Derby Time comes early to the Ripy Mansion! Come and celebrate Kentucky’s most famous industries - horses and bourbon with us. Our next event will be a special Charity Fundraiser featuring Michael Blowen of Old Friends Farm. He is a passionate advocate for retired thoroughbreds and has dedicated his life to their care. We will pay homage to Michael by featuring various horse-themed bourbon tastings. These will be combined with Derby-themed cocktails at the cash bar. Tours of the Ripy Mansion will be conducted by our “old friend,” George Geoghegan. Also featuring a silent auction with gifts generously donated by several distilleries including Four Roses, Buffalo Trace, Castle and Key and many others.
Michael began his career as an educator. After earning a Master’s Degree from Boston’s Emerson College he was asked to stay on and teach, and he did. “I didn’t have to look for a job and I loved it," he says. But Blowen had also long been interested in pursuing a career as a writer.
He got an opportunity to pen an article about director Elia Kazan’s film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel The Last Tycoon. The piece was published in an alternative weekly and it garnered the attention of an editor at the Boston Globe. An interview led to a position as a “second-string” critic and then ultimately, as the newspaper's top film reviewer.
When an editor at the Globe invited Blowen to the race track one day. It sparked a new interest and, eventually, a new career. Blowen became an owner with several partners, and, in time, found himself working on the back stretch of Suffolk Downs for trainer Carlos Figueroa to learn more about race horses.
After retiring from the Globe in 2000, Blowen accepted a position as the Operations Manager for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation in Kentucky, and soon after, in 2003, he launched Old Friends, the non-profit Thoroughbred Retirement Facility in Georgetown, KY., that now supports over 200 retired horses, including 21 stallions, in six locations.
Come spend a fun-filled day with us and be a part of contributing to the care and livelihood of these wonderful horses!