I meant to go back and clean up that post, my iPad doesn’t cut and paste well. I am hoping that Stronach is letting horsemen know that they need to put the horse first and not just ignore a problem and hope it goes away by race day. That one single scenario, Hollendorfer being told the horse is lame and entering the horse in a race w/out investigation, is a reason to REVOKE his HOF standing. That is an absolute DISGRACE. He should not be allowed around horses.
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Would like to hear Hollendorfer’s version of this story rather than flat out assuming everything the LA Times writes is the absolute truth.
FWIW, Del Mar appears to have had 4 fatalities during this summer meet… 2 in the freak accident when 2 horses (Charge A Bunch, Carla Gaines; Carson Valley, Bob Baffert) in training collided, a 3YO filly, Bowl of Soul (trainer Bob Baffert), broke down during training after injury to her RH fetlock, another 3YO filly, Bri Bri (trainer Jim Cassidy), suffered a serious pelvis injury.
Gotta love the media… CNN states, and accurately so, that 4 horses have died in less than a month but the entire meet was 8 weeks, 2 of the deaths were, IMO, freak with a horse getting loose and running head on into another horse going the opposite direction.
There was an interesting letter in the BloodHorse pointing out that when PETA or the media talk about racehorse deaths per month they compare that number to zero. That’s an unfair comparison as it assumes that horses anywhere else never die. Santa Anita has stabling for 1,800 horses. So the number of deaths at SA should be compared to how many of 1800 horses living in the wild (PETA’s preferred goal) die each month. I think that makes more sense.
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If you want to make an effective example of Hollendorfer for horsemen in an effort to clean up the sport, I think you need to actually articulate what specific actions led to his ban.
Maybe the racing community at Santa Anita was given more information than the general public received, but that was certainly not the vibe I got from the media.
I’d like to say the type of reckless behavior outlined in the LA Times article is rare in horse racing, but most of us know that is unfortunately not true. Taking down Hollendorfer certainly sends a powerful message to the hundreds of smaller racing stables operating in the same manner. But unless that message is made crystal clear by articulating the specific behaviors that earned him a ban, it otherwise looks like an arbitrary decision made to let someone take the fall for all that went wrong at Santa Anita.
The Maryland Jockey Club has done a good job of throwing out the “trash” over the past several years, so I can appreciate that the Stronach Group is continuing their efforts to make safety a priory. But the trainers they ruled off here had litanies of serious infractions and offenses. The type of people who had been whispered about for decades. On paper, Hollendorfer doesn’t compare with those types, which is why I feel everyone deserved more of an explanation than we received.
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Re: Hollendorfer… what Texarka said. What specifically did Hollendorfer do? Not hand waving generalities.
Re: the Media… via Paulick Report. Zero racing fatalities at Del Mar’s summer meet. Okay, zero racing but no mention of the 4 during training even if two of them were a ‘freak accident’.
Because there are big money corporate lawyers behind the scenes dictating how, when, where and what is said. Because if they come out and make a statement, without the vets and boards being on the same page; they are setting themselves up for an easy lawsuit from Hollendorfer. It needs to be understood that if they took a wrong step in any of these proceedings then they are setting themselves up for other trainers to walk all over them.
Now for those who said I was a naysayer on the situation when I said that they had dirt on him (the vets) when they enacted the ban on King Hollendorfer… go pound sand.
Im not happy it took them this long to give the details, but I am happy they did. And I understand they whys as well
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Bless your heart. I hope you’re never on my jury when it appears you’ve ‘convicted’ someone without hearing their side of the story. There are always two sides to every story until concrete evidence is produced.
Gotta love it.
FWIW, I have been on a jury where one of the jurors had, I am fairly sure but could not substantiate my opinion, had made up his mind in favor of the plaintiff the first day into the trial rather than objectively sitting and listening to both sides of the case before making up his mind (as a juror is supposed to do). Was not my idea of fun. 
I can’t fathom why you continue to defend him. 6 dead is not enough? What has trickled down to my redneck corner of the woods and from my weekends at Saratoga is that he has a bit of a reputation of being a butcher. One thing that is not tracked is how many horses break down but don’t get euthanized. They now have outriders looking for sore horses during training, and track vets examining horses before they work and race, vet work being turned in to the stewards, and some jurisdictions allowing claims to be voided for soundness. The trainers who are too hard on the horses are going to be noticed, and he popped to the surface pretty quick.
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I would ‘defend’ anyone who has not had a chance to ‘defend’ the ‘charged’ brought against them.
In other tracks back east that have been mentioned, trainers that have been kicked off the track or out of the state have had numerous suspensions, etc. Hollendorfer does not appear to have the same “history” of fines and suspensions that other trainers have had.
If, indeed, he has raced lame horses, etc. then IMO not all of the problem should fall on him. Why didn’t vets and outriders and other backside workers speak up? Seems like the process is broken and not just the individual trainer, no?
Maybe the trainer is the individual who is ultimately ‘responsible’ for the health and well being of the horse, but seems that in Hollendorfer’s case, the process failed the horses that broke down as much as Hollendorfer did. If others such as the track, state boards, stewards, vets all say their goal is the health and well being of the horse, seems like this horse left the barn long before the door was shut…
You are so wrong. The trainer is the one who enters the horse to race. The vets don’t know what horses are entered until the overnight comes out. And in this case, the Jockey told the trainer the horse was lame, the trainer did NOT have the vet look at the horse, and then the trainer entered the horse in a race, so how was the vet at fault? He also threatened to fire his treating vet if the vet did not fill out some form to try to get a horse off the track vet’s list. Thank goodness that treating vet was ethical enough to document that the horse was still lame and willing to tell the stewards what Hollendorfer said. The trainer is responsible for every single horse in the barn. No excuses. The treating vets do NOT go around looking at every horse, they are called in to look at specific horses at the trainer’s specific request. They can tell a trainer that the horse is not sound enough to race, or the horse should have time off, or whatever, but the trainer makes the call.
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I’d guess that outriders and backside workers don’t “speak up” because it’s not their job. They have their own duties and diagnosing lameness issues is not one of them.
The jockey, if he feels the horse is off, tells the trainer. Grooms report any issues to their boss. The trainer is then expected to act in the interest of the horse.
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I didn’t convict him of his wrongdoings and I certainly didn’t just decide in my mind that Jerry Hollendorfer was guilty of wrong doing. I went by what was known of the situation when he was banned. this recent article voicing the actions of the track solidify my reasoning. No amount of story telling from his camp is going to convince me that their actions of entering knowingly (significantly) lame horses to race was a right decision on their part. As I have stated numerous times, Santa Anita and the board who made the decision didn’t just wake up one morning and exclaim “lets ban Jerry Hollendorfer today” and act upon it. VETERINARIANS were trying to look out for the horses best interests’ and the H camp was running them into the ground.
Jerry isn’t the only one to do it. This type of garbage happens at every track. theyre the bad apples. But if it was Joe-Schmo who was banned for the same act; no one would bat an eye. But apparently the fact that he is in the HOF makes immune to disciplinary action, like its a badge that means he’s suddenly a good guy??
Rick Porter has similar thoughts on the H camp after they turned a blind eye to Songbird’s obvious lameness and then tried to dismiss off inquiries that she wasn’t quite right. The H camp couldn’t take 10 minutes out of their day to get a veterinary once-over of a multi-million dollar stakes winning mare in their barn; what makes you think they have an ounce of care for the hard knocking claimers. Rick Porter was very vocal about that entire incident when it occurred.
JH own hired Jockey came out and reported him for what he did. Props to the jock for looking out for the horse and the fellow riders who risk their life everyday when they climb aboard,. The writing is on the wall for the entire scenario. Its disgusting is what it is.
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I love creative minds that come up with a solution when they see a ‘problem’.
New app, Apollo, available now through Apple Store and Android is in the works for aggregating vet reports from sales to training to racetrack.
It will take some time to get the data into Apollo but the framework is now in place. Vets will still have to upload the data. physicals, endoscopy, radiographs, etc, they collect but then the data will be available for down the line vets to access and read.
Another pelvic fracture during training. Bad news that this stuff is making the national news on a regular basis now.
Link please?
Written up locally, haven’t looked to see if anywhere else picked it up.
https://www.dailybreeze.com/2019/09/17/as-fall-meet-approaches-another-horse-dies-at-santa-anita/
@Cammie thanks for the link. Another, for me, because of the track or in spite of the track type of injury but again, for me, discouraging.
TSG et al can continue to say warm and fuzzy things but is the real problem (which I have opinions but no facts or actual knowledge of) being addressed or is TSG just pursing verbiage?
I dunno…
I don’t think you can blame racing or the track on pelvic fractures.
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/musculoskeletal-system/lameness-in-horses/pelvic-fracture-in-horses
[h=1]Pelvic Fracture in Horses[/h]
By
Peter Clegg
, MA, Vet MB, DipECVS, PhD, MRCVS, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, School of Veterinary Sciences, University of Liverpool
Pelvic fractures are relatively common in horses and ponies and can occur as a consequence of trauma or stress from athletic training. Fractures involving the acetabulum almost always occur as a consequence of trauma and usually present as a severe lameness, which is frequently non-weight-bearing at the time of injury. Crepitus may be difficult to appreciate, even during passive flexion of the limb or rectal examination. Radiography can be diagnostic, but the difficulties of obtaining such images means that diagnosis is usually achieved by a combination of nuclear scintigraphy and ultrasonography. In particular, ultrasound diagnosis of pelvic fractures has advanced considerably and is now considered the first-line method to assess pelvic fractures. Fractures of the acetabulum, in contrast to other types of pelvic fractures, carry a poor prognosis for return to athletic function, because such fractures are frequently displaced and invariably lead to osteoarthritis. The only treatment is usually prolonged (6–9 mo) rest followed by symptomatic therapy for any resultant osteoarthritis.
Seems contrarian perhaps?
It was a bit of a rhetorical question on my part about the fracture being in spite of or due to the track.
Having said that, Zeke was the second horse recently that suffered a pelvic injury and subsequently euthanized. Bri Bri was euthanized after suffering a serious pelvic injury during training at Del Mar.
So, does the track “cause” pelvic fractures or was there already the underlying issue that lead to the fracture and racing/training (both of these were training) simply stresses the bone enough that it fractures? Are pelvic fractures actually that common at tracks and it’s more that know we are aware of them due to social media or are they occurring more frequently?
