Old Friends: Absentee Bidding Now Available For 2024 Homecoming Auction Premiere Halters

Old Friends, the Thoroughbred Retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky., will host its 19th Annual Homecoming Event on Sunday, May 5th, noon to 4 p.m. The event features a live and silent auction of artwork, prints, and racing memorabilia, and includes several premiere collectible stallion halters that are now open for absentee bidding.

For those unable to attend the event, absentee bidding for these exceptional halters opens today, Tuesday, April 29, 2024. Each halter is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity (unless otherwise noted). Interested buyers unable to attend on Sunday can absentee bid on these items. To bid, email your name, address, and phone number along with your highest bid to: horses@oldfriendsequine.org

Deadline for Bidding: The bidding begins today. The final deadline to receive bids is Saturday, May 4th, at 9 p.m. (EST). At the event, someone will be assigned to be your Proxy and will start low and bid up to your highest number. 

On the block are halters worn by:

• Afleet Alex, the 2005 Eclipse Award winning Champion 3-Year Old Colt is best known for his wins in the 2005 Preakness and Belmont Stakes. He lost his bid for the Triple Crown when he stumbled badly out of the gate in the Kentucky Derby, but still finished third. Today he stands at Gainesway Farm where he’s had a good breeding career.
• Candy Ride retired undefeated in six races. His career began with three races in Argentina where he won the San Isidro (G1) and the Joaquin S. de Anchorena (G1). He then came to the United States in 2003, and won the American Handicap (G2) and the Pacific Classic Stakes (G1). He now stands at Lane's End, and according to their website, he is “…is a top five lifetime active sire and a sire of six Champions – including 2018 Horse of the Year Gun Runner.”
• Channel Maker is a Canadian-bred that had an eight-year racing career. He won eight stakes races, six of them graded stakes, and four of them Grade 1s. He set a record for the most Breeders' Cup starts by any single horse with six, with a best finish of third in the 2020 Breeders' Cup Turf. He also won the 2017 Sovereign Award as Canada's Champion 3-Year-Old Colt, the 2020 Eclipse Award as Champion Turf Male, and this year he was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
• Feathered, a daughter of sire, Indian Charlie, won one graded-stakes race in her racing career, the Edgewood Stakes (G3), and was also stakes placed in multiple other stakes races. However, her biggest claim to fame came in 2018 as a broodmare when, in foal to Tapit, she gave birth to Flightline, the 2022 Horse of the Year. Feathered lives across the street from Old Friends at Summer Wind Farm.
• Gun Runner, who was sired by Candy Ride, began his career by winning his very first start. Then, in his four-year career, he won 10 stakes races, seven of them Grade 1 stakes, which included five in a row in 2017 to end his career. For his efforts that year, he was awarded Eclipse Awards for Horse of the Year and Champion Older Dirt Male. And, this year, he will be inducted into the Thoroughbred Hall of Fame. He is currently standing at stud at Three Chimney’s Farm.
• I'll Have Another, who is one of the newest retirees at Old Friends this year, is the fourth Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner to be retired to the farm. In 2012, for his 3-year old season, he went undefeated, winning the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G2), the Santa Anita Derby (G1), the Kentucky Derby (G1), and the Preakness Stakes (G1). Sadly, prior to the Belmont Stakes (G1), an injury forced his retirement before he try and win the Triple Crown. Still, for his efforts that year, he won the 2012 Eclipse Award as Champion 3 Year Old Colt.
• Lava Man is a multiple-graded stakes winner with wins in the Pacific Classic, the Santa Anita Handicap (twice); and the Hollywood Gold Cup (three times). A one-time claimer, Lava Man earned over $5.2 million in his career. His other claim to fame was being a pony horse for his trainer, Doug O'Neill, guiding the trainer’s horses to the track for 13 years, which earned him the nickname, "Coach." He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015 and now lives at Old Friends.
• Serena’s Song, a daughter of Rahy, had an amazing three-year, 38 race career. In all, she won 16 graded-stakes race, 11 of them Grade 1 races. She also was named 1995 Eclipse Award winner as Champion 3-Year Old Filly and was inducted into the Thoroughbred Hall of Fame in 2002. She became a broodmare at Denali Stud until she was retired. She still resides there today.
• Silver Charm is a multiple graded-stakes winner with top wins in the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, and the 1998 Dubai World Cup. Owned by Bob and Beverly Lewis, and trained by Bob Baffert, Silver Charm won the Eclipse Award in 1997 as Champion 3-Year Old Colt. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007. He began his stud career at Three Chimneys Farm, before being sent to complete his stud career in Japan. He was repatriated to the United States and arrived at Old Friends in Dec. 2014.
• Silver State is considered the most accomplished son of Hard Spun with over $1.9 in career earnings. He had a 13-race career that included six stakes wins, with four of them graded stakes. His biggest win came in the King’s Bishop Stakes, his only Grade 1 victory. He also finished second in 2007 in both the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1). He currently stands at Claiborne Farm.
• Sky Mesa, owned by John Oxley, had a six-race career, injury-plagued career. Still, he scored two big wins in 2002, the Hopeful Stakes (G1) and the Breeder's Cup Futurity (G2), that showed his promise. However, an ankle injury kept him out of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1), and another injury kept him off the Triple Crown trail. In 2003, following a sixth in the Travers' Stakes he was retired and entered stud at Three Chimney's Farm in 2004 and has become an outstanding sire.
• Tapit, a graded-stakes winner, he only raced six times and won three times, with his biggest wins coming in the Laurel Futurity and Wood Memorial Stakes. However, his best known accomplishment is that, since his retirement, he has become one of the greatest sires of all time. Standing at Gainesway Farm, he has “sired 31 Grade 1 winners, 33 yearlings to bring $1 million or more at auction, and earners of over $198 million on the racetrack for the most progeny earnings of any North American sire ever,” according to the farm’s website. In addition, he is a three-time Champion Sire and the only top 5 sire 11 of the last 13 years.
• Sea Hero, who was sired by another Old Friends retiree, Polish Navy, had a 24-race career, highlighted by his win in the 1993 Kentucky Derby (G1). Other big wins in his career included the Champagne Stakes (G1) in 1992, and the Travers Stakes (G1) in 1993. He began his stud career in 1995 at Lane's End, and was then sold and moved to Turkey in 2000, where he stood the remainder of his stud career. Note: The Sea Hero halter comes in a shadow box, but does not have a Certificate of Authenticity. 

Old Friends is grateful to the Farms and private collectors who donated these exceptional halters to our auction.

The 19th Annual Old Friends Homecoming event will be highlighted by live music, a barbecue buffet, book signings, and farm tours where guests can meet the farm's two Kentucky Derby Champions Silver Charm and I’ll Have Another, along with other retirees such as Lava Man, Channel Maker, and more.

Tickets are still available and can be reserved online by CLICKING HERE