Hollendorfer will be permitted to race, train at NYRA tracks

ELMONT, N.Y. – Jerry Hollendorfer, the Hall of Fame trainer who was banned from training and racing his horses at tracks owned by the Stronach Group – including Santa Anita and Golden Gate where he was based – will be permitted to race and train at New York Racing Association tracks, the company said in a statement on Sunday.

"Mr. Hollendorfer is currently utilizing stall space at Belmont Park and was approved for stalls at Saratoga Race Course for the 2019 summer meet,” NYRA’s Pat McKenna, director of communications, wrote in an e-mail. “NYRA will honor those agreements and he will be permitted to stable and enter horses at both Belmont and Saratoga."

On Saturday, Hollendorfer had a horse sustain a fatal breakdown during a workout at Santa Anita. It was the fourth horse he trained that sustained a fatal breakdown since the meet opened Dec. 26. There have been 30 racing- or training-related fatalities at Santa Anita and management has been under scrutiny from state officials as well as animal rights activists for months and elected to bar Hollendorfer from racing or training his horses at Stronach-owned tracks.

About a month ago, Hollendorfer shipped in a handful of horses to Belmont. Under the care of Don Chatlos, a former trainer who has worked as an assistant for Hollendorfer for several years, Hollendorfer has six horses currently stabled at Belmont. He was allotted 16 stalls, with the idea of him sending in several horses he purchased at 2-year-old sales.

Rowayton, a 3-year-old, won an allowance race here on June 6. On Sunday, Rowayton worked five furlongs in 59.09 seconds over the Belmont training track in preparation for the Grade 2 Dwyer Stakes here on July 6.

Rowayton worked in company with the 3-year-old filly Brill, who was entered Sunday for an allowance race for Friday but the race did not fill. Cardiff Cay, an unraced 3-year-old filly, and a pair of unnamed 2-year-olds also worked for Hollendorfer at Belmont on Sunday without incident.

Chatlos said Hollendorfer told him "You just worry about what you got over there ... do your job."

Two weeks ago, Kanthaka, another horse Hollendorfer had shipped in, came out of a workout on the Belmont turf course with an issue that kept him out of the Grade 3 Poker Stakes and has him sidelined for 60 days.