“And all of the individuals mentioned, ‘What a disgrace that he is useless.’ However wasn’t he a most peculiar man?” —Paul Simon
He was my first. David Hofmans was the primary particular person this reporter interviewed for a narrative for which I might be paid good American {dollars}. I described him as “vibrant, balding, and in shameless love together with his work.” He was recent from his second season as a public coach, throughout which his horses earned all of $226,598. I used to be 25, Hofmans was 32. And now I have to write of his demise.
However that is for later.
Denk: Basic-Successful Coach David Hofmans Dies at 81
David Eugene Hofmans was a most peculiar man, however peculiar in a manner that made you cease, and surprise, and all the time wish to know extra. He stood out, even by the eccentric requirements of the Thoroughbred racing world, described by his daughter, Jill Hofmans, as “that cozy ecosystem of horses and dependable assist, buddies and congenial opponents, experience and alchemy, ego and self-worth.”
“He was a person of the individuals, and on the floor he was ever-smiling and upbeat,” mentioned Jill, government director of the Conway Middle for Household Enterprise in Columbus, Ohio. “He was rather more difficult than that.”
Sophisticated appears to be an important requisite for the job. The Thoroughbred coach, if he’s any good in any respect, embodies F. Scott Fitzgerald’s reminder that “The take a look at of a first-rate intelligence is the power to carry two opposing concepts in thoughts on the similar time and nonetheless retain the power to perform.”
“I do not know what to suppose,” Hofmans mentioned the day Contact Gold labored seven-eighths in 1:23 4/5 on a repaired foot one week earlier than the 1997 Belmont Stakes (G1), “besides that it was too quick and he did it simple.”
No surprise trainers have mastered any variety of coping mechanisms. Richard Mandella deflects by cracking smart. Todd Pletcher dips right into a helpful basket of secure sound bites. Invoice Mott will go quiet, stare at a spot off in area, then 10 minutes later reply your query, lengthy after you have forgotten what you requested. Dave Hofmans grinned and made you snicker.
Is it blasphemous to lump Hofmans in with such Corridor of Fame names, in any regard? Not hardly. His report stands scrutiny from all angles, and the privilege of being there for a lot of of his best moments was priceless.
The day after he despatched forth Contact Gold to finish the Triple Crown desires of Silver Attraction within the 1997 Belmont Stakes, Hofmans made his manner unrecognized by the foyer of the Backyard Metropolis Resort, bemused by his anonymity whereas involved for his younger star.
“I do not suppose my colt is getting the popularity he deserves,” Hofmans mentioned as he emerged into the Lengthy Island morning. “And I perceive that. It is a large letdown for the followers and the sport. However individuals ought to understand simply what a giant race he ran. And what a fantastic horse he might be.”
There was that golden autumn night in Canada, again on the barn after Hofmans, Chris McCarron, and Alphabet Soup had spoiled Cigar’s day within the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Basic (G1) at Woodbine. The coach lavished consideration on his different Basic runner, Dramatic Gold, then turned to the slender grey horse with the black-rimmed eyes.
“Take a look at him, the little satan,” Hofmans mentioned as he touched Alphabet Soup. “Did you see the way in which he pinned his ears and set his jaw when Cigar got here to him? Cigar! And he wasn’t about to let him by.”
Two extra Breeders’ Cup wins adopted—Adoration at 40-1 and Desert Code at 36-1—each dizzying delights that got here early on their applications, permitting Hofmans to drift by the remainder of the day. Extra lately, there was the 2016 Santa Anita Handicap (G1) received by a gelding who had spent a 12 months on the sidelines recuperating from equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, in any other case generally known as EPM. His title was Melatonin , and that was Hofmans attending to his wheelchair-bound proprietor, Susan Osborne, as they made their manner rigorously, joyfully to the winner’s circle.
The names of the opposite main Hofmans horses won’t sound immediately acquainted bells, however the main races they received ring loud and clear: the Blue Grass Stakes (G1), the Acorn Stakes (G1), the Meadowlands Cup Handicap (G1), the Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap (G1), the Bing Crosby Handicap (G1), the Haskell Invitational Handicap (G1), the Hollywood Derby (G1T), and Del Mar Futurity (G1). Toss in a Queen’s Plate as properly, for a primary Canadian double. But when Hofmans had been requested to hold his repute on a single horse, he would suppose first of Alphabet Soup after which land squarely on His Legacy, a California-bred son of Pocketful in Vail owned by Pete Parella’s Legacy Ranch. His Legacy raced till age 9, after seven years with the Hofmans barn, with 14 wins, 17 seconds and thirds, and a victorious final hurrah.
“I bear in mind his last race, the Cal Cup at Santa Anita,” Hofmans advised Ed Golden in Coach Journal. “My son and I had been standing as he got here down the stretch, each crying we had been so emotional.”
Hofmans doted on his three youngsters from his first marriage—Grant, Jill, and Amy—and 6 grandchildren. Hofmans and his spouse, Linda, had been married in 2012 after assembly on a blind date organized by a mutual buddy.
Grant Hofmans served as assistant to his father for 11 years. He at the moment is the supervisor of the Diamond A Farm department of the Taylor Made Farm operation in Kentucky.
“Endurance,” Grant mentioned when requested what made his father an excellent coach. “You understand how sort he was with individuals, and he was that manner with the horses. He simply beloved them. And when he put a jock on a horse, that jock knew the horse was in the most effective situation and the most effective well being he might be.”
Coaching Thoroughbreds is a recreation of life and typically demise. David Hofmans was scarred early by a severe damage to his first good horse, the 1975 Commencement Stakes winner Lexington Chortle, who ultimately foundered and was euthanized. Years later, throughout a spate of breakdowns skilled by different stables, Hofmans articulated the grim actuality that few are keen to utter aloud.
“This enterprise is constructed on the damaged bones of those horses,” Hofmans mentioned. “We will always remember that.”
He by no means did, however neither did he apologize for his chosen career.
“We all know it could possibly not be mentioned that fatalities are ‘a part of the sport,'” Hofmans mentioned a couple of years in the past when scrutiny on trainers was growing. “Nobody ought to settle for that. And but it is senseless {that a} coach would deliberately put a horse on the market they know is in apparent jeopardy. I am not naïve sufficient to suppose that there aren’t trainers who take such possibilities. However for the good majority of us, there’s a great value to dropping a horse, each emotionally and economically.”
The Hofmans barn, even at its 40-horse peak, was an island of relative serenity in a stormy world.
“The way in which my dad did it, you’d by no means know the way good he was,” Grant Hofmans mentioned. “He was all the time on the market…telling tales and making all people snicker. Again on the barn he was all enterprise, however with none yelling or screaming. He let me and the opposite workers do our factor, whereas he’d be watching in that affected person manner, and step in when he wanted to. He guided in a sort manner, and the assistance beloved him. And he all the time made time for everyone. It might drive me nuts. ‘Let’s go, dad. We have got to get the set out.’ Then it was screw it, we’ll go with out you.”
Generally, the well-known Hofmans equanimity might be irritating.
“Proper? I am his son, and it could piss me off,” mentioned Grant, greater than half severe. “‘Come on, man. Get mad. You simply acquired beat!’ Right here I’m, a spoiled brat child stomping round and he’d be, ‘Take it simple. It is okay.’ That does not imply he wasn’t very aggressive. He was. However it was by no means anybody’s fault after we acquired beat, until he thought it was his.”
Hofmans died July 3, after one final name to his Santa Anita Park barn foreman, Seledonio “Chololo” Cano, telling him to easily stroll the horses that morning and he can be there quickly. Hofmans was discovered at house, the reason for demise was self-inflicted asphyxiation, and the requirement of an official post-mortem adopted.
Glowing encomiums from business colleagues have flowed, accompanied by the persistent drip-drip of the accompanying query: Why would he finish his personal life?
Regardless of his confirmed capability to plumb the depths of no matter expertise a horse may show, Hofmans skilled down years amidst the bounty offered by these main stakes winners. At one level, he battled, efficiently, a blood dysfunction that diverted his consideration. Shut family and friends conceded that he was susceptible to periodic bouts of despair. On the time of his demise, he was coaching simply six horses, none of them of obvious stakes high quality. His final starter was June 2, whereas the final of his 1,085 winners got here Could 11.
On the finish of the day, such questions of ‘why’ default to Albert Camus, the captain of Group Existential, who wrote, “There may be however one actually severe philosophical downside, and that’s suicide.”
In his function as vice chairman of the California Thoroughbred Trainers, it was obvious Hofmans nonetheless cared very a lot concerning the recreation. Conversely, the sport did not care very a lot for him. His stalls contained a few token horses from long-standing purchasers, however for essentially the most half, his abilities had been being squandered as a result of the birthdate on his driver’s license learn Jan. 27, 1943.
“We talked about it loads,” Grant mentioned. “He had purchasers giving horses to youthful trainers, whereas he was nonetheless successful races for them, and that actually bothered him. I might say, ‘You are 81 on the quantity, however you are feeling like 60, I do know.’ I advised him he needed to change to compete for horses with the younger guys—get on social media, get an Instagram account, throw stuff on the market—that is what these guys are doing, working round with an iPad as a substitute of a Racing Kind.”
Not surprisingly, Hofmans resisted the thought of changing into a blue verify on Twitter/X.
“I talked to him final Sunday,” Grant mentioned. “We talked concerning the recreation. He (was upset) concerning the stall app for Del Mar—the standard stuff. He mentioned, ‘I gotta simply retire. I’ve gotta get out of right here.'”
What Hofmans meant by that, his son can solely guess.
“We’re all attempting to make sense of this tragedy,” Jill Hofmans mentioned. “How a really hale and hearty man, though 81, is not with us. Who is aware of if it was the truth of crippling financial woes, outdoors stress to provide it up, or the ever-advancing march towards failing well being. We nonetheless thought, as most do, that we had extra time.
“Suicide has such a sting to it, and but for him it made sense,” she added. “He was essentially the most selfless man in life. I beloved him ferociously. He’s at peace now, and I take a bit of enjoyment in feeling that his final act was one in every of his solely egocentric ones and, frankly, fairly courageous. I respect him for that.”
If Dave Hofmans ever learn something by Arthur Schopenhauer, one thing the German thinker wrote would have made good sense:
“When a person destroys his existence as a person, he’s not by any means destroying his will to stay. Quite the opposite, he wish to stay if he might accomplish that with satisfaction to himself, if he might assert his will in opposition to the ability of circumstance. However circumstance is just too robust for him.”
“Racing made him who he was,” Grant mentioned. “With out the enterprise, with out the horses, he had nothing. And if he retired, what was subsequent? Getting older, getting sick? He by no means would have dealt with that, being a burden. My dad was the caretaker.
“He talked about it, and he was by no means afraid of it, of demise,” Grant added. “I suppose he simply wished it to be on his phrases, and I do not blame him. We beloved one another very a lot, and we each knew it. We talked loads, it wasn’t all the time about horses, and each dialog ended with ‘I like you.'”
