Jerry Hollendorfer, barred from racing or coaching at tracks owned by The Stronach Group after the coach had a collection of equine fatalities at TSG-owned tracks Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields in early 2019, has filed a movement for a preliminary injunction in an ongoing lawsuit with TSG. A listening to is scheduled for Nov. 19 in Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom.
Thoroughbred Day by day Information first reported Hollendorfer’s movement submitting, which got here in late September.
Beforehand in October 2019, a Los Angeles decide denied the Corridor of Fame coach’s try for a short lived restraining order that would have allowed him to race at Santa Anita Park whereas litigation performed out. That motion adopted the coach successful an injunction that summer season that allowed him to take part at Del Mar, which initially adopted go well with from Santa Anita and barred him. Later, he was denied a short lived restraining order by an Alameda County decide in September 2019 that will have allowed him to run at Golden Gate.
The coach and TSG have been at odds since June 2019 when it excluded him after the demise of American Foreign money, one among 4 horses he educated that had a catastrophic harm at Santa Anita that winter and spring. That fatality was one among 30 equine deaths in the course of the winter/spring assembly that led to the observe’s closure by way of a portion of March, widespread media consideration, and political stress from authorities and regulatory officers.
There aren’t any CHRB rulings towards Hollendorfer that stop him from coaching. He has continued to race at Del Mar and Los Alamitos Race Course in California. This yr, he additionally raced at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas and quite a few tracks within the northeast. After having no fewer than 900 starters per yr from 2001-2018, he had 212 runners in 2020 and has run 208 this yr.
Each events have filed quite a few briefs and declarations upfront of the listening to.
In a single, Hollendorfer, represented by lawyer Drew Couto, wrote that after he was excluded from Santa Anita and Golden Gate, “I had little to no choices aside from to promote or switch quite a few horses hurriedly to companions and others, typically at lower than honest market worth. I used to be additionally pressured to downsize and reorganize my enterprise operations, letting go of dozens of longtime staff.”
Hollendorfer, 75, indicated in his declaration that he at present has roughly 38 horses in his barn, down from about 120 he educated earlier than his TSG banishment. He needs to run horses at Santa Anita in the course of the winter/spring meet that begins Dec. 26.
He argues that over the previous 10 years, his price of equine fatality per starter is decrease than different trainers permitted to race and steady at Santa Anita. He additional claims that he was banned with out “any prior discover from them to me, dialogue, identification of its factual foundation, function, rationale, or invitation to defend myself.”
In authorized paperwork, attorneys for TSG write that their motion was warranted, claiming Hollendorfer was provided two alternatives to current his facet to them, one in June 2019 and one other when represented by counsel that September. TSG additional claims Hollendorfer began a horse that was unfit for racing and that California Horse Racing Board rule 1989 (b) permits that any particular person “could also be eliminated or denied entry for any motive deemed acceptable by the affiliation, honest or simulcast facility, however the truth that such motive will not be specified within the guidelines.”
