GEORGETOWN, Ky. − Michael Blowen emerges from the garage of his home with a red Solo cup full of treats that have been ground up specifically for the 31-year-old horse he calls his favorite living thing in the world.
It's quite a statement. Blowen, 78, has a wife and a family and befriended all sorts of famous people in his years as the film critic for the Boston Globe. But as he walks toward a grassy field a few hundred feet from his house, an almost completely white horse − who just happens to be the oldest living Kentucky Derby winner − perks up.
Bowen smiles and opens the gate. The horse knows the routine. They start jogging, side by side, as quickly and energetically as two old men can move. After 10 or 15 seconds, they both give up.
"There's a lot of kids, a lot of grandkids, a lot of everything, right?" Blowen says, explaining why the humans in his life have to take a back seat to the horse. "There's only one Silver Charm, and he's in my backyard."
It's a big week for the horse who captured America's imagination in 1997 as he gutted out narrow victories in the Derby and Preakness. Though about 20,000 visitors come to see Silver Charm throughout the year here at Old Friends, the retirement farm for well-known Thoroughbreds that Blowen started back in 2003, Derby week is a different animal.
The tours are booked solid. Bob Baffert, who won his first Derby with Silver Charm, always stops by. And even though the infirmities of his advanced age have cost him a bit of mobility and all but four of his teeth, Silver Charm understands when it's showtime.
So every few hours, until it's time for him to retire to his stall at about 3:30 p.m., he will approach the fence and stick out his tongue, waiting for visitors to feed him a handful of his custom-made treats or shredded carrots that don't require him to do too much chewing.
"He's still just thriving being around people," said John Nicholson, who took over as executive director and CEO of Old Friends last year. "Every day is a treasure, and every day we have him, we feel blessed."
The enduring phenomenon of Silver Charm, who would be the human equivalent of at least a 90-year-old, has become symbolic of the Thoroughbred world's renewed interest in aftercare.
Though the nearby Kentucky Horse Park had long been a tourist attraction where some past champions lived out their final days, Blowen started Old Friends around the same time as reports emerged that Ferdinand - the 1986 Derby winner and 1987 Horse of the Year − probably died in a Japanese slaughterhouse after an unsuccessful stud career.
The news stunned American racing fans, and it opened the eyes of people in the industry about how easy it was for even a famous and beloved racehorse to meet a cruel and tragic end if they were no longer profitable as stallions.
After Silver Charm returned from his own disappointing stud career in Japan and arrived at Old Friends in 2014, he quickly validated Blowen's theory that people would pay money for the chance to get up close and personal with stars they watched on the racetrack. As a result, the operation at Old Friends has grown to 230 acres in Kentucky, plus satellite farms in Japan and New York, with two other Derby winners − Big Brown (2008) and I'll Have Another (2012) − now living here alongside the main attraction.
"It takes $3.5 million a year to operate Old Friends and all of our farms, and I would put Silver Charm as our chief fundraiser," Nicholson said. "He's a part of every message we send. He's often the messenger. He excites people when they're here, and he always delivers as far as being a good public figure. He's very aware when the camera is around, he's very aware when people are here to see him, and he always puts on a good show."
Old Friends is not, as Nicholson points out, a rescue operation. Other organizations prioritize that work, and Old Friends will not just take in anybody's horse. The waiting list to fill a stall here is long.
It has, though, helped put the spotlight on the concept of aftercare and the responsibility of horse owners to care for the animals from the racetrack to their final resting place, and the development of chip-tracking technology they hope will prevent horses from slipping through the cracks.
"Now it's a pillar of the industry," Nicholson said. "It's not a fringe thing. You've just got to do it."
There's not a single moment when Blowen is around Silver Charm that he doesn't have a huge smile on his face. Even though the horse has been living here for a decade, Blowen still calls Silver Charm's arrival at Old Friends the best day of his life and wears a baseball cap that was actually made for Baffert in 1997.
Like so many horse racing fans, Blowen became enamored with Silver Charm in the spring of 1997 when he showed incredible grit and determination to hold off Captain Bodgit by a neck at the Derby and then outduel Free House by a nose as the Preakness.
Though Silver Charm led the Belmont with an eighth of a mile to go and looked poised to become the first Triple Crown winner in 19 years, Touch Gold accelerated past him in the last 75 yards to win by half a length.
Now, Touch Gold lives one paddock over, where a romantic fan can at least imagine the two old rivals carrying on a decades-long argument about who was actually better.
Remarkably, they both still look robust and healthy, which is in no small part thanks to the detailed health care and nutritional support the horses receive at Old Friends. Even though Silver Charm is long past his athletic glory and his coat is much whiter than people remember from his racing days, he still makes a good impression and seems like a horse with plenty of life left in him.
"He's lost some weight and is getting a little ribby," Blowen says as Silver Charm walks underneath a shed that gives him some relief from the afternoon sun.
It's a subtle but poignant acknowledgement that he won't be here forever.
But the gift of Silver Charm is that he still wakes up, day after day, and connects someone to one of their best memories. Whether it's a bet they cashed on that race or a spouse they met that Derby Day or talking about whether he'd win the Triple Crown with a loved one who is no longer alive, the people at Old Friends hear a different reason every day for why fans make the pilgrimage to see him in person.
And however long that lasts, they'll cherish it.
"Hey handsome!" Blowen says as Silver Charm, tongue hanging from his mouth, approaches the red cup full of treats in his hand. "He's unbelievable."