Hollendorfer not slowing down after milestone win

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s first objective after winning the 7,000th race of his career was to find more winners.

The milestone win occurred with Kiss N Scat in the first race Thursday at Golden Gate Fields. Hollendorfer had runners at Golden Gate Fields and Del Mar throughout the weekend, including four horses entered Sunday at Del Mar, closing day of the autumn meeting.

On Friday, Hollendorfer said he likely would have three runners Sunday at Del Mar because he was likely to scratch the 2-year-old maiden Lord Walton from the seventh race in favor of a start at the Los Alamitos winter meeting, which begins Thursday.

One of Hollendorfer’s best chances Sunday will be Nahem, who runs in an optional claimer at 1 3/8 miles on turf in the fourth race. Nahem was third in his last two starts.

Hollendorfer, 69, became the third trainer to win 7,000 races in his career, joining the late Dale Baird and Steve Asmussen, who has a stable based primarily in the Midwest.

Hollendorfer took a low-key approach to the milestone. There was no lavish Thanksgiving evening celebration, he said, but he was at his barn at Los Alamitos early Friday before a late-morning drive to Del Mar for the afternoon races.

“We got that number because we worked a lot of years at it,” he said. “We consider ourselves very fortunate and very grateful to have won that many races.”

There is much to look forward to for the stable. Songbird, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland on Oct. 31, is scheduled to return to Hollendorfer’s stable at Santa Anita on Thursday to prepare for the 2016 season.

Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, is in steady training at Golden Gate Fields for a 2016 campaign.

“We’ve been discussing breezing him pretty soon,” said Hollendorfer. “I’m going to be real conservative.”