By DRF.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (July 3, 2024) — David Hofmans had the sort of results in 1996 and 1997 many trainers could only dream of accomplishing through an entire career.
In 1996, Hofmans won the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Woodbine with Alphabet Soup, beating a field that included the legendary Cigar. Three weeks earlier, Dramatic Gold won the Grade 1 Meadowlands Cup in New Jersey.
The following year, in the month of June alone, Hofmans won the Belmont Stakes with Touch Gold and the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine with Awesome Again. On the afternoon of Sunday, Aug. 3, 1997, in a span of less than an hour, Awesome Again won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, while Touch Gold won the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park.
Among the standout California-breds under Hofmans’ care were millionaire Greg’s Gold, fellow Grade I winner Cat’s Cradle and Cal Cup legend His Legacy.
Those accomplishments, and many achievements in earlier years and more recently, were on the minds of Hofmans’s friends and family on Wednesday.
Hofmans died by suicide at his home in Southern California, according to friends and family. He was 81.
“I’m devastated,” said California-based owner and California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Board member Pete Parrella, who had horses with Hofmans since the mid-1970s.
“You can’t replace those kind of people. We had a lot of horses together. We had a great time, and I’m so sad that he had to leave early in life.”
David Hofmans, born in Los Angeles on Jan. 27, 1943, began training in 1974, the year he won 10 races from 43 starters.
At the time of his death, Hofmans had a six-horse stable based at Santa Anita, including three runners owned by Parrella’s Legacy Ranch. Hofmans had his last win on May 11 at Santa Anita with the $25,000 claimer Seventeen Black. His final stakes win occurred with Award Winner in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita in May 2021.
While the number of runners in his stables dwindled in the last decade, Hofmans remained a mainstay at Santa Anita for most of the year, and Del Mar in the summers.
“We had great memories and were a great team,” Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza said.
“We had a lot of success. He was the easiest trainer I’ve ever worked with and fun, too. A couple of times we lost and he said, ‘We’ll go for the next one.’ I never had pressure from him.”
The roll call of Espinoza’s winners for Hofmans is a remarkable group that includes Balance, an older half-sister to the legendary Zenyatta, and Adoration, who earned more than $2 million.
Espinoza won three Grade 1 races aboard Balance for Hofmans – the Las Virgenes Stakes and Santa Anita Oaks in 2006, and the Santa Margarita Stakes in 2007. Adoration won the 2003 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita when ridden by Pat Valenzuela. Espinoza was aboard Adoration for the final two starts of her career in 2004, wins in the Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs and Arlington Matron Handicap at Arlington Park.
Adoration and Balance were owned by John and Jerry Amerman. They worked with bloodstock agent Bob Feld on the acquisition of those famous mares and many others.
Feld grew up watching the races at Santa Anita in the late 1970s as a teenager attending nearby Arcadia High School. As an avid follower of the sport, Feld gained an early appreciation for Hofmans as a trainer.
Years later, Feld, now 62, worked for his brother, Jude, who trained, and got to know Hofmans through the backstretch community. When Feld’s bloodstock business grew, he recommended the Amermans employ Hofmans.
One of Feld’s early successes for the Amermans was Siphonic, who was third in the 2001 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Belmont Park and later won the Grade 1 Hollywood Futurity at Hollywood Park. More recently, Feld acquired Melatonin who was already in Hofmans’s barn with a different client. Melatonin, owned by Susan Osborne, won two Grade 1 races in 2016 – the Santa Anita Handicap and Gold Cup at Santa Anita, which is now known as the Hollywood Gold Cup.
“He was the Allen Jerkens of the West Coast,” Feld said, referring to the late legendary New York-based trainer.
“Dave and I had an unbelievable history together. It was a dream come true to become personal friends. I texted him yesterday and we had a conversation.
“He was a sweet guy. He was always upbeat. From a kid looking at him from afar, to winning Grade 1 races and a Breeders’ Cup, it was special.”
On Wednesday, Jerry Amerman rated Siphonic as a personal favorite.
“He trained the best horse we had in my mind, and that was Siphonic,” she said.
“We’ve had a number of trainers over the years,” John Amerman said. “You couldn’t ask for a finer gentleman than David. We had so much success with him.
“He was classy. Through wins and losses, he always kept his head up. The whole thing is such a terrible shock.
“This is such a tremendous blow. We loved him. He was instrumental in helping us build our racing stable.”
Since 2010, Hofmans was often seen in the mornings in the company of Brent Fabbri, his nephew and assistant trainer. Fabbri, 42, recalled going to work for his uncle as a hotwalker at 16 and working his way to the role of assistant. Through all those years, Fabbri grew closer to his uncle.
“He cared for everybody,” Fabbri said. “He looked out for everybody.”
Hofmans won 1,085 races from 7,362 starters who earned more than $53.3 million. The stable earned $5.5 million in 1996 at its height, and $4.4 million the following year. Runners such as Adoration, Balance, and Siphonic provided highlights in the 2000s, while Melatonin lead the stable in the 2010s.
Hofmans even played the spoiler. Touch Gold’s Belmont win ended an attempt at the Triple Crown for Silver Charm, who finished second by three-quarters of a length that day. Touch Gold had finished fourth behind Silver Charm in the Preakness three weeks earlier. Hofmans nursed Touch Gold through a quarter crack sustained in the Preakness to have him in peak form for the Belmont Stakes.
While the number of runners in the barn and its influence waned in recent years, Hofmans was often in good spirits while walking briskly from his barn to the Santa Anita stands to watch his horses train.
“He was always so cheery and happy,” Feld said. “He cared about everybody.”
Hofmans is survived by his wife, Linda Murray-Hofmans. Their first date was a racing charity dinner, a meeting organized by a mutual friend.
“I introduced them on a blind date and they got married,” said former trainer Jenine Sahadi.
The couple recently had their 12th anniversary.
A complete list of survivors was unavailable late Wednesday afternoon.