Breeders' Cup will not allow Hollendorfer to run horses

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer will not be allowed to enter horses at this year’s Breeders’ Cup, the Breeders’ Cup announced on Friday, with the organization in a statement saying it would honor a house rule at Santa Anita that denies Hollendorfer being able to run horses at the site of this year’s Breeders’ Cup.

The Breeders’ Cup will be held on Nov. 1-2 at Santa Anita, a track owned by The Stronach Group, which since late June has barred Hollendorfer from racing and training at its facilities, including Golden Gate Fields.

“Breeders’ Cup leads by example in the conduct of Thoroughbred racing at the highest levels of safety and integrity for its athletes,” the statement said “We have partnered with Santa Anita to implement extensive reforms related to medication practices, testing protocols, veterinary exams, injury management, onsite requirements and racing surface testing in preparation for the 2019 World Championships. Earlier this year, the Stronach Group made the decision to prohibit Jerry Hollendorfer from participating at all TSG-owned tracks, including Santa Anita. As announced by the Chairman of the Board, Fred Hertrich, and consistent with Santa Anita’s position as host of this year’s World Championships, we will honor their house rule and Jerry Hollendorfer will not be permitted to enter horses at this year’s event.”

The Breeders’ Cup takes over facilities when it runs events, so it could have permitted Hollendorfer to run irrespective of Santa Anita’s position.

Craig Fravel, the current chief executive of the Breeders’ Cup, is taking over as the chief executive officer of racing operations for The Stronach Group after this year’s Breeders’ Cup. A Breeders’ Cup board member who asked not be identified earlier said Fravel was going to recuse himself from this decision.

Hollendorfer has two horses who were certain for this year’s Breeders’ Cup in Vasilika, who is being aimed for the Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 2 and is owned in part by Hollendorfer, and Danuska's My Girl for the Filly and Mare Sprint.

Hollendorfer has horses in training at Los Alamitos, and during the current Santa Anita meeting his few runners have competed under the name of his longtime local assistant, Dan Ward. There is the possibility that Vasilika and Danuska's My Girl could compete in the Breeders’ Cup if trained by Ward. In the case of Vasilika, for that to happen Hollendorfer would have to sell his share in Vasilika, as trainers who are licensed in California and also are owners cannot have a horse they own run for another trainer.

Earlier this month, owing to the situation at Santa Anita, Vasilika was sent to Keeneland to compete in the First Lady and raced under Hollendorfer’s name. Keeneland is the host site of next year’s Breeders’ Cup.

“This is a shock,” Hollendorfer’s attorney, Drew Couto, said Friday. “We’ll have to see what our choices are.”

Hollendorfer was barred from racing or training at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields on June 22 after a training fatality of one of his horses at Santa Anita. That horse was the fourth of Hollendorfer’s to suffer a catastrophic injury at Santa Anita since the beginning of its main winter meeting on Dec. 26.

After a spate of fatalities in February and March during wet weather that included Hollendorfer-trained Battle of Midway, Santa Anita suspended racing and instituted new protocols for racing and training. Two of Hollendorfer’s horses perished after those protocols were put in place, one in racing, one in training.

The horse who was injured in a race was approved to run and was subject to pre-race veterinary inspections, all of which he passed. Similarly, the horse of Hollendorfer’s who suffered the training fatality was approved by the track to work out per a policy that mandated workouts be okayed in advance by the track.

"So far nobody has been able to explain what rules were broken," Hollendorfer said Friday afternoon. "Wherever I've raced, I've always followed the rules."

After Hollendorfer and his horses left Santa Anita, he relocated to Los Alamitos and raced without incident there in July. Del Mar tried to stop Hollendorfer from running there, but Hollendorfer two weeks into that summer meeting received an injunction and raced there the rest of the meet, without incident. He raced at the Los Alamitos fall meeting without incident, and at the summer fairs in Northern California without incident, too. But he is still barred from Santa Anita and Golden Gate, and attempts to get injunctions against those tracks were recently denied, with the Santa Anita denial happening on Wednesday.

Hollendorfer has no rulings against him by the state’s governing body, the California Horse Racing Board.