracks in the wake of the failed post-race test of Medina Spirit in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1). Baffert contends he was deprived of his right to a hearing before the NYRA decision was made, just as Hollendorfer never was afforded a chance to counter any case against him by The Stronach Group and Del Mar. And while Baffert's activity at Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course is limited to only a handful of starters in their primary events each season, Hollendorfer's base of operations was at Santa Anita and Golden Gate, resulting in a drastic reduction of his inventory. Hollendorfer's stable earnings went from $7.1 million in 2018 to $4.6 million in 2019 and $1.5 million in 2020.
Del Mar's 2019 attempt to justify its ban of Hollendorfer followed Santa Anita's contention that he was a lightning rod of critical public attention over equine fatalities, even though 25 other trainers had horses die in racing or training incidents that winter. The attorney representing the track stated that, "Ordering DMTC to permit Hollendorfer to train and race horses at Del Mar will lead to cries that DMTC is not doing what it can to ensure horse safety, and if a fatal injury were to occur to one of his horses, the clamor to end horse racing would be deafening."
Then two horses not trained by Hollendorfer were killed in a freak head-on collision during training hours the day after the opening of the 2019 meet. Karma is rarely delivered in such a grim, timely fashion. Terrible things can happen, and the idea that one person can shoulder the blame for institutional failure or force majeure is desperately dishonest.
Hollendorfer has remained determined to restore some semblance of the business that has been undermined by his banishment by Stronach as he approaches another scaled-back Del Mar. Over the past decade at Del Mar, Hollendorfer horses have won the Pacific Classic (G1), the Del Mar Futurity (G1), Del Mar Debutante (G1), Bing Crosby (G1), two runnings of the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1), and three versions of the John C. Mabee Stakes (G2T) with such champions as Shared Belief, Songbird, and Unique Bella. He was asked if he had any promising prospects in the stable, which elicited a mordant chuckle.
"They've pretty much wounded me on that," Hollendorfer said. "We don't really have any great prospects, but we do have some horses we like a little bit."
Hollendorfer remains in good standing with the CHRB. Since June of 2019 his stable has had one fatality at Del Mar and one at Los Alamitos. His only ruling in 2020 was for a failure to report the gelding of a starter, while in 2019 he had a $500 fine for an overage of bute and a $400 ticket for late paperwork for a lasix administration.
Along with Hollendorfer, Baffert will be front and center come opening day, July 16, at Del Mar, where he is the all-time leader in wins and towers over the next closest trainer in stakes victories.
"No matter what anyone thinks of Bob, he should get a fair hearing and get his due process," Hollendorfer said this week. "I think a lot of people have piled onto Bob and said things they ordinarily wouldn't have said if everybody else didn't pile on also."
Hollendorfer and Baffert have existed for some time at opposite ends of the celebrity spectrum, even as fellow Hall of Famers. Baffert has been a skilled manipulator of media, which is now turning against him, while the low-key Hollendorfer never used three words in an interview when one would do just fine. As a result, his case has escaped the intense scrutiny zeroing in on Baffert.
"It seems like it's a hard thing for people to stand behind somebody even if they think they've been wronged, myself as an example," Hollendorfer said. "I've had some stand-up people in what I'm going through, and I'm sure Bob has some stand-up people who've helped him, too. But for the most part I think people are scared to give their opinion."
That may be true. But here's one. The argument that racetrack managements have an inherent property right to exclude anyone whom they see fit to exclude might not hold up under the reality that tracks are licensed entities by the state, because state licensees—trainers, jockeys, owners, etc.—have the right to a hearing before a management can deprive them of their livelihood.
If a racetrack management thinks it has a case for the exclusion of a licensee, let them have the courage of their convictions and make that case in a fair and timely hearing. Making up house rules on the fly is a sure recipe for chaos—and a whole lot of billable attorney hours.
