On my first assignment out of the steeplechase world, The Blood Horse put me on the 1997 Preakness and the Belmont beat. What a beat – Silver Charm, Free House, Captain Bodgit, Touch Gold…
Ah, Touch Gold, the vanquisher. And his trainer, David Hofmans. Late in the week of the Belmont, the editors assigned the trainer story – if it wasn’t Silver Charm – to me. For the magazine. Back then, that was big. The weekly magazine. The pinnacle. When Touch Gold ran past Silver Charm, it was a collision of opportunity and angst. I’m just glad it was David Hofmans. Nobody could have been nicer to a fledgling writer trying to find his way. I met him a few days before the Preakness, I felt like we were old friends the day after the Belmont.
Hofmans died July 3.
A horseman. A gentleman.
