Old Friends Farm featured in Smithsonian Magazine

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ)- Central Kentuckians and horse racing lovers the world over know how special thoroughbred retirement farm Old Friends is, but now an even larger group will be able to get to know the farm and its founder Michael Blowen.

Smithsonian Magazine published a feature article in its May 2020 edition introducing readers to the farm with beautiful photos.

“Thoroughbred racing could use a few miracles. For all its romantic history and pageantry, the sport brims with anachronisms that are wearing thin in 21st-century America. Fewer and fewer people are attending the races, and even fewer have any tactile experience with horses. The roughly 20,000 Thoroughbreds foaled each year are monetized from the day they hit the ground until that moment they are no longer able to generate enough income, whether through breeding or racing, to justify their upkeep,” Jay Hovdey writes in the article.

It’s available for anyone to read here.