HALL OF FAME

“Win and I’m in,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer might be saying to himself as he prepares to saddle longshot Chocolate Candy in the Run for the Roses.

Hollendorfer is one of the few trainers to have won the Kentucky Oaks twice (Lite Light and Pike Place Dancer. A score in the Kentucky Derby would surely open the doors to the Hall of Fame in Saratoga to the San Francisco Bay Area resident. Or would it?

His dominance of racing in Northern California has not been enough to enshrine him in racing’s sanctum sanctorum. Jockey Russell Baze has collaborated with Hollendorfer to win dozens of riding titles. His ticket got punched when he soared past 10,000 victories, breaking the record set by Laffit Pincay Jr.

“This is my best chance to win the Derby,” he says with a slight grimace, remembering a
last hour injury to John Mabee’s Event of the Year, pre-race favorite and likely winner in our estimation in 1998.

Chocolate Candy has done well training over the Churchill Downs strip, assuaging concerns that he might not handle the vastly different surface than the synthetics he has encountered in California. Railbirds winced at his mile in 1:42 last week but Mike Smith told Jerry back at the barn that the horse handled the track very well. Chocolate Candy picked up some camp followers when he sizzled in :59 and change in his next move.

“While it would be nice to think of the Hall of Fame I just have to keep doing what I do. If we are fortunate enough to win the Derby that would be great, especially for Jenny Craig. It would be a great way to honor the memory of Sid Craigl”.

Hollendorfer has shifted his operation somewhat to Southern California and has become a force to reckon with there, even absent the big money yearlings and 2-year-old that populate other higher profile barns. That increase in exposure might one day do the trick regarding the Hall of Fame.

A good showing in Louisville will also boost the spirits of Jerry’s wife Janet who is recovering from surgery to remove a benign tumor from her brain. The couple operate as a team and Jerry is quick to credit her contributions to the stable’s success.

On the Oaks front, Hal Wiggins is not headed for the Hall of Fame but he trains a filly who looks like she is headed there, Rachel Alexandra. Wiggins and owner/breeder Dolph Morrison are two of the most congenial gents in the game. An Oaks victory by the favorite would be well toasted in Louisville tonight.