Hofmann estate gift of $1 million will benefit equine programs at UF College of Veterinary Medicine

The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine’s proximity to Georgia Hofmann’s Ocala farm - and its regular availability of clinicians to treat the horses she loved - has led to a record-breaking $1 million gift to the college from the Hofmann estate.

Mrs. Hofmann, 91, a leading figure in Thoroughbred racing, died Nov. 14 of complications from leukemia.

The Hofmann gift will establish “The Philip B. and Georgia E. Hofmann Fund For Equine Studies” at the college. In addition, state matching funds will supplement the gift by $750,000.

Proceeds from the endowment will be used to support college equine programs, including teaching, research and other needs.

In recognition of the gift and its meaning to the college, the equine neonatal intensive care unit at the Alec P. and Louise H. Courtelis Equine Hospital will be named “The Philip B. and Georgia B. Hofmann Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.”

Georgia Hofmann loved horses, and her husband, Philip, a retired chairman of worldwide health company Johnson & Johnson, loved Georgia - so much so that he bought her a horse farm, Wycombe House Stud in Ocala, as a wedding present. Philip Hofmann, who died in 1986, also was intrigued by horses, but his interests were in jumpers, show horses and coach-and-four competition. His wife’s passion was Thoroughbred racing, and according to her sister, Elizabeth St. Amand, that was fine with Philip.”

He was so cute. He would say, it’s your business, you just do what you want to do,” recalled St. Amand, who lives in Jacksonville.

St. Amand said Philip, who collected and restored old carriages, belonged to the American Carriage Association and taught Georgia how to drive.

One time, Philip and Georgia drove their coach-and-four all the way from Wall Street in New York to Philadelphia to commemorate early travel between those two cities. It was an ambitious trip that required the cooperation of officials from three states, and special arrangements to go through the Hudson Tunnel from New York to New Jersey. But big projects never daunted the Hofmanns.

Georgia Hofmann bred and raced some of the finest racehorses of her time. Though in rapidly failing health, she attended the Breeders Cup races at Florida’s Gulfstream Park in Florida on Nov. 6 in a wheelchair. The next day, she flew to Lexington, Ky., in a chartered plane to preside over the sale of the last of her race horses at the Keeneland sales. She sold 22 horses for more than $12 million, including her champion mare, Sky Beauty, winner of the 1993 Triple Tiara. For fillies, this designation is equivalent to winning racing’s Triple Crown.