Hollendorfer, 1/ST Racing reach confidential agreement

The parent company of Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields has reached a confidential settlement agreement with Jerry Hollendorfer in a lawsuit the Hall of Fame trainer filed against the company after it banned him from the tracks in 2019, officials said on Friday.

Drew Couto, Hollendorfer’s attorney, said that the terms of the settlement do not allow him to comment on the agreement, including whether Hollendorfer will now be allowed to enter horses at the two tracks.

“I cannot make any comment on any aspect of the settlement,” Couto said. “Those are the terms of the agreement.”

Hollendorfer was banned by the parent company of the tracks, 1/ST, after a spate of breakdowns at Santa Anita brought intense scrutiny to the track, its officials, and horse racing in general. At the time of the ban, in June of that year, the company said that Hollendorfer had four horses suffer fatal breakdowns at Santa Anita and Golden Gate during the previous six months.

Hollendorfer had claimed in his lawsuit that the ban violated his due-process rights. He had twice sought injunctions preventing 1/ST from enforcing the bans pending the resolution of his civil suit, but judges in Southern California and Northern California denied the requests.

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It typically takes a month for a court to formally sanction a settlement agreement, so Hollendorfer would not be able enter any horses until mid-July if the agreement allows him back on the tracks.

Hollendorfer, who ranks third all-time for number of wins in the U.S. with 7,726, is based now at Los Alamitos in Southern California, with a small stable. During 2018, the year prior to the ban, Hollendorfer won 176 races from 951 starts. Last year, he had 35 wins from 232 starts. He is 19 for 113 this season.