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Santa Anita- do you think somethings up?

Racing
#1001

as for why I think they should remain private; despite Santa Anita banning him from their tracks; perhaps in all of this they are also protecting him and the legacy he has built for himself in all of his years. I genuinely think that Santa Anita does not want to be the entity responsible for ruining a historic trainers entire career and tarnish what he has accomplished. Therefore; if they keep their findings and reasoning for banning him between the two parties involved; Jerry keeps his career accomplishments untarnished and is free to find another track to race at who will accept him, and Santa Anita no longer has to take the flack for his horses repeatedly breaking down. Santa Anita gave up a lot of horses in one barn when they removed Jerry from their tracks. that decision does not come lightly whether you are a Stronach track or another.

I believe there is two sides to every coin and the possibility of Santa Anita keeping things private to protect what he has done in his lifetime is a very real possibility. I am sure lawyers were well-in attendance in all of this decision making. Santa Anita has to protect their business first and foremost. And if that means eliminating who they believe to be bad apples; they can do so. Most businesses who fire or remove tenants from their property do not disclose the fine print or the drama, so to speak, behind the scenes unless it goes to court and they have to. There is a certain level of tact and professionalism when business dealings turn serious such as this

I am sure Jerry was well versed in the findings and the grounds in which they banned him. There is a reason why he didn’t fight that ruling at SA, and instead decided to fight a track that banned him because of SA’s actions. He had more wiggle room to fight del mar who had no evidence to back up their attempt to ban him. If history repeats itself at Del Mar with the Hollendorfer barn (especially if his stable continues to gain animals again), Del Mar would have grounds to remove him for the sake of their image.

For the sake of racing and change that needs to happen, I don’t personally think that findings in an investigation at SA should remain private. But they will as long as there is no national governing body to take control in these instances. But I can certainly see and understand why SA keeps it private and has protected Jerry’s accomplishments in life untarnished because of it. I am sure some of it is SA setting an example for others; I don’t deny that. But what the Hollendorfer ban has done is send ripples through the backsides. Trainers and ownership no longer want to take the risk and they are second guessing questionable horses in their barns. There are horses listed on CANTER recently that have been noted “Not worth the risk with more stringent rules on California tracks”.

I am also in agreeance that if Stronachs are going to set down California trainers and enforce strict rules on drugs and injuries; they should be doing so across the board. the Vitale situation is inexcusable.

#1002

https://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/can-they-do-that-the-legal-precedent-or-not-behind-hollendorfers-exclusion/

dd

After all, Hollendorfer’s license from the California Horse Racing Board was not suspended and he is not currently serving any penalties from the regulatory body. Court documents revealed Del Mar’s reasoning for excluding him lay in fears about public relations rather than any actual allegations of wrongdoing – leading many to wonder how Hollendorfer is supposed to get due process and whether his rights have been violated.

#1003

“A California Horse Racing Board panel of veterinarians and stewards tasked with reviewing the race and veterinary records of horses entered to race at Santa Anita in the past two weeks scratched Hollendorfer’s horses entered there for Saturday and Sunday.” Bloodhorse- June

If you don’t think the CHRB board and their panel of veterinarians didn’t have anything to do with Jerry’s ban, think again. Why did they scratch all of his entries Saturday and Sunday after American Currency died on the track during training. Just a few days after the vets scratched the horse from his race on the 16th. The scratched all of Jerry’s entries before SA announced he was kicked off.

Forget Jerry Hollendorfer and forget Vitale. Forget the names. 30 horses died at Santa Anita in a very short period of time. Whether you are involved in racing, are an avid fan, or a member o the betting public; 30 fatalities is unacceptable. It is now on the radar screens of all of the animal rights activists who have a nice hot bed of members in California as it is. And they will now make it their life mission to shame horse racing and SA and curb the minds of the uneducated to swing their way. They have the national media on their side. If you are a member of the racing community and/or rely on the racing community to conduct your business; you should be very worried about the future of the sport. this 30 fatalities in one season is nothing new. A few years ago, Saratoga had a similar stint. Saratoga is already up to 5 deaths in July; one of them horrifically occurred at the finish in front of all of the spectators.

Instead of debating and nitpicking whatever the heck happened between lawyers, stronachs and hollendorfer; start looking at the bigger picture and what the sheer number of deaths is doing to the fan base that the sport relies on. Who wants to go to the track and see a horse break down every few days at a meet?

So instead od debating and nitpicking the unimportant stuff; lets concentrate on the big picture. 30 horse deaths in one meet, what do we do about it?

#1004

Snaffle why do you read threads in the racing forum if you hate racing that much. Why do you make claims and refuse to provide links to back them up?

3 Likes
#1005

^^ This x 1,000

2 Likes
#1006

Snaffle actually has something if there is proof that the vets scratched Hollendorfers entries due to unsoundness prior to him being banned. So Snaffle if you could dig up those articles that would be great.

Filling races has been hard, and if Hollendorfer, who had a lot of horses, was entering unsound horses that had to be scratched, it really messes up the racing secretary’s day. So maybe they were tracking the percentage of horses that got scratched by the vets for each trainer, and Hollendorfer won that contest too. But that’s just a guess on my part, with no proof. Gollee, snaffle! Come up with something good for us to chomp on.

Oh, and you have to do it in 100 words or less.

#1007

Snaffle is COTH’s own Joe Drape.

1 Like
#1008

Maybe Snaffle is Joe Drape? :confused:

1 Like
#1009

Another training death at Del Mar - Bowl of Soul / Baffert.

#1010

Just saw that. Baffert’s not having a good start with the freak accident last week and now this.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2019-07-30/del-mar-horse-death-bob-baffert

#1011

It’s not like Baffert had a darn thing to do with last week’s freak accident other than just being the trainer of one of the two horses who did die as a result of the collision…

Bowl Of Soul was also a bit unusual in that it was her right hind fetlock. Forelegs are the usual target of catastrophic breakdowns; hind legs much less so.

#1012

Obviously. I didn’t say that it was his fault a loose horse ran into his. :rolleyes:

Merely that two of the three horses were his, and yes, that means he is in fact not having a good start to the meet.

#1013

Interesting article I read this morning from PR regarding Thoroughbred Owners of California seeking alternative federal legislation other than the proposed HIA. TOC not liking the involvement of feds or USADA being involved in the oversight.

One thing that caught my eye was this comment

“Thirty horses perished for 30 different reasons,” he said, adding that the condition of the racetrack during the cold and wet winter was a major factor. “The track was sealed and unsealed way too many times. The maintenance of the track was mismanaged.”

First time I’ve seen in print that the track was actually “blamed” for their part in the excessive (my words) number of deaths during the Winter meet.

Could/should SA be “blamed” for all of them? I suspect not but at least someone is pointing the finger that all the rain and track maintenance played a part.

However, TOC is acknowledging that things like medication and safety policies did need to change to address public concerns (which I do agree with).

#1014

IDK - the weather was so abnormal for the locality that there was no past procedure to implement. There were probably multiple factors influencing the breakdown rate.

#1015

I read a while ago that SA blamed in large part the rain combined with the fact that their track maintenance guy had left-admitted he was run out and that, had he been there he would have recommended canceling often. He is supposed to be back now

#1016

Yes there was a lot of rain but it wasn’t unprecedented. Pasadena is located next to Arcadia and here are some of the annual totals:

http://www.laalmanac.com/weather/we131a.php

27 inches was a lot but nothing compared to other years. The difference is, I think, it’s a lot coming out of the drought years and also tracks never used to seal the surface before storms. It was the sealing and unsealing that created some of the problems, not necessarily the rain itself.

2 Likes
#1017

Hollendorfer is now able to race at NYRA tracks.

#1018

More on why Stronach banned Hollendorfer:

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2019-08-23/jerry-hollendorfer-lawsuit-ban-horse-deaths

" According to the declaration of Dr. Dana Stead, the racing veterinarian for Santa Anita, jockey Rafael Bejarano told Dan Ward, Hollendorfer’s chief assistant, on May 18 that he detected that Blackjackcat was lame in his right front leg after a workout. The horse was then entered the next day to run in a race May 24.

Stead examined the horse May 20 and found his lameness to be a 3 on a scale of 1-5. Stead asked Ward why the horse was entered and was told, “We were hoping that if we could get him right by the race, great, if not, we’d scratch.”

Dr. Tim Grande, official veterinarian for the CHRB, examined the horse May 23 and said the lameness had improved but the horse was scratched and an ultrasound ordered.

“The fact that no veterinary diagnostics were performed until the horse was scratched was negligence by Mr. Hollendorfer,” Stead said.

Stead’s declaration also said he was told one of Hollendorfer’s personal veterinarians was asked to sign a form saying that a horse was fit enough to work and be removed from the veterinarian’s list. Stead said Ward told the vet that if they didn’t sign the form, “the Hollendorfer barn would find another veterinarian practice that would be willing to do so.”

The veterinarian signed the form but said in the comments that he didn’t think the horse was sound enough to work. Neither the horse nor the veterinarian was named in the declaration.

Drew Couto, Hollendorfer’s attorney, said he plans to file declarations to refute these claims but prefers to wait until the court makes them publicly available before discussing them.

On May 25, Kochees, a 9-year-old gelding trained by Hollendorfer, suffered a catastrophic injury while racing and was euthanized. According to the deposition of Dr. Dionne Benson, chief veterinary officer for Stronach, Kochees suffered a “biaxial sesamoid fracture.”


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Joint stake in horse by state regulator and Santa Anita executive raises questions
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“In my opinion, Kochees likely would have shown lameness after his last workout, which should have been observed by the trainer and triggered a request to have a veterinarian diagnose the source of the lameness,” Benson said in her declaration. “Mr. Hollendorfer failed to do so, and instead entered Kochees in a race, leading to his demise.”

The day after the death, a group of 10, representing the CHRB, Santa Anita, Stronach, California Thoroughbred Trainers and Thoroughbred Owners of California met at Santa Anita to discuss the horse fatalities, in general, and Hollendorfer, in particular. The group did not take any action against Hollendorfer at that time.

American Currency, trained by Hollendorfer, suffered a fatal injury while training June 22. It was the 30th and final death of the meeting, which ended the next day.

According to the declaration of Aidan Butler, now acting executive director of California racing for Stronach, the CHRB horse safety review panel demanded that all of Hollendorfer’s horses be scratched the final two days of the meeting, which the stewards did.

That same day, Butler, Benson and Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of TSG, met with Hollendorfer in Butler’s office and the trainer was offered a chance to “state his case.” Butler said Hollendorfer was “unable to provide satisfactory answers,” and he was told he was going to be excluded from all Stronach facilities and had 72 hours to remove all his horses from Santa Anita, Golden Gate Field and the San Luis Rey Downs training facility.

Hollendorfer is currently allowed to race in New York, Del Mar, Los Alamitos and the fair circuit. [HR][/HR]SPORTS
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John Cherwa is a special contributor to the Los Angeles Times. He started at The Times in 1980 and left in 1995 to be sports editor of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Co. sports coordinator in 2002. He rejoined The Times in 2009 and left his post as deputy sports editor late in 2017. Currently, his major coverage area is horse racing, where he writes our Racing! newsletter and also covers big races and does general assignment work for the sports department. After covering nine straight Olympics, he is helping with the Times Olympics coverage but from stateside. He is also an adjunct professor on the business of sports media at the University of Central Florida. MORE FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES [h=3]Around the Web[/h] Ads by Revcontent[IMG2=JSON]{"alt":"This is What Happens to Dark Spots (When You Do This Every Morning)","data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/img.revcontent.com\/?url=https:\/\/revcontent-p0.s3.amazonaws.com\/content\/images\/15575199721513189588.jpg&static=true&pos=face&h=315&w=420&static=true&fmt=jpeg) [h=4]This is What Happens to Dark Spots (When You Do This Every Morning)[/h] GUNDRY MD[IMG2=JSON]{"alt":"90% of People Have No Idea What These Two Little Holes Are For","data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/img.revcontent.com\/?url=https:\/\/revcontent-p0.s3.amazonaws.com\/content\/images\/15634023770238352266.jpg&static=true&pos=face&h=315&w=420&static=true&fmt=jpeg) [h=4]90% of People Have No Idea What These Two Little Holes Are For[/h] BUZZWORTHY[IMG2=JSON]{"alt":"This is the Real Reason 'Bewitched' Was Cancelled!","data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/img.revcontent.com\/?url=https:\/\/revcontent-p0.s3.amazonaws.com\/content\/images\/15548229820584559511.jpg&static=true&pos=face&h=315&w=420&static=true&fmt=jpeg) [h=4]This is the Real Reason 'Bewitched' Was Cancelled![/h] ROUTINEJOURNAL[IMG2=JSON]{"alt":"The Amazon Discount Trick Most People Don't Even Know About","data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/img.revcontent.com\/?url=https:\/\/revcontent-p0.s3.amazonaws.com\/content\/images\/15435074131485936688.png&static=true&pos=face&h=315&w=420&static=true&fmt=jpeg) [h=4]The Amazon Discount Trick Most People Don't Even Know About[/h] HONEY[IMG2=JSON]{"alt":"22 Comic-con Outfits That Blow Your Mind","data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/img.revcontent.com\/?url=https:\/\/revcontent-p0.s3.amazonaws.com\/content\/images\/23a13b52fc73436fb860a21492342669.png&static=true&pos=face&h=315&w=420&static=true&fmt=jpeg) [h=4]22 Comic-con Outfits That Blow Your Mind[/h] UPBEAT NEWS[IMG2=JSON]{"alt":"Bogart and Bacall's Son Opens Up About His Parents","data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/img.revcontent.com\/?url=https:\/\/revcontent-p0.s3.amazonaws.com\/content\/images\/429dfadd5591169e087e7c5ac410816c.png&static=true&pos=face&h=315&w=420&static=true&fmt=jpeg) [h=4]Bogart and Bacall's Son Opens Up About His Parents[/h] PASTFACTORYADVERTISEMENT

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1 Like
#1019

I’ve always thought a major improvement for the horses would be to have vets who acted on behalf of the animals and not the trainers but human nature being what it is, I don’t think that’s realistic.

#1020

So here’s my continued problem with this entire situation:

Why are these stories surfacing in August? Why wouldn’t The Stronach Group just come forward with this type of information when they announced their decision? Why does everything have to be so hush hush? I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I want to trust their decisions, but they make it so hard when they repeatedly flub up the PR part. One could argue they don’t owe the public an explanation, but that sort of mindset has screwed racing repeatedly over the past decades. When you rule off a prolific HOFer, that beckons a deeper explanation than, “he didn’t meet our safety standards.”

I’m not directing my questions at you, Palm Beach. I’m just yelling at the wind.

2 Likes

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