Michael Blowen's love for horses stretched far beyond the racetrack and spurred him into starting a mid-life career as founder of a retirement farm in Kentucky, where older thoroughbreds could spend their remaining years in dignity and security — long after their earning days were over.
For two decades, his Old Friends farm outside Georgetown has been home to hundreds of horses — from former Kentucky Derby winners like Silver Charm and Charismatic to plenty of also-rans. Thousands of thoroughbred fans flock to the farm each year to get up-close looks at the retirees, with Blowen sometimes leading the tours.
Silver Charm is the oldest living Derby winner, and the main attraction at the retirement farm. After winning the Derby in 1997, Silver Charm nearly ended a 20-year wait for a Triple Crown by winning the Preakness and then finishing second in the Belmont Stakes. He had been trying to become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 in complete the feat.
Blowen, 76, announced Wednesday that he is stepping down as president of the more than 240-acre farm nestled in Kentucky's picturesque bluegrass region. John Nicholson, a former executive director of the Kentucky Horse Park in nearby Lexington, will take over the role starting Feb. 1.
“I started looking a couple of years ago for someone to take over as president,” Blowen said. “The most important thing I was looking for was someone that really, really, put the horses first."
Nicholson checked all the boxes, Blowen said, pointing to his successor's own love for horses, his administrative skills and his deep connections in the thoroughbred racing world. In taking the reins, Nicholson said his goal is to continue and enhance Blowen’s vision and values for the retirement farm.
“Old Friends has been at the vanguard of the thoroughbred aftercare movement and I feel privileged to be a part of such an important cause,” he said.
The farm relies on donations to finance expenses to care for the nearly 300 horses now living there — including feed for the horses and staff to operate the farm.
“Today it’s like a multi-million dollar corporation, and it needs somebody that can handle that kind of operation,” Blowen said. “It needs a really good CEO that has managed a much bigger facility than we have. And the only way that we can improve is to get more space for more horses, which means more money, more donations, and an executive CEO that knows how to handle big business.”
While he'll no longer run the farm on a daily basis, Blowen said he will still be there as goodwill ambassador for his creation, greeting visitors, leading some tours and handling other duties as needed.
Blowen and his wife, Diane White, moved to Kentucky more than 20 years ago after careers at the Boston Globe, where Michael was the newspaper’s movie critic and his wife was a columnist. After the move, he started out working as operations director at the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.
It was then that he came up with the idea — if people become star struck when meeting their favorite movie stars, they might have the same reaction when seeing their favorite racehorses. He opened a retirement farm at Georgetown, which consisted of a few paddocks, his own horse, his pet miniature horse and its first official retiree, Narrow Escape, a mare that was left in a stall following a sale.
He quickly outgrew that farm and then another one in central Kentucky. In 2004, Blowen purchased the permanent home for Old Friends outside Georgetown. It initially consisted of 52 acres.
The farm has expanded through the years, its stalls occupied by former Derby winners like Silver Charm and Charismatic as well as many others that never made it to the winner's circle. The farm's reach is global, with Blowen successfully repatriating horses from Japan, South Korea and Italy.
Through it all, Blowen was a hand's-on farm operator, pitching in to care for the horses. Blowen spent years covering movie stars, but those days take a back seat to his life on his Kentucky farm, he said.
“Nothing in my expectations ever prepared me for how great it is to wake up every day and look out your back door and see Silver Charm,” Blowen said. “It's just amazing. I get a lot of credit for creating this place, but it really created me.”
