Hollendorfer banned from Santa Anita, Golden Gate after horse sustains fatal injury

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer was ordered to vacate his 46 stalls on the Santa Anita backstretch within 72 hours by track management on Saturday, hours after the stable’s American Currency suffered a fatal injury in a workout, Hollendorfer said.

American Currency sustained a fetlock injury on the infield training track and could not be saved. American Currency was the fourth horse trained by Hollendorfer to be euthanized as a result of an injury in a race or during training, and the 30th overall for all stables, since the meeting began Dec. 26.

The fatalities have led to widespread pressure by congressional and Senate representatives from California as well as Gov. Gavin Newsom for greater oversight into the care of horses. The fatalities have led track and California Horse Racing Board officials to implement several prerace examinations of horses entered to race or scheduled to have workouts.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein has called for a cessation of racing on three occasions since early April for full inspections of training and racetrack conditions.

Hollendorfer said he was informed by track management to leave his stalls at Santa Anita and at Golden Gate Fields. Both tracks are owned by The Stronach Group. Hollendorfer said he was working on the details of leaving Santa Anita on Saturday afternoon.

“I’m trying to work out a plan now,” Hollendorfer said in a telephone interview. “The only thing I have to say is every time anyone loses a horse, the whole backstretch loses. That’s the way everyone feels.

“I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years, and I’ve started more than 33,500 horses that have been under my care in my career. I haven’t, in my opinion, had that many problems.

“I’ve never been suspended or anything like that. I have a lot of employees that I want to take care of and who have families that depend me.

“I’m training over 100 horses right now. Santa Anita didn’t want me stay on the grounds. My opinion was that was a premature thing to do. I thought it was extreme. Now I have to step away for a while.”

Hollendorfer’s horses entered at Santa Anita on Saturday and Sunday were scratched by a panel of stewards and veterinarians that has been reviewing race and veterinary records of all horses entered to race in the last two weeks.

The horses were scratched “out of an abundance of caution until we can evaluate the stable,” according to Rick Arthur, California equine medical director, who is part of the panel. The scratched horses included Sneaking Out, the 4-5 favorite on the morning line of Sunday’s $200,000 Melair Stakes for 3-year-old California-bred fillies.

It was not clear how Santa Anita’s decision will affect Hollendorfer’s ability to race at the Del Mar season, which begins July 17. Del Mar officials declined to comment on the situation Saturday.

Hollendorfer is one of racing’s all-time leading trainers and has been a fixture at the top of California racing in the last few decades, notably in Northern California. In the last 15 years, his stable has risen in prominence in Southern California.

Hollendorfer, 73, has won 7,617 races in a career that began in 1979. This year, his stable has won 65 races, including four stakes with the turf mare Vasilika, the leading runner in the barn. Through Friday, Hollendorfer was tied for eighth in the trainers' standings at the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting with eight wins.

Hollendorfer was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011. He won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar in 2017 with Battle of Midway, who suffered a fatal injury in a workout at Santa Anita in February. He trained the champion fillies Blind Luck, Songbird, and Unique Bella and won the 2014 Pacific Classic with Shared Belief.