Judge Orders Hollendorfer Suit Against CHRB Dismissed

A lawsuit brought in San Diego by trainer Jerry Hollendorfer against the California Horse Racing Board will be dismissed in its entirety with no option to pursue additional claims, according to a court ruling.

The suit was filed in 2020 after Hollendorfer was expelled from stabling and racing at Del Mar the prior year following the deaths of multiple horses in his care in California. Judge Ronald F. Frazier's order, dated June 2, was made public on San Diego Superior Court's online docket late June 5.

The order dismisses what it called Hollendorfer's third cause of action against CHRB, which alleged CHRB violated a certain mandatory statutory duty to protect against the risk of injury, causing Hollendorfer harm. Frazier ruled Hollendorfer failed to adequately allege the existence of any such duty as to CHRB.

Frazier's order bars Hollendorfer from amending the lawsuit to assert further claims against CHRB about his Del Mar expulsion.

Frazier had already denied two other claims alleged by Hollendorfer. According to the June 2 order, the judge previously ruled that Hollendorfer was not entitled to a hearing before CHRB under the California Business and Professions Code when he was denied stall space at Del Mar in 2019; and that the trainer lacked standing to sue CHRB after it declined to find Del Mar violated a race meet agreement.

A separate suit filed in 2019 by Hollendorfer and California Thoroughbred Trainers against Del Mar Thoroughbred Club remains pending. The filing of that case quickly led to Frazier entering a temporary restraining order allowing the trainer to race at Del Mar following his expulsion.

The ultimate outcome of that dispute is yet to be determined. Del Mar filed court papers asking for summary judgment against the plaintiffs; a hearing is scheduled Aug. 8 before Frazier. Any issues that survive the hearing are set for trial by jury in September. Among other remedies, Hollendorfer is seeking monetary damages.

Hollendorfer, soon to be 77, was inducted in the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in 2011. Once a formidable national presence in racing, the impact of his stable and its stars have diminished considerably over the past few years.

According to Equibase records, in 2018 Hollendorfer had 951 starters and $7,191,756 in purse earnings. His legal troubles began July 2019. In 2020 his stable produced 212 starters that generated earnings of $1,541,411, and last year his trainees raced 263 times, producing $2,281,979 in purses. From 2007 through 2018, Hollendorfer averaged 159.5 stakes starters per year. From 2020 through 2022, he had a total of 52, or 17 per year on average.

Although Frazier's temporary order allowed Hollendorfer back into Del Mar almost immediately, he's had relatively few starters there in recent years, according to Equibase: 15 of them in 2020, 17 in 2021, and 19 in 2022. He had one winner at Del Mar each of those years.

This year, Hollendorfer has raced only at Oaklawn Park and Monmouth Park. Del Mar's summer meet kicks off July 21.

The lawsuit against Del Mar has been pending 1,422 days.