NEWS
Hollendorfer gets Hall of Fame call with trio of mares (includes video)
Posted: Friday, May 13, 2011 12:01 PM
by Jeff Lowe
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and champion mares Open Mind, Safely Kept, and Sky Beauty are the 2011 inductees to the Racing Hall of Fame.
Hollendorfer was approved in his first time as a finalist, while the three female stars will be enshrined after being overlooked on the ballot in previous years.
Open Mind, Safely Kept, and Sky Beauty were the only eligible horses, and they benefit from a rule change enacted in 2010 that allows voters to select as many candidates as they believe to be worthy of induction, from a list of ten finalists that does not distinguish between categories. The four candidates with the highest vote totals were elected.
Previously, voters could only select one candidate from each category, broken down into trainers, jockeys, male horses, and female horses.
Last year was the first with the new process, and a trio of horses were enshrined—Azeri, Best Pal, and Point Given—along with jockey Randy Romero.
Hollendorfer, 64, ranks fourth on the all-time list with 5,936 victories through Thursday, trailing only Dale Baird, Jack Van Berg, and King Leatherbury. His starters have earned $121,341,923, and much of that haul came from Northern California, where he swept 69 consecutive major meet titles between 1986 and 2008.
Hollendorfer’s nationwide impact was exhibited last year when Blind Luck earned champion three-year-old filly honors with victories in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Betfair TVG Alabama Stakes (G1). He also notched his first Breeders’ Cup score with Dakota Phone in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) and oversaw the late Eclipse Award finalist Tuscan Evening (Ire).
Since shifting some of his operation to Southern California, Hollendorfer has also trained Grade 1 winner Hystericalady and Santa Anita Handicap (G1) winner Heatseeker (Ire). He posted two other Kentucky Oaks wins, in 1991 with Lite Light and in 1996 with Pike Place Dancer.
“It’s something that you can never expect in life, to be put in the Hall of Fame,” said Hollendorfer, who referred to his wife and assistant, Janet, as the glue that has kept his stable together. “I can only tell you how really grateful I am to be able to get up every morning and do the same thing I’ve been doing all these years.”
Open Mind, the 1988 champion two-year-old filly and 1989 champion three-year-old filly, captured the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), Kentucky Oaks, and the Alabama during a streak of ten consecutive wins that also included the New York Filly Triple Crown, consisting of the Acorn Stakes (G1), Mother Goose Stakes (G1), and Coaching Club American Oaks (G1).
Trained by D. Wayne Lukas for Eugene Klein, New Jersey-bred Open Mind won 12 of 19 career starts and earned $1,844,372. The Deputy Minister mare died in 1998.
Safely Kept was a 22-time stakes winner, and she rose all the way from Maryland-bred ranks to finish second by a neck to Dancing Spree in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) at Gulfstream Park as a three-year-old in 1989. She returned triumphantly with a neck victory in the 1990 Sprint at Belmont Park over Dayjur.
By Horatius, Safely Kept also scored in the 1989 Test Stakes (G1) among her 24 wins in 31 career starts. She earned $2,194,206 for Jayeff B Stable and Barry Weisbord and trainer Alan Goldberg. Now 25 years old, Safely Kept delivered an Empire Maker filly for Jayeff B in 2010 and is now pensioned.
“It’s tough for sprinters to break through,” Weisbord said of the Hall of Fame. “We waited a long time and quite honestly thought the day wouldn’t come, but we always thought she was deserving.”
Sky Beauty collected nine Grade 1 wins and became the first and only Eclipse Award winner for Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens when she was honored as champion older female of 1994.
“Some of them are born to be great, and it’s just nice to go along with them,” Jerkens said. “She would work as fast as you would want a horse to go and she would also go as slow as you wanted her to. She was just very tractable and talented.
Georgia Hoffman’s Blushing Groom (Fr) mare registered back-to-back wins in the Spinaway Stakes (G1) and Matron Stakes (G1) as a two-year-old in 1992 and delivered the New York Filly Triple Crown and the Alabama in succession in 1993. As a four-year-old, she posted consecutive wins in the Shuvee Handicap (G1), Hempstead Handicap (G1), Go for Wand Stakes (G1), and Ruffian Handicap (G1). She died in 2004.
The other finalists were jockeys Alex Solis, Calvin Borel, Garrett Gomez and John Velazquez and trainers Bob Wheeler and Gary Jones.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: cindy, alameda, CA on May 14, 2011 at 09:16 PM
Having personally seen Holledorfer handle a horse at Golden Gate Fields I would never send a animal I cared about to him. He was absolutely cruel to some poor mare I'm sure he was hoping was claimed off him. He jerked the tongue tie so tight she threw her head back and spent the post parade and warm up throwing her head against the pain. However, most trainers won't claim off him because the horses are so broken down by then.
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Posted by: john, diamond, OH on May 13, 2011 at 07:43 PM
to win 69 titles in a row is unreal, the 3 mares were also running machines
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Posted by: Lydia A, Parkton, MD on May 13, 2011 at 06:08 PM
Open Mind, Safely Kept and Sky Beauty are all very deserving, as is Hollendorfer.
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