We visited Justify, American Pharoah and 7 of our mares and their foals, plus much more!

It was a whirlwind trip… but you’ve heard that before. We landed at Cincinnati – Northern Kentucky airport, got a car, went back to the airport to pick up our friends and drove to historic Calumet Farm in Lexington, KY.

First, we saw almost Triple Crown winner, Smarty Jones. Here he is with our friends, Joan & Steve Haskin:

Then, we saw the horse that beat American Pharoah in the Travers Stakes, Keen Ice. Here’s a cute shot of him and Rhoda mugging for the camera:

We went to the stalls which had the names of former occupants like Triple Crown winners, Citation and Affirmed, Kentucky Derby winner, Forward Pass and other legends of the turf:

In the cemetery, Kentucky Derby winners:

They each have individual headstones. Imagine the success of just this farm… and there were others.

But first, we went to visit Watershed Equine, where we have seven mares and seven foals currently residing. Here are Revolve‘s Central Banker filly and Candy for Kisses and her First Samurai colt born April 25th.

Tracey Caudill, farm owner, with Yes It’s Barbara and her Tapiture filly born on my Dad’s birthday:

We also saw Aunt Glo and her Fort Larned filly and Blissfully and her Speightstown colt

On that first day, we went to yet another legendary farm, Darby Dan. Steve used to spend many summer vacations at this farm. We got to see the home of Colonel E.R. Bradley, who first owned the property and started several racetracks and won four Kentucky Derbys, After his death, the property was bought by John Galbreath, who also owned the Pittsburgh pirates baseball team. Plus, we saw Tapiture and Klimt, two stallions we used to breed to our mares. Here’s Tapiture:

We visited OLD FRIENDS, a retirement farm with many old champions, like 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, Silver Charm, seen here with Rhoda and Joan:

Here’s a muddy Touch Gold, the 1997 Belmont Stakes winner who spoiled Silver Charm‘s Triple Crown bid!

It makes a great visit to see these old racing legends. Thanks to Michael & Diane Blowen who make this all possible.

Next, to Ashford Stud, current home of American Pharoah.

We loved the beautiful stone architecture and got to see Uncle Mo, Lookin’ At Lucky, Classic Empire, Fusaichi Pegasus and so many more.

They have multiple breeding sheds at Ashford…

…but we didn’t get to see an actual breeding take place until we got to another farm… no photos of that either!

Then on to Winstar Farm. Winstar is the lead owner of Justify, who goes for the Triple Crown on Saturday. They have quite an operation, including a large training track and a special straight uphill course.

Their stallions include Distorted Humor, TizNow, Super Saver, Bodemeister, Tourist, Speightstown and his son, Speightster who gave us a nice foal this year. Here he is with Rhoda…

On Friday morning at 5:15 AM, we left Lexington in a pouring rain heading for Churchill Downs in Louisville. I would have gone back to sleep but everyone wanted to see Justify. Luckily, as we approached Louisville, the rain stopped. We got to Bob Baffert’s barn.