Del Mar asks court to reject Hollendorfer restraining order

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club is a private company that has the right to exclude individuals from its premises, the track’s attorney has argued in asking a court to reject a temporary restraining order sought by the banned trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

The filing, made by attorney J. Christopher Jaczko, who is representing Del Mar, outlines Del Mar’s legal objections to the request for the temporary restraining order, which was filed by attorneys representing Hollendorfer and the California Thoroughbred Trainers last week. The judge in the case has scheduled a second hearing on the request for Friday, after initially saying late last week that he needed more time to study the issues involved in the matter.

The filing’s main legal points are that the track has the right to ban individuals from its premises, and that racing horses at a specific track is a privilege, not a right.

“Plaintiffs entire claim is based on the false premise that Hollendorfer has a right to participate as a trainer of horses racing at Del Mar,” the filing says.

In general terms, the Del Mar filing states that the track was within its legal bounds when it rejected a stall application from Hollendorfer and subsequently banned the trainer from entering horses at the track. And it specifically challenges an assertion by attorneys for Hollendorfer and the CTT that an agreement between Del Mar and the trainers’ organization required the track to agree to arbitration over its refusal to approve Hollendorfer’s stall application.

“The provisions of the Race Meet agreement relied upon by plaintiffs only apply to claims arising out of DMTC’s refusal to allocate stalls to a trainer by discriminatory conduct based on Hollendorfer’s membership in CTT or based on some other ‘arbitrary and capricious’ grounds for classifying a group of people,” the legal filing states.

Del Mar officials have not publicly explained their reasoning behind banning Hollendorfer, although people involved in the dispute have characterized the track as saying that Hollendorfer was banned because of concern over the safety of his horses. Six horses trained by Hollendorfer have died at California tracks since the start of the Santa Anita meet late last year, a record that was cited by Santa Anita management when it banned the trainer for the remainder of its meet on June 22.

Hollendorfer is a member of racing’s Hall of Fame, and prior to this year had been granted stalls at Del Mar for the past 30 years.

The Del Mar filing expresses the track’s concern over public perception in no uncertain terms, saying racing in California is “in the midst of an existential crisis” due to criticism of the industry over the spate of deaths at Santa Anita earlier this year. Thirty horses died while either racing or training during the track’s six-month meet. Four were trained by Hollendorfer.

“Ordering DMTC to permit Hollendorfer to train and race horses at Del Mar will lead to cries that DMTC is not doing all it can to ensure horse safety, and if a fatal injury were to occur to one of his horses, the clamor to end horse racing would be deafening and undermine the industry’s efforts to address concerns about safety,” the filing states, noting that various political figures and animal-rights organizations in the state have called for a ban on racing.

The filing also rejects Hollendorfer’s claim that Del Mar is illegally depriving him of his livelihood.

“During the next eight weeks that Del Mar’s race meet is ongoing, Hollendorfer has other options at which to train and race his horses,” the filing states. “There are race meets ongoing during that time at the race tracks at Cal Expo, Santa Rosa, and Ferndale just in California alone. Thus, the prejudice to Hollendorfer of not being able to participate in Del Mar’s race meet is minimal and is outweighed by the prejudice to DMTC if it is ordered to permit him to do so.”