A Place Where Old Friends Gather

Down this tree lined drive is a very special place.

A place where old or medically retired athletes can live out their lives.

A place of green pastures, good meals, and a lot of attention.

And I got to visit this place.

It is Old Friends... a home for retired Thoroughbreds.

Visitors are welcome here.

Oops... wait a minute.  There is one retiree who is not of racing blood lines.  His name is Little Silver Charm and he is the welcome committee for Old Friends.

His namesake resides here and is the reason I was oh-so very excited about this tour stop.

Meet Silver Charm.

He was the 1997 winner of the Kentucky Derby (he made me a winner of $50!) and the Preakness Stakes; he was trained by Bob Baffert, giving Baffert his first Derby win.  

And he was sooo close to winning the Belmont; he lost only by a 3/4 length.  There's been much speculation as to why he lost his Triple Crown bid.  Was he a bit off that day?  His jockey said he'd run his best race.  

Or maybe a pretty little filly nickered at him and his mind was on that?  Very doubtful!  LOL

Or did he just meet a better horse?

His coat absolutely glows.

I had just hoped to be able to SEE him.  Can you imagine how excited I was to be able to feed him several carrot pieces?

And here Silver Charm is in 1997.  (We've both gotten quite a bit greyer since then. ☺)

And this bay beauty is Touch Gold... the one who won the 1997 Belmont.

The reason for the goofy face?

He was getting his itchy spot scratched!

That fateful day in June '97.  Touch Gold on the left and Silver Charm on the right coming down the stretch.

Maybe Touch Gold should have been the Triple Crown contender.  But he wasn't entered in the Kentucky Derby.  In the Preakness he broke badly... stumbling out of the starting gate so hard he hit his nose on the track.  Check it out on YouTube... he's in the #4 gate.

But after that face-plant in the dirt, he got it together and came in 4th.

Then he took the Belmont.

Meet War Emblem.  He was the 2002 Triple Crown hopeful but a bad break during the Belmont (he went to his knees coming out of the gate) crushed that Triple Crown run.

War Emblem was known for being fast and brash and obnoxious... he didn't like man nor beast.  (Baffert nicknamed him Hannibal Lector).  But that fall seemed to do something to his spirit and his career spiralled down.  He was retired from racing fairly soon and purchased by a breeding stable in Japan.

Even here he was a pain in the you-know-what.  Remember he didn't like other horses?  He didn't like mares either.  He would rarely accept a mare and in a 2 year period he turned every mare down.  Another year he only liked 5 mares of 300 presented to him.  His total foal crop in 8 years was only 106 (some stallion average that per year).  Fortunately his foals have been overall good ones.

In '15 the breeding stable quit trying and sent him back to the US.  He came to Old Friends to stay.

(Post note:  By USDA regs, a stallion coming into the USA must breed 2 mares so to be tested for a particular disease.  War Emblem refused to do so... and ended up a gelding.)

War Emblem in his glory days.

Here is Silver Ray... a very sad story with a happy Old Friends ending.

Silver Ray is one of those race horses that just isn't that fast.  So he was retired to stud because he does have nice bloodlines.  First he was used for Thoroughbred breeding and didn't do all that well.  Then was sold to dressage trainer to produce sport horse... which he did very well. 

But somewhere along the line he fell into bad hands.  

In 2013 he was rescued at a slaughter auction in California for the sum of $30.  He was starved and missing most of his teeth.  A rescue organization started fattening him up and found him a forever home at Old Friends

Silver Ray during his time as a sport horse stud... looking very good.

I'm not sure this horse's name but he is just a major sweetie.

Carrots and petting... he is all about it!

What a calm eye he has.

This chunky chestnut is Ide.  

Next stop was to see the movie star.  Did you see the movie "Sea Biscuit"?  One of these boys played Sea Biscuit himself...

This is Special Ring who was not Sea Biscuit even tho he acts like a Hollywood ham.

(You can see on his upper lip the tattoo every registered Thoroughbred has).

And this is Popcorn Deelite ~ who did play Sea Biscuit.  Supposedly he is the horse used in the match race scene coming in under the wire.

Old Friends really is really and truly their forever home... much loved to the end.