Michael Blowen

Dual Classic winner and champion 3-year-old colt I'll Have Another (Flower Alley) has been donated to Old Friends by owner Paul Reddam. The 14-year-old former stallion arrived to the Thoroughbred retirement farm Wednesday. "Welcoming I'll Have Another is an auspicious and historic moment for Old Friends," said John Nicholson, president and CEO of Old Friends. "We are deeply grateful to Paul Reddam and Doug O'Neill for choosing Old Friends to care for this great champion and to celebrate his magnificent legacy with thousands of our annual visitors. Being able to...

Old Friends founder Michael Blowen and longtime Three Chimneys Farm stallion manager Sandy Hatfield will join together for a special tour of the Old Friends retirement facility in Georgetown Apr. 9. The tour, with a $150 per person cost, will be limited to 20 people. "Old Friends is blessed with, not only legendary horses, but with legendary people within our family," said John Nicholson, president and CEO of Old Friends. "Our founder Michael Blowen, and longtime Three Chimneys' stallion manager Sandy Hatfield are just such legends. I can't wait for...

Kentucky's Thoroughbred retirement home Old Friends welcomed the recently-retired MGSW/MGISP C Z Rocket (City Zip). The 10-year-old gelding arrived Feb. 29 to the farm and was welcomed by founder Michael Blowen and current Old Friends CEO John Nicholson. "CZ Rocket has captured the affections of countless race fans throughout his many years on the track," said Nicholson. "After such a successful career, this special gelding has earned the right to enjoy being pampered and celebrated here at Old Friends. We are grateful to his connections for seeking such a well-deserved...

Michael Blowen, the founder of Old Friends, has stepped down as President of the Thoroughbred aftercare facility. He joined this week's Writers' Room to discuss the announcement.

Michael Blowen has announced he is stepping down as president of Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement facility he founded in Georgetown, Kentucky in 2003. John Nicholson, who served as Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Park from 1997 to 2014, will take over as president and CEO, effective Feb. 1. "I started looking a couple of years ago for someone to take over as president," said Blowen. "The most important thing I was looking for was someone that really, really, put the horses first. It's not like they'd just be...

Multiple graded stakes winner Sun King (Charismatic--Clever But Costly, by Clever Trick), a retiree at Old Friends since 2017, was euthanized Saturday at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital due to inoperable cancer, the Georgetown retirement facility reported Sunday. He was 21. Campaigned by Tracy Farmer and trained by Nick Zito, Sun King won the GII Pennsylvania Derby, GIII Tampa Bay Derby and GIII Leonard Richards S. in 2005 and added the GII Commonwealth Breeders' Cup S. in 2006. He hit the board in eight Grade I events, including third-place finishes...

Work All Week (City Zip), upset winner of the 2014 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint and that year's champion sprinter, died at Old Friends in Georgetown, Kentucky, Monday, Nov. 13. According to Old Friends equine veterinarian Dr. Bryan Waldridge, the 14-year-old suffered a fatal paddock accident. A full necropsy is pending. Bred in Illinois by Richard and Karen Papiese's Midwest Thoroughbreds, the likeable chestnut was trained throughout his career by the late Roger Brueggemann. During the summer of 2013, Work All Week embarked on an eight-race winning streak that included open-company...

MGSW Tom's Ready (More Than Ready) was euthanized on Monday, Oct. 30 at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, due to complications following colic surgery, Old Friends Farm announced on Tuesday. The 10-year old dark bay stallion was donated to Old Friends by owner Gayle Benson in November of 2020. The $145,000 Saratoga Select Yearling amassed a career line of 21-5-4-3, $1,036,357 over three seasons and captured the 2016 GII Woody Stephens S. and GIII Ack Ack S., and the 2017 GIII Bold Ruler S. He also placed...

Old Friends Farm will hold its Fall Fundraiser on Monday, Oct. 16, the Thoroughbred retirement home said in a release Thursday morning. Before the fundraiser, at 11:30 a.m. (ET) the farm will pay tribute to MGSW Timely Writer, who lost his life in a breakdown at Belmont Park in 1982. Due to construction of a new synthetic track in Elmont, his grave has been exhumed and his remains will now be reinterred at the Nikki Bacharach Memorial Cemetery at Old Friends. There is no cost to attend the service. Gates...

Stormy Liberal is one of a select number of Breeders' Cup winners to repeat the feat. Always dead game, the former claimer's final half-dozen career victories had connections and fans regularly holding their collective breaths as his biggest margin was just a neck. The tough and classy veteran raced on three continents, earned an Eclipse as champion turf male in 2018, and retired to Old Friends after his 2019 season. "When owner David Bernsen retired Stormy to us, I was thrilled," said Michael Blowen, president of Old Friends. "The two-time...

Anyone who ever knew Brereton C. Jones can stop reading now. I won't be telling you anything new. He was smart, kind and compassionate. And that is a rare trifecta. But he was so much more than that. Nearly two decades ago, when I first started Old Friends, I made an appointment to see him at Airdrie Stud, a farm as modest and forthright as he was. "Let me get this straight," he said. "You're going to get these horses, including stallions from Japan, and you're not going to race...

Eclipse Award-winner and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint champion Amazombie (Northern Afleet) was euthanized on Monday, Sept. 18, at Old Friends in Georgetown, KY, due to a fractured ankle. The 16-year old gelding had lived at the retirement facility since 2014 thanks to his owners, trainer Bill Spawr and Thomas Sanford. "Amazombie was a lot of fun," Spawr said. "He was so much fun, you just can't imagine. And, you know, he died doing what he loved to do--run! You guys [at Old Friends] did a great job. We appreciated that."...