GEORGETOWN, Ky. Michael Blowen can leave the house any day of the week and visit retired racehorses at Old Friends, the thoroughbred farm he founded in Kentucky two decades ago and which attentively cares for former winners and losers alike.
From the back door of his home, Blowen can watch one former racehorse in particular wandering aimlessly in a nearby pasture: Silver Charm, the champion thoroughbred who won the 1997 Kentucky Derby.
“Hey, handsome,” Blowen shouted as he approached his longtime friend, who now only has four teeth left and spends most of the day napping. Silver Charm headed towards Blowen, who fed him a handful of Mrs. Pasture’s horse biscuit crumbs before putting the rest into a bucket of feed. The oldest living Derby winner then went to his water cooler, took a drink and dozed off.
“He’s pretty predictable,” Blowen said. “He knows what he wants and when he wants it.”
Welcome to Old Friends Farm, a 236-acre (95.51 hectare) racehorse retirement community just outside of Georgetown, Kentucky, where champion thoroughbreds and lovable losers retreat for leisure amidst the splendor of Kentucky’s picturesque bluegrass region, languishing in the shadows of its former glory. then posing for photos with devoted racing fans who – especially during Derby season – visit the farm.
The Derby will be held on Saturday. At Old Friends, every day is Legends Day.
For $30, visitors take a 90-minute guided walking tour while getting up close and personal with some of the farm’s most famous residents, including 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Silver Charm and I’ll Have Another.
Blowen, a former Boston Globe film critic, founded Old Friends in 2003 with a rented paddock and a horse. He was just getting started when news broke that Ferdinand, winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1986, had died in a slaughterhouse in Japan.
“As Ferdinand was a Derby winner, that made a huge difference.” Blowen spoke about his own campaign to provide a dignified and comfortable retirement for Old Friends racehorses.
Today, about 250 former racehorses live at Old Friends, either at the main farm in Kentucky or at three satellite locations.
In Kentucky, Silver Charm’s daily routine is simple: He poses for tour group photos and mingles with neighbors in adjacent paddocks after being released into his football field-sized paddock early in the morning. He prefers to return to his stable around 3:30 pm, naps frequently, but can still run occasionally.
“He’ll go down that hill like he’s opening the Lone Ranger show,” Blowen said.
Silver Charm has lived in Old Friends for almost a decade. The attention given to the 30-year-old Hall of Fame racehorse has come to symbolize the care that thoroughbreds deserve in their golden years, long after they run their last race or produce their last foal, said Old Friends CEO, John Nicholson.
“He’s a great reminder that at the heart of our sport, at the heart of the industry, is the horse,” Nicholson said. “He reminds us that the horse has given us so much more than we have ever given back and that we should always try to give back.”
The fraternity of former Derby winners spans horse farms around the world, including Kentucky, the epicenter of the sport. After champion racehorses finish racing, stud careers typically begin in the hope that their bloodlines will preserve the legacy and bottom line.
Silver Charm followed suit. After a stellar racing career that included victories in the Derby, Preakness and Dubai World Cup – accumulating earnings of nearly $7 million – his stallion career began at the renowned Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky, after which he spent years in Japan .
Silver Charm was later sent to Old Friends, where he became a beloved ambassador for the farm.
For a time, two of Silver Charm’s biggest competitors – Touch Gold and Swain – were its neighbors Old Friends. Touch Gold won the 1997 Belmont Stakes in a prolonged duel with Silver Charm that denied him the Triple Crown. Silver Charm later defeated Swain at the Dubai World Cup. Touch Gold still lives in Old Friends, but Swain died there at age 30 in 2022.
Not all Old Friends residents made it to the winner’s circle. Zippy Chippy, horse racing’s lovable loser for never winning 100 races, spent his golden years comfortably at Old Friends Farm in upstate New York until his death in 2022.
“For the first part of their lives, they do whatever people tell them to do,” Nicholson said, adding that Old Friends relies primarily on donations to cover annual operating expenses that run into millions of dollars. “At this stage in their life, we are doing everything they tell us to do.”
If there’s room, Old Friends tries to accept any thoroughbreds the owner wants to retire there, Blowen said. Owners must relinquish ownership and surrender the horse. Old Friends accepts only thoroughbreds and says horses considered “high risk” and stallions returned from abroad receive preference, according to its website.
Like the face of Old Friends, Silver Charm symbolizes the life former racehorses deserve, Nicholson said.
“He was a great athlete, but since then he has been an ambassador for an even higher calling,” he said. “And I think that’s part of his magic.”
For tourist Susan Hale, seeing Silver Charm up close sparked memories of a bet she made on the 1997 Derby.
“I went into the paddock while he was being saddled and said, ‘I’m going to put some money on that horse right there,’” Hale recalled of the bet she made on Silver Charm that netted her several hundred dollars and allowed her to pay for dinner with friends in a steakhouse that night.
Silver Charm won the race in thrilling fashion – and a lasting place in Hale’s heart. A framed print of Silver Charm in its heyday is displayed in the living room of their home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
“Actually, that’s why I’m here,” Hale said. “The other horses are beautiful too, but he’s my favorite.”
Still, Silver Charm’s most faithful companion remains Blowen, the founder and retired president of Old Friends, who can see his favorite horse simply by walking out the back door.
“Think of the best thing you’ve ever seen and put it in your yard, and then you’ll get an idea,” Blowen said of what it’s like to have Silver Charm as a neighbor. “Every day I understand this.”
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