Jerry Hollendorfer

Prominent owner and pioneering human heart surgeon Mark DeDomenico passed away Saturday aged 87, leaving behind a storied legacy in human and equine health. "The first thing he taught me when I went to work for him was that the word 'can't' isn't in the vocabulary," said Mike Puhich, trainer and director of horse operations at the Pegasus Training and Rehabilitation Center in Redmond, Washington, owned by DeDomenico. "He'd say 'I want this, this, and this.' And I'd say, 'Doctor Mark, I can't do that.' And he'd say, 'I know,...

Blind Luck (Pollard's Vision--Lucky One, by Best of Luck), champion 3-year-old filly of 2010 and a finalist for the Eclipse Award during her freshman campaign, passed away in April in Japan two days after foaling a colt by Kitasan Black (Jpn), according to Japanese studbook records. Bred in Kentucky by Bill and Terry Baker's Fairlawn Farm, the chestnut filly with a white blaze was consigned by that operation to the 2008 Fasig-Tipton July Sale, where she was hammered down to Juvenal Diaz's Omega Farm for $11,000 and was bought back...

Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer and the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (DMTC) have reached an agreement in a lawsuit stemming from events during the summer of 2019 when the track temporarily barred the trainer from its grounds, according to a notice of settlement recently filed in the San Diego Superior Court. The notice included no specifics. "The terms of the settlement are to remain confidential," explained Hollendorfer's attorney, Drew Couto. DMTC president, Josh Rubinstein, confirmed the settlement in an emailed statement. "The resolution of this litigation does not reflect the...

Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, scaling back his operations to California only, has transferred 29 of his horses at Monmouth Park to long-time assistant Dan Ward effective Saturday, according to a press release from Monmouth Park. Ward has overseen Hollendorfer's division at Monmouth Park and Oaklawn Park for the past four years. "I just want to concentrate on what I'm doing here in California," said Hollendorfer. "Dan and I have discussed for a while that he wanted a chance to go out on his own. Now seems like a...

The opening months of 2019 were still fresh in California lawmakers' minds when they passed a bill that summer giving the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) emergency authority to suspend racing at a track without the hitherto required 10-day public notice period. The precipitating event, of course, was the spate of equine fatalities that had covered Santa Anita, and the racing industry in general, under a pall of public condemnation--the exact same kind of scrutiny Churchill Downs has faced these past few weeks, culminating with the announced switch of racing...

The Superior Court of San Diego judge hearing the case between trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) has denied both writs of mandate filed by the trainer. The two writs constituted a twisty legal knot essentially surrounding which entity--the tracks or the agency regulating California's racing industry--had the ultimate jurisdiction to bar the trainer from licensed premises in the state, a hearing for which was held on Oct. 8. According to Hollendorfer's attorney, Drew Couto, both decisions are appealable, "and those decisions are under consideration." The...

The legal threads connecting the rights of licensees to ply their trade and racetrack owners to police their grounds have been pulled tighter than a rip cord these past few years, thanks to a series of high-profile battles involving Hall of Famers Jerry Hollendorfer and Bob Baffert. These same threads hamstrung the years-long dispute between California's trainers and racetracks about what should be written into the race-meet agreement about fair procedures for trainers facing potential banishment from a facility. It all boils down to this: How best to balance the...

The legal fallout from The Stronach Group's (TSG) decision to ban trainer Jerry Hollendorfer from its facilities in June of 2019 moved onto the San Diego County Superior Court earlier this month, with a hearing in the case between the trainer and the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB). The hearing Oct. 8 concerned two writs of mandate that Hollendorfer filed against the CHRB constituting an oftentimes complicated and convoluted legal knot essentially surrounding which entity--the tracks or the state agency--have the ultimate jurisdiction to bar the trainer from participating in...

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and The Stronach Group (TSG)-controlled subsidiary owners of Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields have reached a settlement in the legal disputes that have been ongoing since 2019, according to notice of settlement court filings dated Wednesday. The details of the settlement were not disclosed in the notices, however. It's currently unknown, therefore, if the terms include any remuneration, for example. It's similarly unknown if the settlement terms open the door to the possibility of Hollendorfer once again training and racing at TSG-owned facilities. TDN reached out...

4th-Monmouth, $56,925, Msw, 6-4, 3yo/up, 6f, 1:10.94, ft, 4 1/4 lengths. PASS AND STOW (c, 3, Medaglia d'Oro--Paola Queen {GISW, $431,490}, by Flatter) was hammered down to 3-2 favoritism for this unveiling and ran to the money with an impressive debut score. Away alertly from his rail draw, the Don Alberto homebred seized the early advantage, dueling through a :22.86 opening quarter and :46.18 half-mile. Opening up on his foes turning for home, the bay strode clear with ease down the lane to graduate by 4 1/4 lengths. Peter Brant's...

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has lost the first phase of his legal tussle against the Los Angeles Turf Club and The Stronach Group (TSG) controlled subsidiary owners of Santa Anita Park, according to a ruling filed Apr. 29 in the Los Angeles County Superior Court of California. The bifurcated non-jury trial, conducted between Apr. 4 and Apr. 6 this year, focused on a single declaratory relief cause of action, encompassing the proper legal interpretation of the race-meet contract between the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT) and the track. In all, Hollendorfer has...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 4th-OP, $90K, Msw, 3yo/up, f, 1 1/16m, 3:33 p.m. A pair of fillies represent Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm at Oaklawn Park Thursday, including DANCE IT (Tapit), a 3-year-old purchased for $500,000 from the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Out of the unraced Forestry mare Redwood Dancer, herself from the extended family of champion 2-year-old Flanders (Seeking the Gold) and MGIW Air Force Blue (War Front), Dance It is a half-sister to GIP and SW The Virginian (Aus), along with three other winners from as...