Horses honored at Old Friends farm on Memorial Day

GEORGETOWN, Ky. (AP) — Some were racetrack winners and descendants of racing royalty, while others were also-rans or never raced at all. All 11 thoroughbreds were remembered in a Memorial Day service in Kentucky horse country.

The horses died in the past year after being retired to Old Friends farm.

On a day to remember loved ones and military veterans, dozens of people gathered at the farm’s cemetery to pay tribute to their four-legged friends in a state that prides itself as the world’s horse capital.

It’s become an annual ceremony, a way for the staff and friends to formally say goodbye to the horses who lived out their lives on the retirement farm. The ceremony begins with a final "call to post" and ends with participants raising glasses of Kentucky bourbon to the departed horses.

"They were old friends, good friends, cherished friends who are now departed but live on in our hearts and minds," Bill Mooney, a longtime turf writer, said before eulogizing each thoroughbred.

There were tears and laughter as some participants gave their own eulogies to their favorite horses.

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