Hollendorfer, seeking to clear his name at home, off to Churchill

In a normal spring he would be in California looking after as many as 150 horses every morning and running four or five of them in the afternoon on race days.

But normal ended nearly 11 months ago for Jerry Hollendorfer.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic struck, Hollendorfer's world was rocked by fallout from the rise in racehorse deaths last year at Santa Anita Park. After the misfortune of three equine fatalities from the barn at Santa Anita and one more at Golden Gate Fields, he was ordered by The Stronach Group to get himself and his stable out of its two California tracks.

Hollendorfer is down to about 30 horses. Instead of maintaining his routine of more than 40 years in southern California, he spent the winter in Arkansas. Now he is preparing to pick up stakes again and move at least some of his modest string nearly 600 miles from Oaklawn Park to Churchill Downs.

“I’m going to talk to the stall man today and see what day we can get in there,” Hollendorfer said in a telephone conversation Wednesday. “They don’t want to get a deluge of horses and vans coming in in the barn area at the same time. So as soon as we can get into Churchill will be the day that we go.”

So a Hall of Fame thoroughbred trainer who has spent more than half his 73 years collecting 7,651 victories and more than $200 million in earnings has become an itinerant horseman trying to work out a move in mid-May through America’s heartland.

For a man who began working as a hot walker more than 50 years ago, maybe chasing the next race wherever it may be gets him back to his roots. They weren't so complicated back then by banishment and a pandemic. Hollendorfer, however, feels a particular kinship to a racing community that faces an uncertain future because the very scheduling of the sport has been compromised by the pandemic.

“Horsepeople are the most flexible people in the world,” Hollendorfer said. “We deal with problems on a daily basis and, because of that, people have to make decisions. Most of the people on the backsides feel like they can get through this and are looking at the glass half-full instead of half-empty.”

Even though he is focused on the road from Hot Springs to Louisville, that does not mean California is completely in Hollendorfer’s rearview mirror. He still has three lawsuits in as many counties there that are crawling through the legal process. The original intent was to allow him to continue racing at Santa Anita, Golden Gate Fields and Del Mar. But Hollendorfer said there remains an overarching goal.

“I want to be made whole,” he said. “I understand that sometimes things take time, so I have been very patient in trying to deal with my problems head on. That’s the way I’ve always handled all my business.”

“The cases are all still viable,” Hollendorfer’s attorney Drew Couto said by phone Wednesday from San Diego. “The coronavirus has put a crimp in their progress, because right now with the stay-at-home (orders), most depositions are delayed, and discovery won’t pick up until mid to late summer.”

Supporters like Los Alamitos owner Dr. Ed Allred have called Hollendorfer a scapegoat. But Hollendorfer does not allow himself to be consumed with rationalizing his fate. Instead, he keeps looking forward, even if that means moving his home base again. After a three-week postponement, opening day at Churchill Downs will be May 16.

“I’m not sure how many horses we’re taking,” he said. “It’s hard to make plans when nobody is really sure what they’re going to do yet.”

Gone are the days when he was training the likes of champions Songbird and Shared Belief. But Hollendorfer is hoping that a pair of 4-year-old fillies in his care may stand out before the end of summer.

Owned by Mike Stinson and sired by Medaglia d’Oro, Sunny Dale won three in a row at Oaklawn Park before she finished fifth to Mia Mischief in the $125,000 Carousel Stakes loaded with talent.

“She actually ran very well with a lot of trouble,” Hollendorfer said. “That was like a Breeders’ Cup race for a lot less money. Just the circumstances of horses looking for a place to run.”

A black type stakes winner by Indian Evening out of a Kitten’s Joy mare, Sneaking Out finished first in an allowance race last month at Oaklawn to start her racing year for owner Kevin Nish’s KMN Racing.

“She’s a nice filly which we hope will run good over at Churchill Downs,” Hollendorfer said.

He may not have the depth of horse flesh or the strike rate that he once had. But Hollendorfer still collected 12 wins and hit the board 20 more times from 87 starts during his three months in Arkansas.

“We have to be satisfied,” he said. “We would have rather have some of the higher-end horses, but right now we don’t. What we took over there we were happy with what we did.”

Hollendorfer said that Stinson, Nish and Al Graziani are among the owners who have maintained their loyalty to him. Now he carries that loyalty with him and his horses to Kentucky, where a spokesman for Churchill Downs confirmed that Hollendorfer is not only welcome but already has stalls assigned to him.

“The only place that I have ever been denied stalls is at Golden Gate and at Santa Anita,” Hollendorfer said. “And at the beginning (of the 2019 summer meet) at Del Mar, but that was soon changed when we went to court. Other than that everybody in the past has welcomed me at their racetrack.”

He said that he might test the waters this summer with the New York Racing Association, which flip-flopped on allowing him to race last year at Saratoga. That forced him to enter his horses in the name of former assistant Don Chatlos Jr.

“A lot of what happens in the future depends on how New York can do and how California can do and get back open,” he said. “Monmouth Park, too. There are a lot of places that if they open back up, that will change the scene in all the different places.”

But no matter where Hollendorfer goes this summer, ultimately Couto said that the goal is to return to California.

“This has been his home for over 40 years,” Couto said. “He built a Hall of Fame career here. At the end of the day Jerry loves training horses, and he loves the people he worked with here. It’s more than work. It’s more than business. It’s family. He wants to come back to California to race.”

But for now Hollendorfer is putting one foot in front of the other 1,400 miles away as he prepares to move himself and his way of life another eight hours up another road. When asked if he felt like his patience was being maxed out by circumstances beyond his control, Hollendorfer said quite the opposite.

“If you are not one of the people that is dealing with being sick, and you can still walk around and do some business, then you are better off than a lot of people,” he said. “Instead of worrying about what’s happening, you should be grateful that you can do what you do.”

Ron Flatter has covered horse racing around the world for more than 30 years. Currently based in Nevada and working for the Vegas Stats & Information Network, he is host of the weekly Ron Flatter Racing Pod and on Twitter @ronflatter.