March 29 - Came Home

One of the great and well-earned names in horse racing, John Toffan, was notorious for great names on his horses. However, Came Home's name is out done by his dam.

Came Home was sent to auction a couple of times. He kept coming up short of his reserve for whatever reason. The last time he was at a sale, the bidding was approaching his reserve of $750,000 (I think that's what I was told it was.) and just a few bumps short of the reserve, a highly exacted colt decided to bolt, right off the stage and into the crowd.

John Toffan decided his best option at that point was to race his homebred. It was time to name the horse. Without any hesitation - His name is Came Home. Every time we sent him to a sale he CAME HOME! And Lady Luck is funny in that Came Home may have ended up being the best horse that John Toffan ever raced. This race is also the last race in the career of Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron.

Came Home is by Gone West and out of Nice Assay. John was into oil and precious metals in Canada and her name was a tribute to his mining businesses. It was also the fact that John was Canadian, and the mare's name should be pronounced Nice Ass, Aye? . . . Clever, Aye? There I said it; one of the best names ever and the jockey club obvious has no Canadians on the board that approves names.

Came Home was a top class three year old in 2002 whose career was packed with Grade 1 wins, even if he never quite became a household name. He was a chestnut colt born in March of 1999. His name had a story behind it. He was sent to several yearling sales as a youngster and did not meet his reserve at any of them, so he kept going home unsold. The breeders started joking that he was always coming home, and the name stuck. His sire was Gone West, the talented son of Mr. Prospector who became one of the most respected stallions of his generation. His dam was Nice Assay, by Clever Trick, a graded stakes winning mare. Came Home was campaigned by a partnership of Trudy McCaffery, John Toffan, John Goodman, and William S. Farish, and trained by J. Paco Gonzalez.

His career on the track was short but loaded. As a two year old in 2001, he won the Hollywood Juvenile Championship in California and then traveled east to take the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga, one of the most important Grade 1 races for juveniles in the country. That winter he matured into one of the best three year olds in California. He won the San Rafael Stakes, the San Vicente Stakes, and then took the 2002 Santa Anita Derby, which sent him to Churchill Downs as one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby. The Derby did not go his way, and he ran an unplaced finish behind War Emblem. He skipped the rest of the Triple Crown to come back fresh in California, and the move paid off. He won the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park and capped his three year old summer with a powerful performance in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, beating older horses to take his fourth Grade 1 victory.

He was retired soon afterward and sent to Lane's End Farm in Kentucky to begin his stud career. He stood there for several seasons before being moved to Shizunai Stallion Station in Japan in 2008, where he remained until his death from colic on July 8, 2021. His offspring on both continents included useful runners but no superstars to match what he had done on the racetrack. Came Home is the kind of horse who reminds you that some racing names tell stories. The colt who could not get sold as a yearling went on to win four Grade 1 races, a Pacific Classic, and more than 1.8 million dollars. The breeders gave him a name that was meant to be a bit of a joke, and he turned it into a piece of racing history.

Sources:

• Came Home, Wikipedia

• Came Home, Horse Racing Nation

• Robert B. Lewis, Wikipedia

• Gone West (horse), American Classic Pedigrees