Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has relinquished control of his 29-horse stable at Monmouth Park to his longtime assistant, Dan Ward, but said he plans to continue training a smaller stable in California. The plan, which went into effect on Saturday, was first announced by Monmouth Park in a statement. Hollendorfer, 77, is based for most of the year at Los Alamitos in Orange County, Calif., and said on Saturday that he plans to have a small stable based at Del Mar for the track’s summer meeting from July 21 to Sept. 10. Ward, 64, has been an assistant to Hollendorfer since 2007. The two men had discussed the plan for Ward to form his own stable with Hollendorfer’s runners “for quite a while,” Hollendorfer said on Saturday. :: Take your handicapping to the next level and play with FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic.  “I expect Dan to be very successful and he’s earned the right to be on his own,” Hollendorfer said. “Dan has worked for me for quite a long time.” The arrangement comes four years after Hollendorfer was ordered to vacate 46 stalls at Santa Anita after four horses in his care were euthanized as a result of injuries sustained during racing or training in the early months of that year. At the time, Santa Anita was under international scrutiny for a series of fatal injuries in racing or training sustained by several stables. The injuries led to widespread changes of regulatory policies regarding enhanced safety and veterinary oversight of horses entered to race or undergo workouts. In June of 2022, Hollendorfer and 1/ST Racing, the parent company of California tracks Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita, reached a confidential settlement in a lawsuit Hollendorfer filed pertaining to the company’s summary banishment of his stable from Santa Anita. In California, Hollendorfer has raced only at Del Mar and Los Alamitos since the summer of 2019. Ward was the trainer of record for some of the stable’s runners at Del Mar and Santa Anita in the second half of 2019 and early 2020, including Vasilika who finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita in November 2019. Following his expulsion from Santa Anita, Hollendorfer rearranged his stable to race at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas in the early months of the year and Monmouth Park in New Jersey in the summer and early fall. Ward oversaw the day-to-day care of those stables. Since the beginning of 2020, Hollendorfer has won 41 races at Oaklawn and 67 races at Monmouth through Friday. The stable has ranked as high as ninth in the trainer’s standings at Oaklawn in recent years and as high as third at Monmouth Park. At the current Monmouth Park meeting, Hollendorfer has won with 6 of 30 runners. Ward, a California native, spent 22 years with the Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel before joining Hollendorfer’s team. “It’s been a great experience with a lot of good horses,” he said on Saturday morning from New Jersey. Hollendorfer “gave me the opportunity to establish ourselves at Arkansas and Monmouth. “I found two places I like [to race] as well. “I could have gone on my own a long time ago with a couple of horses. I was hoping he would trust me with the business when he was ready.” Hollendorfer said he plans to have 12 horses at Del Mar this summer. “I plan to keep training and have some stalls at Del Mar and try to run down there as much as I can,” he said. “I have a couple of horses I quite like. “I want to keep busy and I’m doing that.” By focusing on California racing, Hollendorfer will also be closer to family in the Bay Area. Through Friday, Hollendorfer has won 7,768 races since his career began in 1979. He won a career-best 308 races in 2004 and had more than 200 winners annually from 1997 to 2015. Last year, Hollendorfer won 47 races with 263 starters. Hollendorfer is third-leading all-time trainer by wins in North America through Friday with 3,768 wins, trailing the active Steve Asmussen (10,177) and the late Dale Baird (9,445). :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.