Prominent former California horse owner John Toffan dies at age 83

ARCADIA, Calif. – John Toffan, who co-owned Grade 1 winners such as Bien Bien, Came Home, and Free House in the 1990s and early 2000s, died after a lengthy illness Monday, according to his wife, Cheryl.

Toffan was 83. He was living in Hidden Hills, Calif.

John Toffan, who had a business background in oil exploration and gold mining, rose to prominence in racing with the success of a stable he operated with Trudy McCaffery, his partner at the time. They won such races as the Santa Anita Derby with Free House in 1997 and Came Home in 2002.

Free House was third in the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and second in the Preakness Stakes. He won the Pacific Classic at Del Mar the following year.

Came Home won the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga in 2001 and the Pacific Classic in 2002.

Bien Bien was a multiple Grade 1 winner on turf and was a game second to Kotashaan in the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita. Nearly a decade later, Bienamado, by Bien Bien, won two Grade 1 races Bien Bien also had won – the 2000 Hollywood Turf Cup and 2001 Charles Whittingham Handicap.

Based with trainer Paco Gonzalez in Southern California, the partnership also won graded stakes with A.P. Assay, Bosque Redondo, Del Mar Dennis, Elaborate, Mane Minister, and Pacific Squall.

McCaffery died in 2007. Toffan continued to be involved in racing as an owner and breeder with Cheryl Toffan until earlier this decade.

“I just lost my best friend in the world,” Cheryl Toffan said Wednesday. “He was the most generous person, to a fault. He was a brilliant man.”

No memorial services are planned.