I added this thread because I think that this is going to get to be a big, interesting issue, and I didn’t want it to get mixed in with Baffert.
The trial got pushed back a month, and Stronach got push back for the easy wins that they were hoping for. Is Hollendorfer really that bad? Is he worse than others? Did they single him out as an example?
Is he that bad? No. There are far worse.
Full disclosure: I have never stepped foot in Hollendorfer’s barn. But I think Hollendorfer probably does need to go to make an example of a model of “horsemanship” that we cannot continue to tolerate or support in the 21st century if the sport is to survive. If I am wrong about this, someone please speak up, but he has always seemed to employ the formulaic treatment of horses like commodities duct taped together with modern medicine. I’d unfortunately say most trainers operate in this manner to varying degrees.
But… I think this is a situation where two wrongs don’t make a right. How the Stronach Group has gone about this is a real head scratcher. You can’t single someone out for muddied reasons and expect people to learn from it. You can’t single someone out for doing the same thing everyone else is doing and expect to win your case.
I only can base an opinion about the matter on what I’ve read in the professional racing publications. Is Stronach is being unfair to Hollendorfer?
The racing press and letters to the editor that I’ve read seem to indicate that people in the racing world, think Hollendorfer was a convenient scapegoat and distraction for the Stronach’s, who at the time (2019) were having breakdown issues at their Santa Anita track. Not claiming that he was great, but that he was ripe for them to shift the blame, from the their track surface to the trainers.
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