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Old Friends provides a dignified retirement to Thoroughbreds whose racing and breeding careers have come to an end. By promoting these one-time celebrated horses through a campaign of education and tourism, they hope to raise awareness of all equines in need. As we approach the 2014 Breeders’ Cup races this weekend, it is amazing to note that Old Friends has been the retirement home to twenty-nine Breeders’ Cup contenders. Of those, eight have taken home a trophy for one of the world class races. Here is the list:

Precisionist won the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He recently died while living at Old Friends.

Gulch won the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and is still alive an doing well at age 30.

Prized won the 1989 Breeders’ Cup Turf recently died at Old Friends.

Black Tie Affair, now deceased, won the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Classic and was named Horse of the Year for 1991.

Fraise, now deceased, won the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Skip Away, who is buried at Old Friends Hall of Fame Cemetery, won the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1997.

Eldaafer won the Breeders’ Cup Marathon in 2010 and is now enjoying his retirement in the pastures at Old Friends.

Amazombie, one of the newer arrivals at Old Friends, won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 2011.

With well over eighty horses retired at Old Friends, the value of their program to the horses we loved and watched race is enormous. The champion, Game on Dude, just arrived to live out his golden years in the blue grass country-side.

As we watch the races this weekend we can all wonder which of these great horses will someday be retired at Old Friends and who will pay for their up keep in the latter years of their lives. To paraphrase and alter a Beatles classic:

“...will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I am 24?”

That says it all.