Hollendorfer Pursues Injunction to Race at Santa Anita

Jerry Hollendorfer, barred from racing or training at tracks owned by The Stronach Group after the trainer had a series of equine fatalities at TSG-owned tracks Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields in early 2019, has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in an ongoing lawsuit with TSG. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Thoroughbred Daily News first reported Hollendorfer's motion filing, which came in late September.

Previously in October 2019, a Los Angeles judge denied the Hall of Fame trainer's attempt for a temporary restraining order that could have allowed him to race at Santa Anita Park while litigation played out. That action followed the trainer winning an injunction that summer that allowed him to participate at Del Mar, which initially followed suit from Santa Anita and barred him. Later, he was denied a temporary restraining order by an Alameda County judge in September 2019 that would have allowed him to run at Golden Gate.

The trainer and TSG have been at odds since June 2019 when it excluded him after the death of American Currency, one of four horses he trained that had a catastrophic injury at Santa Anita that winter and spring. That fatality was one of 30 equine deaths during the winter/spring meeting that led to the track's closure through a portion of March, widespread media attention, and political pressure from government and regulatory officials.

There are no CHRB rulings against Hollendorfer that prevent him from training. He has continued to race at Del Mar and Los Alamitos Race Course in California. This year, he also raced at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas and numerous tracks in the Northeast. After having no fewer than 900 starters per year from 2001-2018, he had 212 runners in 2020 and has run 208 this year.

Both parties have filed numerous briefs and declarations in advance of the hearing.

In one, Hollendorfer, represented by attorney Drew Couto, wrote that after he was excluded from Santa Anita and Golden Gate, "I had little to no options other than to sell or transfer numerous horses hurriedly to partners and others, often at less than fair market value. I was also forced to downsize and reorganize my business operations, letting go of dozens of longtime employees."

Hollendorfer, 75, indicated in his declaration that he currently has approximately 38 horses in his barn, down from about 120 he trained before his TSG banishment. He wishes to run horses at Santa Anita during the winter/spring meet that begins Dec. 26.

He argues that over the past 10 years, his rate of equine fatality per starter is lower than other trainers permitted to race and stable at Santa Anita. He further claims that he was banned without "any prior notice from them to me, discussion, identification of its factual basis, purpose, rationale, or invitation to defend myself." 

In legal documents, attorneys for TSG write that their action was warranted, claiming Hollendorfer was offered two opportunities to present his side to them, one in June 2019 and another when represented by counsel that September. TSG further claims Hollendorfer started a horse that was unfit for racing and that California Horse Racing Board rule 1989 (b) allows that any person "may be removed or denied access for any reason deemed appropriate by the association, fair or simulcast facility, notwithstanding the fact that such reason is not specified in the rules."