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| 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner War Emblem |
Old Friends is located just south of Georgetown, Kentucky. They have about 200 retired thoroughbreds in residence.
And four cats.
The first of the name horses you see on tour is Sarava. Sarava won the 2002 Belmont Stakes as a 70-1 longshot, the longest longshot to ever win the Belmont. The 2002 Belmont was the race that denied War Emblem the Triple Crown.
Sarava is enjoying his retirement and not even the promise of unlimited carrots was enough for him to decide to pay attention to all these people.
Nicanor, on the other hand:
Nicanor is a full brother (younger) to the late Barbaro. He is quite the carrot-loving ham, as he seems to enjoy interacting with the tourists.
He has a pleasant disposition, which is why he is upfront, at the beginning of the tour, meeting and greeting,
This is Amazombie:
He shares a paddock with Rapid Redux. The fact that they share a paddock means they are geldings. Stallions, even retired stallions do not share paddocks. In fact, they keep the stallions away from the mares. Retired mares are in another section of Old Friends. The geldings are the buffer between the mare section and stallion section. It's like they are court eunuchs,
Speaking of geldings:
The most famous gelding at Old Friends is War Emblem, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 2002. He stumbled out of the gate at the Belmont and his quest for the Triple Crown was over. War Emblem is now a gelding, living in the gelding section.
But he is doubled-fenced to keep the public at bay. Not because he is a star, although he is, but to keep him for biting his public.
War Emblem was gelded in order to be re-imported back from Japan after a failed career as a stud. War Emblem, you see, just was not interested in the lady-horses. On the rare occasion that he would mount a lady, his babies had a high success rate on the track. But he was extremely picky about who he would breed with (no gray mares for War Emblem please) and, eventually, he got so picky that no mare was good enough.
What he does like is a long hard carrot. I am not kidding. He likes the full carrots more than carrot pieces apparently, which is why the second woman came around to feed him whole carrots while the other horses are content with carrot pieces.
War Emblem is a star. I'm not getting any closer, though.
And right across from War Emblem is a barn that houses another horse who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, but came up short in the Belmont.
Silver Charm. Beaten by a neck in the 1997 Belmont and denied the Triple Crown.
At age 25, Silver Charm is the oldest surviving winner of the Preakness. He just had major dental surgery -- a bunch of teeth were removed -- so his tongue slides out of his mouth now. He's otherwise healthy.
In the stall next to him is Alphabet Soup, who has a companion donkey named Gorgeous George. The two are inseparable.
Back out in the sun for some Afternoon Deelites:
The horse Afternoon Deelites, that is. He shares a paddock with Silver Charm. Maybe it's the old bones, but Silver Charm only wants to be outside in warm sunny weather. Afternoon Deelites wants to be outside unless it is warm and sunny. So they're perfectly matched to share a stall and paddock that neither will want to use when the other is using it.
And speaking of Silver Charm, here is his arch-nemesis, the horse who denied him a Triple Crown. Touch Gold.
Touch Gold is a small horse by the standards of thoroughbreds who've won major races.
He still has his muscular physique deep into retirement, and his hair hasn't started doing weird things (like Silver Charm who went from a dark dark almost-black gray during his racing years to his current, well, silver white). Touch Gold is still quite photogenic.
This is the main cemetery for Old Friends. Old Friends is relatively new, so the cemetery is not very full.
This is Ide, who was having a great career pointing toward the 1996 Triple Crown races:
Until he stepped on a long rusty nail. And, finally, the last of the star horses on the tour, Sun King, who raced in 2005 Triple Crown races.
He is still a little wild.
And here lies Sun King's daddy, Charismatic.
Charismatic won the 1999 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes and broke down after being narrowly beaten in the 1999 Belmont by Lemon Drop Kid. Remember the dramatic scene of Charismatic's jockey, the late Chris Antley, quickly dismounting to cradle Charismatic's injured leg, saving the horses's life. Charismatic died in 2017 shortly after being brought to Old Friends.
Time for a cat nap.
Then time for supper. I saw this place on the map and I just knew I had to eat there:
Red State BBQ! Excellent pulled pork. Excellent french fries. So-so brisket. (The brisket was a little fatty. Brisket is supposed to be cooked low and slow for forever so that the fat has all melted away.) Upscale atmosphere:
OK. Maybe I liked it so much because I watched Duke getting beat as I enjoyed my pulled pork.
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