SARATOGA SPRINGS — Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and the fillies Open Mind, Safely Kept and Sky Beauty have been elected to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame.
The Class of 2011 will be inducted on Friday, August 12 at 10:30 a.m. at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion. The ceremony is free and open to the public and for the second consecutive year will be televised live on HRTV.
Hollendorfer, Open Mind, Safely Kept and Sky Beauty were elected in the contemporary category by the 183 members of the Hall of Fame’s voting panel. The Hall of Fame’s Historic Review Committee will announce its selections in early June to complete the Class of 2011.
Hollendorfer has been the most successful trainer in Northern California since the mid-1980s. In 2010, he won five Grade I races, including a dazzling Alabama at Saratoga Race Course with champion Blind Luck. He won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile with Dakota Phone.
Hollendorfer has ranked in the top 10 in wins for 24 consecutive years (1987 through 2010) and has been in the top 10 in earnings 12 times in his career. Through 2010, Hollendorfer ranked fourth in all-time victories (5,863) and eighth all-time in earnings ($119,141,280) among North American trainers.
Open Mind won 12 of 19 career starts. Owned by Eugene Klein and trained by D. Wayne Lukas, Open Mind was named Champion 2-Year-Old Filly of 1988 when she won four of six starts, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. At 3, Open Mind won eight of 11 starts, including the New York Filly Triple Crown (the Acorn, Mother Goose and Coaching Club American Oaks), as well as the Kentucky Oaks and Alabama, which marked 10th consecutive win, seven of which were Grade I’s.
Safely Kept raced four years, winning 24 of 31 starts and accumulating earnings of $2,194,206. Owned by Barry Weisbord and Richard Santulli’s Jayeff B. Stable and trained by Alan Goldberg, Safely Kept won four of her five starts as a 2-year-old in 1988 and then took eight of her nine races at age 3 to earn the Eclipse Award as Champion Sprinter. Among her wins during that campaign were the Grade I Test at Saratoga.
At 4, Safely Kept won eight of 10 races with seven of those victories in stakes events. She defeated a star-studded field in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
Sky Beauty won 15 of 21 starts and had purse earnings of $1,336,000 in her four-year career. Owned by Georgia Hoffman and trained by Hall of Famer Allen Jerkens, Sky Beauty posted a five-race win streak at age 3 in 1993, which included the New York Filly Triple Crown and the Alabama.
At 4, Sky Beauty posted another five-race win streak, including a 10-length romp in the Go for Wand. She also added Grade I wins in the Hempstead and the Ruffian.
