Jerry Hollendorfer was born on June 18, 1946, in Akron, Ohio. He currently resides in Redwood City, Calif. with his wife, Janet.
Location:
Based in Northern California. Also has a stable at Santa Anita
Racing Background:
Northern California’s all-time winningest trainer, Hollendorfer won every training title at major Bay Area meets from 1986 until 2008, when William E. Morey edged him at Golden Gate Fields. He has collected 32 straight training titles at Golden Gate Fields and 37 consecutive titles at Bay Meadows ... Hollendorfer came to San Francisco in the late 1960s to visit friends and never left. He talked his way onto the backstretch at Bay Meadows and did various jobs for trainers Jerry Dutton and Jerry Fanning ... Hollendorfer took out his trainer's license in 1979. In his first six years as a trainer, he won only 59 races. In 1985, he won 56, then more than doubled that in 1986 with 117 ... From there, he's maintained a steady 25 percent win clip for two decades. His horses have earned more than $100 million. He saddled his 5,000th winner on Dec. 22, 2007, to become only the fourth trainer to reach that milestone ... Hollendorfer will always be linked with Hall of Fame jockey Russell Baze, who broke the all-time career record (9,530) of Laffit Pincay Jr. in 2006. About one-fourth of Baze’s victories have been aboard Hollendorfer horses.
Racing Career:
Nicknamed “The Dorf,” he developed a reputation as a claiming trainer, but in a career turning point, Hollendorfer turned $16,000 claimer Novel Sprite into a $467,586 multiple stakes winner, to receive the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association’s 1986 Claimer of the Year award. Selected as California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Trainer of the Year in 1995 ... Hollendorfer trains horses for clients, as well as those he owns alone or in partnership. His clients have come from throughout the United States, including Seattle doctors George Todaro and Mark Dedomenico, Chicago’s Peter Abruzzo and the late John Franks of Louisiana. With the closure of Bay Meadows, Hollendorfer in the past few years has established a Southern California division. His wife, Janet, serves as his chief assistant and oversees their barns in Northern California while Jerry is on the road ... He has trained a number of multiple graded stakes winners, including two Kentucky Oaks victresses: Lite Light and Pike Place Dancer ... In 1991, Lite Light – owned by rap star M.C. Hammer – captured the Kentucky Oaks and defeated rival Meadow Star in the Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park after losing to her in the Mother Goose several weeks earlier. In 1996, Pike Place Dancer became the first filly since 1954 to defeat the colts in the California Derby. She later won the Kentucky Oaks in stakes-record time ... King Glorious, whom Hollendorfer ranks among his all-time best, won eight of nine races, including the 1988 Hollywood Futurity and the 1989 Haskell Invitational ... In 1998, Event of the Year almost became Hollendorfer's first Kentucky Derby starter but fractured his knee in his final pre-Derby workout. Undefeated in four starts, he won the Jim Beam Stakes and the El Camino Real Derby. Two years later, Hollendorfer’s Derby contender Globalize had to be scratched two days before the race after being kicked by a stable pony. Globalize recovered in time to make the Belmont Stakes and become Hollendorfer’s first Triple Crown starter, but a bad break cost him all chance and he finished 10th ... His first Derby starter was Eye of the Tiger (5th in 2003), followed by Cause to Believe (13th in 2006) and Bwana Bull (15th in 2007). Cause to Believe and Bwana Bull swept the California and El Camino Real derbies in back-to-back years ... In 2001, Hollendorfer ran two operations, 2,000 miles apart. While his 60-horse hub remained at Bay Meadows, 50 more spent the summer at Arlington Park. Not only did Hollendorfer wrap up his 23rd consecutive training title at Bay Meadows with 35 winners, he also won the Arlington Park title. On the final day of the 101-day meet, Hollendorfer edged defending champion Wayne Catalano, 41-39 ... Finished 2004 third in the nation with a career-high 308 wins ... His most consistent runner the last two years has been Hystericalady, who ran second, beaten only a neck in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Distaff (now Ladies' Classic) and scheduled to be back in 2008. The Distorted Humor mare had a three-race win streak, which included the $1 million Delaware Handicap, stopped when second to the undefeated Zenyatta in the G1 Lady's Secret on Sept. 27 ... Hollendorfer's only other Breeders' Cup starter, Tuxedo Junction, was sixth in the ’98 Distaff ... Won the prestigious G1 Santa Anita Handicap in 2008 with Heatseeker, an Irish-bred that had in previously been trained by Bobby Frankel. Before his retirement in June, Heatseeker also won the 2008 G2 Californian at Hollywood Park. ... Through Oct. 12, 2008, Hollendorfer was ranked eighth among North American trainers with 213 races from 875 starts, for earnings of $7,175,517.
