Santa Anita- do you think somethings up?

Im not. I didn’t realize I hit the Bold button.

if you want to nitpick wording, you need to reassess your priorities. If you refuse to acknowledge that there are issues on BOTH sides of the court; then you are the reason , the cumulative reason combined with all of the others within the industry who operative with blinders on, that racing is going to see an end and much quicker than you want to acknowledge.

Those issues stem from how yearlings are brought to the sales, training practices of 2 yr olds, whip use, drug use (both legal and illegal), training practices, horse soundness, overall horse welfare, horse retirement after racing is done, track conditions, track pressure to race, drug violations and suspensions, etc. All of this is now under a giant microscope of the public in which this sport depends to survive.

And as an advocate for the OTTB; it makes it very difficult for me to stomach taking horses off the track who have been through all of the above. Who wants to take on a horse that has been drugged to the nines, pressured to over-race, masked soundness issues etc? At this point I only want to do it to offer these horses a chance at a better life at this point. I have a horse in the barn that is one of those very cases.

I know there are good people in racing. and good trainers. but the bad apples are seriously tainting the good and no one from within wants to make a change. Just because there are big outfits with well known leaders at the helm doesn’t make them exempt of being bad apples either.

Take the blinders off folks or your sport is going to disappear from beneath your feet.

But it’s pronounced ASSmussen.

The problem with Kirk is that when his license was suspended, he was running horses under Ralph’s name, but Kirk was billing the owners and paying the help. Stronach said Ralph had to show the horses transferred to him and all the bookkeeping was in Ralph’s name. Couldn’t do it.

There is a lot of scuttlebutt around the track, and Stronach hears just about all of it. When they kick someone out, it’s know that there is some merit to it. I’m not in CA, but I hear lots of east coast Stronach stuff, and some of the west coast stuff makes it over here. Usually there is plenty of warning from Stronach before they do it. When they are not happy with someone, that person gets a personal phone call.

I did not say anything about how Steve Asmussen’s name was spelled or how it was pronounced IIRC.

So, where is the “mess” than Hollendorfer is associated with other than the misfortune of having 4 horses break down over a 6 month period… (late December-late June)?

It’s snaffle’s hobby. Some people fish, some watch NASCAR, snaffle reads about racing and watches it on TV and comes here to lecture us.

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While others come here just to be practically perfect in every way :lol:

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BC BoD has affirmed by unanimous decision that 2019 BC will remain at Santa Anita November 1-2.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-rac…anita-for-2019

https://www.paulickreport.com/news/b…t-santa-anita/

I do not know how I feel about that. 😳

Will be interesting to see if the CHRB uses their new power to shut down racing at SA anyway. I also wonder about Hollendorfer having a BC horse. i am not sure if the BC has to follow TSG’s ban.

Laurierace, I would assume (yup, a risky word) that TSG’s Hollendorfer ban would keep him (Jerry) off the SA premises, But, if Hollendorfer does have a BC eligible horse, I’d expect that either an assistant trainer or someone else would take trainer responsibility to get the horse into the BC race they were targeted for. Don’t know the exact wording of the ban to know how widely the ban actually applied… just to Hollendorfer or includes assistant trainers or any horse trained by Hollendorfer within some window of time; just don’t know.

On this I would agree. While I am pleased to see that BC held their ground, if I was an owner, I’d be thinking real hard about allowing one of my horses to run on those two days.

I think for BC Ltd, this was a no win choice whichever way they went…

And heaven forbid there is a breakdown … double :eek: (and, sure there could be by the most, bestest, safest trainer on the planet).

When the BC comes to town, it takes over the track. People who have paid Santa Anita for boxes lose them for those two days. I’m going to guess that Jerry gets to go to the BC no matter where it is.

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Pronzini, interesting and thanks. Didn’t realize that BC “took over” that completely but yeah, I can see taking over box seats.

Wonder if Hollendorfer will/would end up with a viable runner in the BC that he’d try to run.

Glad I’m at home with the remote in my hand and no more a participant than that :slight_smile:

NRYA has now flip-flopped on Hollendorfer. Originally he was going to be allowed to stable and run in NY (Belmont and Saratoga).

NYRA has now said Hollendorfer will not be allowed to enter horses at any NYRA track. Hollendorfer will change the horses at Belmont to run under his asst trainer, Don Chatlos Jr. (He has 6 at Belmont.)

As for Saratoga, Hollendorfer will talk to owners to see what they want to do.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/234468/nyra-blocks-hollendorfer-from-entering-horses

Hollendorfer had 2 horses in the Bertrando Stakes today at Los Al.

No comment from the NYRA? After stating publicly that he was welcome and now saying he is not?

Whomever said here earlier that racing needs better PR people was right. Yikes. It gives the appearance that the NYRA know something now that they didn’t know then, which seems unfair to Hollendorfer if it is not true.

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My thoughts as well. It implies they did an investigation and found something they were unaware of at the time of their public proclamation (why did they do that anyway, that was just weird?)

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And both NYRA and TSG so far, as best as I’ve seen, just say “safety” and “accountability” but that, IMO, isn’t say much of substance. Hollendorfer had the misfortune of having 4 horses over a 6 month period break down. Since CHRB hasn’t released necropsies, we don’t know the details of Kochees or American Currency.

I also find it mildly silly that NYRA will take horses that he trained that are under his assistant trainer’s name. Long term horse care for NYRA horses are still Hollendorfer’s.

I still haven’t see anything of substance on what Hollendorfer has done wrong other than bad luck… :rolleyes:

If CHRB or TSG or NYRA has something, I wish they’d come out and say it.

That is exactly what happened.

Since it sounds like you know this happened, what did NYRA find that made them change their mind? Other than ‘finding something out they were unaware of’??

I have not seen anything of substantive value as to what Hollendorfer did wrong other than “unsafe”. What exactly had he done wrong? Without this, how do other trainers know they won’t be the next one to be targeted by track owners or state racing boards?

This Jerry Hollendorfer thing is just so weird.

And again, even in attempts to improve welfare, those in positions of power manage to just make situations worse with their inability to be transparent.

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