Hofmans takes swing at Shoemaker Mile with Home Run Kitten

ARCADIA, Calif. – California trainer David Hofmans has revived his stable from within this year.

In 2015, Melatonin and Home Run Kitten were a combined 1 for 8 for Hofmans, with the only win between them an optional claimer at Del Mar. This year, Melatonin has become a Grade 1 winner with a surprise victory in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap in March. Home Run Kitten won the second graded stakes of his career last month and steps up to the Grade 1 level in Saturday’s $400,000 Shoemaker Mile on turf at Santa Anita.

“We’re throwing him to the wolves,” Hofmans said. “This is a big step up in class.”

Hofmans has occasionally produced surprises in major stakes. He won the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Classic with Alphabet Soup ($41.70), the 2003 Breeders’ Cup Distaff with Adoration ($83.40), and the 2008 BC Turf Sprint with Desert Code ($75). Melatonin paid $34.60 in the Big Cap.

Home Run Kitten will not be 30-1 or 40-1 in the Shoemaker Mile, but there was a time when the 5-year-old horse would have deserved to be such a price.

Home Run Kitten was 3 when he won the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes on the hillside turf course in September 2014. He was 11th behind Bobby’s Kitten in the BC Turf Sprint here in November that year. Home Run Kitten lost five starts in late 2014 and early 2015, with seconds or thirds in four consecutive graded stakes.

Hofmans was discouraged when Home Run Kitten finished last of eight in the Grade 3 American Stakes in May 2015, so much so that he turned the horse out.

“I couldn’t figure him out,” Hofmans said. “I gave him time off.”

Home Run Kitten returned to racing earlier this year, finishing ninth and seventh in two sprints on the hillside turf course. Then, Home Run Kitten began to show enthusiasm in training. That surprised Hofmans, who said he was unable to pinpoint a reason for the change.

“Something went right,” he said. “He trained better, and he got into his work pattern.”

The improvement was evident in this year’s American Stakes, which was transferred from turf to a wet-fast main track on a rainy Friday afternoon, May 6. Home Run Kitten closed from fifth in a field of six to win by a half-length at 14-1.

The Shoemaker Mile will be Home Run Kitten’s first start in a Grade 1 race since a third in the Frank Kilroe Mile in March 2015.

“Let’s hope he can handle it,” Hofmans said. “He has to run his best race to be competitive.”

Melatonin and Home Run Kitten are the only stakes winners for Hofmans in the last five years. He won three stakes with the 2-year-old J P’s Gusto in 2010, including the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, but the colt was transferred out of his barn the following winter.

Melatonin and Home Run Kitten are owned by Susan Osborne, who races as Tarabilla Farms. Her involvement has been a boost for the Hofmans stable.

“She’s been a savior,” he said.

Melatonin followed his win in the Big Cap with a second to Effinex in the Oaklawn Handicap on April 16. Melatonin will have his next start in the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 25, which could put the 5-year-old gelding on course for the BC Classic here on Nov. 5.

“The Gold Cup will give us some indication where we fit in the overall scheme,” Hofmans said.

Hofmans is best known for winning the 1996 BC Classic with Alphabet Soup, who beat that season’s Horse of the Year, Cigar. The following June, the Hofmans-trained Touch Gold won the Belmont Stakes, ending Silver Charm’s chance for a Triple Crown. Hofmans won three other major stakes for 3-year-olds in 1997 – the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine and the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga with Awesome Again and the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park with Touch Gold.

Hofmans has 20 horses in his barn, about 10 fewer than he would prefer. Hofmans, 73, said owners may be looking for younger trainers.

“Nobody calls,” he said. “They want to go with younger guys who take them to dinner. I’m too old.”

Not too old to produce the occasional upset.