Michael Blowen had no money, no farm, no horses and no backers. But he did have an idea. He wanted to open a farm that would be a sanctuary for some of the sport's biggest names who were either gelded or no longer being used as sires or broodmares. Somehow moving mountains, he pulled it off and his Old Friends Farm became home to hundreds of Thoroughbreds and a popular tourist attraction.
But now he has decided to retire, 20 years after he opened Old Friends, and turn the reins over to John Nicholson. On this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland, Blowen discussed why he is retiring and some of his fondest memories from a job he instantly loved.
“When you get a certain age and you can see the finish line, you know,” Blowen said. “It's like you're turning for home and you go, 'Oh, there's a finish line.' So you better figure out what's going to be happening or what you can do to make everything a little better. And so I started looking for somebody a couple of years ago to take over, and I could never find the right person. Then I ran into John Nicholson. And I would probably still be doing this if I hadn't run into John, because John was the perfect person. I thought, 'boy, oh boy, if he'll do this, it would be great'. People who know John know that he ran Kentucky Horse Park for a long time. He loves the horses.”
His favorite horse? Silver Charm.
“It's hard for me to explain it in one way, because it's hard to explain why you fall in love with somebody,” Blowen said. “No matter who or what you fall in love with your life is going to change. When Sandy Hatfield called me in November of 2015 and said, how would you like an old gray stallion at your farm, I freaked out. The only problem was I couldn't tell anybody. They're supposed to keep it a secret. And then I did keep it a secret, which is probably the only secret I ever kept in my life. But I kept that one. And when he got here on Dec. 1, 2015 that was the greatest day of my life. I didn't even know him, because the first time I ever laid eyes on him in person is when he got off the trailer on that day, but I know I was totally enthralled.'
Though retiring, Blowen plans to spend plenty of time at Old Friends.
“You'll have to drag me out of here,” he said. “I told my wife, when I die, the house where we live in, we have a great house here, and the back backyard is one of the two places where we have cemeteries. I told my wife, when I die, get me cremated, throw my ashes out the back. Just don't put my lifetime earnings on the side.
This week's look at a Coolmore sire focused on Jack Christopher (Munnings). He won three Grade I races and was five-for-five around one turn. He was such a special specimen that Zoe Cadman never forgot her impressions of him when she saw him at Saratoga before he ever raced, noting that he was so perfectly put together that she knew he would be a star.
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Elite Power, WinStar Farm, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association,https://www.kentuckybred.org/https://www.nyrabets.com/ 1/ST Racing, the Green Group, West Point Thoroughbreds and XBTV.com, the team of Randy Moss, Cadman and Bill Finley expressed their gratitude for having earned an Eclipse Award in the Multi-Media category. Our interview with Wade Jost was selected as the winner. Jost is the father of Carson Jost, who, like Cody Dorman, suffers from Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome. Jost, a classmate of Terry Finley at West Point, went in with his syndicate on Carson's Run–named in his son's honor. All agreed that it was Jost who made the podcast so memorable and the team decided it will gift the Eclipse Award trophy to the family.
The team also touched on the big shakeup in Maryland, where a new entity, the Maryland Thoroughbred Operating Authority, which will be similar to NYRA, is set to take over the operation of Maryland tracks and, finally, will rebuild Pimlico. That will also mean that the GI Preakness S. will be run at Laurel in 2025, 2026 and 2027. The group also examined the 2024 economic indicators for racing, which included a 3.7% decline in total handle and a small decrease in purses.
To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.
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