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Hall Of Fame Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer Settles In At Monmouth Park

Among the nearly dozen trainers making Monmouth Park their summer home this year for the first time are a Hall of Famer, one who lists the Venezuelan Triple Crown on his resume and another whose barn is looking to take advantage of the lucrative Jersey-bred program that's offered.

It may be as eclectic a group of newcomers the track has ever featured as the Friday, July 3 opener – the start of Monmouth Park's 75th season – nears.

Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer will have a solid presence on the Jersey Shore for the first time, with long-time assistant Dan Ward overseeing a string that he says will eventually number more than two dozen runners.

“Our horses fit well at Monmouth Park and the timing is perfect for us,” said Ward. “When the condition book came out it looked like a really good fit for the horses we have.”

Ward, who said he has not made an appearance at Monmouth Park since Marquetry ran in the 1991 Philip H. Iselin Stakes when he was an assistant to Bobby Frankel, said the decision to try Monmouth Park for an entire meet was done as part of a long-term plan.

“We're here to stay,” said Ward, who has been with Hollendorfer the past 14 years after working with Frankel the previous 22. “We plan on continuing to have a stable in the Midwest or Monmouth Park as long as we can.”

Twenty of Hollendorfer's horses have already shipped into Monmouth Park from Churchill Downs “and we have races for all of them at Monmouth,” Ward said.

“We will be looking to claim some more and trying to pick up business,” he added.

Hollendorfer's outfit will look to be a factor the very first day, with Awesome Anywhere slated to go in the $75,000 Oceanport Centennial Stakes, the opening-day feature. The 6-year-old gelding won a starter allowance race at Oaklawn Park two starts back.

Antonio Machado isn't a familiar name in this part of the country, but the 42-year-old hopes that changes with his first summer at Monmouth.

Machado, Tampa Downs-based, was the youngest trainer ever to win the Venezuelan Triple Crown when he did so with El Gran Cesar in 2008. He won 99 races, 18 of them graded stakes, in Venezuela between 2006-2012.

He said it was time to take on a new challenge, which is why he has decided to try Monmouth Park this summer.

“I wanted to experience training at a prestigious racetrack where the horse racing would challenge me,” said Machado, who started in the sport by working in a stable in La Rinconada racetrack in Caracas while also attending training school. “So many owners, trainers, jockeys and amazing horses have raced on these grounds, and that for me is simply amazing.

“I want to keep on competing at the maximum level and show that I can be there with top trainers and win races.”

His intention, he said, is to make the Tampa Downs/Monmouth Park circuit part of his yearly routine, saying he is “hoping that we will continue with this trend for many years to come.”

Michael Moore has been Parx-based since he started training in 2013, but the makeup of his current stable made Monmouth Park a logical choice for this summer. He hopes to have more than 20 claimers and allowance horses on the grounds, with the more prominent among them being Jersey-breds.

“The biggest reason I came here is because I have some good Jersey-breds and the money is so good for Jersey-breds at Monmouth Park,” said the 49-year-old Moore, a Rutgers University graduate. “It's a little bit of an adjustment because I live five minutes from Parx and the drive here is over an hour every day. But this is such a beautiful place. It's really horse friendly and the people care about racing here.”

Moore, coming off his best year with 35 winners in 2019, was 2-for-10 at Monmouth last year with shippers. His wife, Elizabeth, helps run the barn.

“Everything seems to be working out well,” he said. “I just hope to do well when the racing starts.”

Mid-Atlantic fixture Hugh McMahon is among the other newcomers who will have a string of horses stabled at Monmouth Park this summer.

Monmouth Park's 37-day meet will consist of live racing Friday, July 3, through Sunday, Sept. 27. Post time on Fridays will be 5 p.m. (except Sept. 4, Kentucky Oaks Day, when it will be 12:50 p.m.). Saturday and Sunday posts will be 12:50 p.m., with the exception of a noon first race post time on July 18, when the $1 million TVG.com Haskell Stakes serves as the headliner on the card.

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Ellis Park: Seven Individuals Quarantined After Testing Positive For COVID-19

Seven individuals working in the stable area at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky. have tested positive for COVID-19 and been quarantined, reports 14news.com. None were symptomatic; the individuals were tested as part of the track's protocols for beginning its live race meet on July 2. Six work for the same trainer, and the seventh was also closely associated with those individuals.

Six of those who tested positive have been quarantined inside the dorm, and the seventh has been quarantined at home. Contact tracing has also been initiated.

“As of right now, based on everything we know, based on the protocols we have in place in both the racing and gaming operations, we're confident we will be able to conduct our race meet, beginning the first day, opening day, July 2,” Skip Sayre, chief of sales and marketing for Laguna Development Corporation, told 14news.com. “As the backside opened, and the horses and personnel started coming in, we began testing those folks, so when this particular case came up, we were ready to move quickly and get those folks into quarantine and make sure we protected the integrity of the rest of the operation.”

Monmouth: Trainers’ Race Appears Wide Open Ahead Of Shortened 2020 Meet

Kelly Breen would normally embrace the role as the early favorite for what appears to be a wide-open trainers' race when Monmouth Park launches its 75th season of live racing on Friday, July 3.

But this year has been anything but normal.

Breen, who owns Monmouth Park training titles from 2005 and 2006, is the leading returning trainer from a year ago in terms of wins with 36. But the Covid-19 virus has changed everything about the sport, forcing Monmouth Park into a condensed 37-day meet.

“I don't have the number of runners right know to think about being leading trainer,” Breen said. “When you have 40 horses and quite a few are 2-year-olds they're going to make minimal starts, especially over a shorter meet. Until I start claiming some horses I can't think about a title. We'll see how that goes.”

Breen is one of six trainers stabled on the grounds who have a Monmouth Park training title to their credit, a list that includes Jane Cibelli, Tim Hills, Bruce Alexander, Dan Lopez and Ben Perkins, Jr.

If there's strength in numbers, veteran Michael Stidham should be a factor with 71 stalls, the most of any trainer.

Yet for all of his career success, Stidham has won just one training title – in 2016 at Fair Grounds.

“Generally we don't run the type of operation that goes for a training title because we don't do a lot of claiming,” Stidham said. “We tend to get well-bred young horses that we're trying to develop. That's usually not the formula for a leading trainer.

“Having said that, we did win the title in 2016 at the Fair Grounds. You have to see how things develop and whether the barn gets rolling quickly in a shorter meet. It just kind of happened at the Fair Grounds that year as a byproduct of winning.”

With 25 winners a year ago – from just 81 starts – Jose Delgado is the second-leading returning trainer from Monmouth Park's 2019 meet. With a claiming stable and a high percentage of success he looms as a factor as well.

“I don't know. So much depends on luck,” said Delgado. “I think I've got the right horses to make a run for the title. The thing about being leading trainer is you have to have the right horses for that meet and you have to have a lot of horses. I only have 25.

“But it is a shorter meet and if they're ready to go from the beginning you have a chance. I'm definitely going to give it a shot.”

Delgado, 41, said it would especially significant for him personally to win his first training title at Monmouth Park.

“It would mean a lot to me because I couldn't do it as a jockey,” he said. “I would have loved to have won a riding title as a jockey. Now I have another chance to do it as a trainer.”

Pat McBurney, coming off a successful 2019, should be in contention as well, along with Cibelli, Gregg Sacco, Kent Sweezey and Mike Dini, all of whom are well-represented in the Monmouth Park backside.

With 35 horses stabled at Monmouth, after winning 10 races from just 19 starts a year ago, Jonathan Thomas said “numerically, this is the biggest stable we've ever had in any one place.”

But he doesn't expect to be in contention for leading trainer because of the makeup of his stable, with up to 25 of his 2-year-olds calling Monmouth Park home this summer.

“We're top heavy with 2-year-olds, the majority of which we'd like to get started here,” he said. “We've found it to be a great place for young horses. Maybe if the meet were longer would could be a factor. At this juncture we're more focused on individually starting a campaign for a horse and seeing where that takes us.”

Monmouth Park's semi-sesquicentennial season will feature live racing from Friday, July 3, through Sunday, Sept. 27. Post time on Fridays will be 5 p.m. (except for Sept. 4, which will have a 12:50 post), while Saturdays and Sundays will start at 12:50 p.m. The exception to that will be a noon first post on Saturday, July 18, when the $1 million TVG.com Haskell Stakes headlines a stakes-filled program.

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Gerald Bennett Wraps Up Both Trainer, Owner Titles At Tampa Bay Downs

If it's June, Gerald Bennett must be at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale (moved from April this year due to COVID-19), looking to strengthen his Winning Stables, Inc., roster with future Thoroughbred standouts.

Or he could be driving back from Delaware Park with wife Mary after delivering a shipment of 13 runners from Tampa Bay Downs for the Wilmington, Del., meeting that began Wednesday.

With a few days remaining in the Oldsmar oval's 2019-2020 season, Bennett still can be found at his barn overseeing a few dozen horses, many of which have helped him capture a fifth consecutive Tampa Bay Downs training championship with 60 victories (the current season concludes with racing Wednesday and June 30, with the 2020-2021 meeting beginning July 1).

The 76-year-old conditioner shared his first Oldsmar training title in 2010-2011 with Jamie Ness, the track's all-time record-holder with nine titles, won consecutively from 2006-2015.

What's different this season: Bennett has also wrapped up his first Tampa Bay Downs owners title with 23 victories. Bennett, who sent out 15 winners under his Winning Stables, Inc., banner and eight in various partnerships, is four ahead of both Godolphin, LLC (19 victories) and owner-trainer Juan Arriagada, who won 11 races individually and eight in various partnerships.

“It's great to be able to keep going strong year after year,” said the Springhill, Nova Scotia native, who ranks 14th all-time in North America with 3,903 victories. “You need that fire and desire to do it right because it's a lot of work to stay successful, and right now I still have it.”

Bennett, the father of trainer Dale Bennett, has recruited new owners to the sport virtually from the start of his career, when he competed in Canada. “It's important for the sport to bring in new owners,” he said. “You get those friendships established and win some races, and they bring more of their friends into it. I'm fortunate to have owners who like to run their horses where they can win, and hopefully you can buy more young stock that you can turn into stakes horses.”

Owners who partnered with Winning Stables on victories this season included James Georgeades and Ron Pugliese, Jr., of JPG2 and Mr. Pug, LLC; Harold L. Queen; Arnoriver Racing (Mike Arnone); Martin Goodell; and Mary Thomas and Michael Vitello.

While Bennett maintains an excellent rapport with his owners, it is in the barn area where he seems most at home. His reputation for turning claiming horses into allowance winners and allowance horses into stakes performers has been honed through years of study, dedication to his profession and subscribing to the belief that no detail is too small.

Among his best horses are millionaire Beau Genius, who won the Grade I Philip H. Iselin Handicap and the Grade II Michigan Mile and One-Eighth in 1990; Secret Romeo, a multiple-stakes winner who earned $865,790; Bucky's Prayer, a mare who won the 2007 Lightning City Stakes; Fast Flying Rumor, who set a Tampa Bay Downs Beyer Speed Figure record of 108 (since bettered) while winning the 2016 Turf Dash; and R Angel Katelyn, who won three stakes races during the 2016-2017 meeting.

Bennett's lone stakes victory this season came with 6-year-old Florida-bred mare Lady's Island, who won the Minaret Stakes for owners Matties Racing Stable and Averill Racing on Feb. 15.

Win or lose, Bennett is back at the barn by 5 a.m. the next day to oversee each horse's regimen. “I'll be walking in the shed row when a horse stops in front of me, and the hot walker is amazed because the horse knows me,” he said. “Mary says it's because I feed them peppermints, but they get to know your voice and have confidence in what you're doing.”

In that regard, Bennett's Thoroughbred athletes aren't much different than the owners he trains for and the bettors who support his horses.

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