Old Friends, which is located in Georgetown, Ky., just a short drive north of Lexington, is a retirement farm for thoroughbred horses, champions and non-champions alike. What makes Old Friends different is that it takes in stallions. In fact, to date, Old Friends is the only thoroughbred retirement farm that takes in stallions in the United States.The farm was started by Michael Blowen, a former Boston Globe movie critic who learned the ropes of the horse racing business at Suffolk Downs near Boston. Along with his wife, Diane, another former Boston Globe columnist, they moved to Lexington when Blowen accepted a job with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.
While working there, he noticed that the thoroughbred stallions were not getting the same retirement chances as geldings and mares, and after the news about 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand's death in Japan, he decided to try and do something about it.
In the same article that he read about Ferdinand's demise, he also spotted the names of another horse in Japan, Sunshine Forever, which also happened to be one of his favorite all-time horses, as well as Criminal Type. He decided to work on bringing those two horses home from Japan.
After a lot of hard work, and the help of many people, he got the agreement from the folks in Japan to bring them home. Unfortunately, Criminal Type died before he could make the trip home. In his place came Creator, another great champion race horse.
In late 2004, the two of them arrived at Old Friends to become the first two thoroughbred champions to be returned home to the United States from Japan.
At the time, Old Friends was located at Afton Farms in Midway, Ky. Soon after, they moved to Hurstland Farm, also in Midway, before moving to their current permanent location at Dream Chase Farm in Georgetown.Originally, just 52 acres, today Old Friends consists of 92 acres, and has an annex next door with another 40+ acres. In addition, Blowen also houses a few horses on three other farms in the Central Kentucky area and, on July 22, 2010, the farm will host a grand opening of a new satellite farm in New York near Saratoga Race Track. It is called Old Friends at Cabin Creek: The Bobby Frankel Division, in honor of the former trainer who passed away last year and who was a big supporter of Old Friends. There are already 10 horses retired on that farm, including one former horse of Frankel's, New Export.
In total, Old Friends is home to 100 thoroughbred horses. This includes over 40 stallions and five former Eclipse award winners: Sunshine Forever (middle photo), Gulch, Hidden Lake, Black Tie Affair (top photo) and The Wicked North.
There are also a few rescues, including Clever Allemont, a favorite for the 1985 Kentucky Derby who got injured and somehow ended up on a kill farm in Kansas where he was rescued two Christmas' Eve ago by Kristin Chambers of Winding Road Equine Rescue & Retirement in Waverly, Kan.; Williamstown, a son of Seattle Slew, who was almost euthanized because he had reached the end of his stud career, but was saved by a call to Blowen three Thanksgiving's ago; and EscapedfromNewYork, one of the horses that was rescued off of the Ernie Paragello farm in New York two summers ago.
In addition, there is a mix of other great champions and not-so-great champions, all of them beautiful and happy to be enjoying their retirement munching on the sweet bluegrass of Kentucky. Some are champions, like Awad, winner of, among other races, the 1995 Arlington Million, and Kiri's Clown, winner of, among other races, the 1995 Sword Dance Handicap at Saratoga, where he set the Saratoga track record for the 1 1/2 mile race. According to the Old Friends website, "One of the many exciting highlights of Kiri's career was his rivalry with Old Friends fellow resident, Awad. Today, there are times that visitors can see these two former on-track rivals race each other along their fence line, as they share adjoining paddocks.
Some of the horse at Old Friends are just regular race horses, like Swan's Way, a sweetheart of a stallion who won eight times in his 81 races, and Academy Award, a son of Secretariat, who won five times in 19 starts and is the spitting image of his great sire, just a lot smaller.
There's a movie star in Popcorn Deelites, one of the horses that played Seabiscuit in the 2003 movie based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand and starring Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridges, while another thinks he is the star of the farm, a mini named Little Silver Charm. Of course, getting his photo published in People magazine two years ago did not help reduce his ego any.
Those are just a few of the wonderful horses you will get to see when you come to Old Friends.
Tours of the farm are given three times a day, seven days a week at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. While a tour guide takes visitors around and tells the story of each of the horses, visitors – if they want – will also get the chance to feed the horses carrots and pet them.
Note: Old Friends has just added a twilight tour for the summer. The tour begins at 7 p.m. for those folks that cannot make it during the day.
All of this is why, if you love horses, this is the one place you will want to visit while you are in Lexington for the AHP seminar.
For info, call 502-863-1775. Tours are free, however, the farm is a 501(c)3 and is run almost entirely by volunteers, so donations are accepted to help in the care and feeding of the horses.
For more information, go to: www.oldfriendsequine.org
Photos by Rick Capone
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