Horse trainer Jerry Hollendorfer fights ban in court after spate of deaths

SAN DIEGO – Hall of Fame horse racing trainer Jerry Hollendorfer walked out of a courtroom here Thursday stuck in a state of limbo.

After four of his horses fatally broke down at the recent meet at Santa Anita Park, Hollendorfer has been banned by three racing organizations since late June, including the owner of Santa Anita in Southern California and even the New York Racing Association.

His attorney says he’s become a “scapegoat” for the fatality crisis that has consumed the sport of kings in California. But now he’s fighting back.   

Jerry Hollendorfer, shown in 2012, has been a horse racing trainer for more than 30 years. (Photo: Bill Luster, Special to The Courier-Journal, Bill Luster, copyright 2012)

“I don’t think anybody’s ever seen anything like this case before,” Hollendorfer told USA TODAY Sports.

He and his attorney came to court to contest a ban this time by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, whose annual summer meet started Wednesday, just a few weeks after Santa Anita finished its spring-winter season with 30 dead horses in racing or training.

On June 28, just days after Closing Day at Santa Anita, the Del Mar track operator told him it likely couldn’t assign him stalls for its meet as a result of “PR risks and considerations,” according to the complaint the trainer filed against Del Mar this week in San Diego County Superior Court. Hollendorfer, 73, also had two horse deaths recently at Golden Gate Fields in Northern California and was the only trainer with more than two fatalities among the 30 dead at Santa Anita.

HOLLENDORFER’S HORSE: This horse was one of 23 who died at Santa Anita

‘WE BURY OUR HEADS:’ Horsemen prefer dirt tracks even though they lead to more fatalities

In his effort to fight the ban at Del Mar, his attorney has argued that Del Mar’s decision to lock him out was “arbitrary and capricious” and that he wasn’t given a proper hearing. He sought a temporary restraining order in court here Thursday against Del Mar to give him stall space at the track.

It didn’t work – at least not yet. Judge Ronald Frazier said he needed more time to review the voluminous briefings in the case from both sides and put a decision off at least until the next court date here on July 26.

“These are not garden-variety issues,” Frazier said in court. “So from the court’s perspective, I am reluctant to make a rash decision.”

That means Holldendorfer will wait a little longer to find out whether his 40-year career might be all but over. Del Mar declined comment on the matter.

Hollendorfer’s complaint against Del Mar notes that he is the third-most winning trainer in U.S. racing history, with wins in more than 7,600 races out of more than 33,000 starts. His attorney blames mismanagement at Santa Anita for the death crisis and describes his client’s death toll as an anomaly.

“I see this as anomaly, and I see it as a convenient way to scapegoat somebody by TSG to avoid their own responsibility,” attorney Drew Couto said outside of court, referring to The Stronach Group, owner of the Santa Anita track.

Couto blames The Stronach Group for its pressure “on horsemen to run more horses more often.”

In the previous two years at Santa Anita, Couto said Hollendorfer had one racing fatality out of more than 570 starts. In the racing business, Hollendorfer is considered an “old-school” trainer who arrives at his barn every morning at 3:30 to look after his horses. But Couto noted that the term “old-school” these days might be considered a flaw in a new cultural climate.

Race horse deaths fluctuate year by year, sometimes with spikes that attract news media attention, but not quite like this.

In 2006, Del Mar had its own public relations crisis with 26 horse deaths, including fatalities in training – which led to much of the same hand-wringing over what was causing it. Was it the breeding, the drugs or the racing surface?

There was no clear way to tell, but the deaths decreased at Del Mar after that until it went up to 23 in 2016, including 12 fatal breakdowns in racing that year. That was the highest rate of racing fatalities for Del Mar over a 10-year span – 3.01 deaths per 1,000 starts, according to the Equine Injury Database, which only measures deaths in racing, not training. Last year, Del Mar only had three racing deaths, translating into a rate of 0.79 deaths per 1,000 starts, the lowest death rate among major tracks nationally.

But none of that mattered on Thursday when two horses died after colliding during training at Del Mar on just the second day of its summer meet.

“Sometimes freak accidents occur that are beyond anyone’s ability to control,” trainer Bob Baffert said in a statement about it.

The national rate for deaths in racing in 2018 was 1.68, according to the Equine Injury Database, which also does not include training deaths at tracks.  By comparison, Santa Anita’s racing death rate for the recent meet was 3.17. In the previous 10 years, its highest death rate came in 2011, when it wasn’t much worse there – at 2.94.

A big difference now is a changing culture and greater awareness, which has increased scrutiny on the sport. This wasn’t even the first time Hollendorfer was fighting for his reputation in a San Diego court case after another horse death on his watch, in this case at Del Mar in 1998. Unlike now, back then he wasn’t banned for it, and the lawsuit barely got any attention.

Back then, the owner of a thoroughbred named Beau Jingles sued Hollendorfer and a veterinarian he worked with, accusing them of negligence after the horse died of terminal shock after a race at Del Mar. The veterinarian said Hollendorfer ordered her to inject the horse with iron dextran to help it recover from a race, but the horse had an allergic reaction to it and died, according to court documents of the case obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

Hollendorfer reached an undisclosed settlement with the owner in July 1999. Then in 2000, a jury cleared the vet of negligence after she claimed in court documents that the medical treatments were routinely performed by those practicing racehorse care and treatment.

Hollendorfer’s complaint against Del Mar was joined by the California Thoroughbred Trainers, an organizations representing licensed trainers in the state. The complaint notes that “Hollendorfer does not engage in practices considered by many to represent equine health and safety risks.”

After court Thursday, Hollendorfer said he was grateful the judge will take more time to review his case instead of making a hasty decision.

Asked what he would do if the judge rules against him and upholds the Del Mar ban, Hollendorfer said he didn’t know.

“When I come to that point, then I’ll make that decision,” he said.

Follow sports reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. E-mail: [email protected]

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.