Michael Browen can leave his home any day of the week and visit retired racehorses at Old Friends. Old Friends is a thoroughbred retirement ranch he founded in Kentucky 20 years ago, where he carefully cares for former winners and losers alike.
From the back door of his home, Browen can watch one particularly great former racehorse wander aimlessly in a nearby pasture. His silver charm is that he won the 1997 Kentucky Derby and he is a thoroughbred champion.
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“Hey, handsome,” Browen said as he snuggled up to his longtime friend, who spends most of the day napping because he only has four teeth left. Silver Charm approached Browen, who gave him a handful of Mrs. Pastures’ horse cookie crumbs and poured the rest into the feed bucket. The oldest living Derby winner then wandered to a watering hole, drank and dozed off.
“He’s pretty predictable,” Browen said. “He knows what he wants and when he wants it.”
Michael Browen, founder and former president of Old Friends Farm, feeds Silver Charm a ground cookie on Thursday, April 18, 2024, at Old Friends Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky. Silver Charm was the 1997 Kentucky Derby winner and was 30 years old. The oldest living Derby winner, he lives out his retirement on a ranch dedicated to retired Thoroughbred racehorses. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Welcome to Old Friends Farm. His 95.51-hectare racehorse retirement community outside Georgetown, Kentucky. Here, champion thoroughbreds and lovable underdogs retire peacefully in the splendor of Kentucky’s scenic Bluegrass region, shadows of their former glory. Then, take photos with the avid race fans who visit the ranch, especially during derby season.
The derby will be held on Saturday. At Old Friends, every day is Legends Day.
For $30, visitors can take a 90-minute guided walking tour to get up close and personal with some of the farm’s most famous residents, including Silver Charm and I’ll Have Another, winners of the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
Mr. Browen, a former Boston Globe film critic, founded Old Friends in 2003 with a rented paddock and a horse. He was just starting his career when news broke that 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand had died in a Japanese slaughterhouse.
“Ferdinand was a Derby winner, so he made a big difference,” Brouwen said of his campaign to provide racehorses with dignity and a comfortable retirement at Old Friends.
Today, approximately 250 former racehorses call Old Friends home at the main ranch or three attached ranches in Kentucky.
Silver Charm’s daily routine in Kentucky is simple. After being taken to a paddock the size of a soccer field early in the morning, he poses for group photos on the tour and mingles with neighbors in an adjacent paddock. He prefers to go back to his barn coop around 3:30 p.m. and takes a good nap, but he still runs out every once in a while.
“He’ll come down that hill like it’s the opening of ‘The Lone Ranger,'” Browen said.
Silver Charm has lived at Old Friends for nearly 10 years. John Nicholson, CEO of Old Friends, said the spotlight on the 30-year-old Hall of Fame racehorse is long after he ran his last race or had his last foal. Since then, he has come to symbolize the care thoroughbreds should receive during their golden years.
“He reminds us that horses are at the heart of our sport, the heart of our industry,” Nicholson said. “He reminded us that horses have given us more than we can ever give back, and that we should always try to give back.”
The fraternity of former Derby winners extends to horse farms around the world, including Kentucky, the heart of the Derby. When champion racehorses finish racing, they typically begin their stud careers with the hope that their bloodlines will maintain their legacy and bottom line.
Silver Charm followed the same path. After an illustrious horse racing career that included wins at the Derby, Preakness and Dubai World Cup, and earned nearly $7 million, his stud career began at Kentucky’s famed Three Chimneys Farm and then I spent many years in Japan.
Silver Charm was then shipped to Old Friends, where he became a beloved ambassador for the farm.
For a while, two of Silver Charm’s greatest rivals, Touch Gold and Swain, were his Old Friends neighbors. Touch Gold won the 1997 Belmont Stakes in a head-to-head battle with Silver Charm, who was denied the Triple Crown. Silver Charm then defeated Swain at the Dubai World Cup. Touch Gold still lives at Old Friends, but Swain died there in 2022 at the age of 30.
Not all Old Friends residents made it to the winner’s circle. Zippy Chippy, horse racing’s lovable underdog who never won a single race in 100 races, lived out his golden years in the comfort of Old Friends Farm in upstate New York until his death in 2022.
“In the first part of their lives, they’re doing everything people tell them to do,” Nicholson said, adding that Old Friends relies primarily on donations to cover annual operating costs that run into the millions of dollars. He added that “At this stage in their lives, we’re doing everything they told us to do.”
Old Friends is willing to take in thoroughbreds whose owners want to retire there, if space is available, Brouwen said. The owner must relinquish ownership and surrender the horse. Old Friends only accepts thoroughbreds, with priority given to horses deemed to be of “great risk” and stallions returned from overseas, according to the Old Friends website.
As the face of Old Friends, Nicholson said Silver Charm symbolizes the life a former racehorse deserves.
“He was a great athlete, but he has since become an ambassador for a higher calling,” he said. “And I think that’s part of his magic.”
For tourist Susan Hale, seeing the silver charm up close reminded her of a hunch she made in the 1997 Derby.
“I went to the paddock as the horse was being saddled and said, ‘I’m going to bet money on that horse,'” Hale recalled of winning hundreds of dollars betting on Silver Charm. Ta. She allowed her to pay for dinner with her friend at a steakhouse later that night.
Silver Charm won the race in thrilling fashion and earned a permanent place in Hale’s heart. A framed print of Silver Charm from its heyday hangs in his living room in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
“Actually, I’m here because of him,” Hale said. “The other horses were beautiful, but he’s my favorite.”
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Still, Silver Charm’s most loyal companion is Browen, the founder and retired president of Old Friends, whose beloved horses can be seen just by stepping out the back door.
“If you think of the best thing you’ve ever seen and put it in your backyard, you’ll get an idea,” Browen said of what it’s like to have Silver Charm as a neighbor. “I see that every day.”
