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American Pharoah and Justify

I saw them today at Coolmore in Kentucky. They both look fantastic.

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Thank you for posting these photos – and of Funny Cide and Point Given. How cool you got to see them all. Any highlights? What’s next??

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Lucky! Did you get to pet them?

I understand American Pharoah is a real sweetheart, that his personality didn’t change much after he started breeding.

I love American Pharoah. He is my generation’s Secretariat in my eyes. Justify is a grand horse, too, but there’s just something about American Pharoah that makes me go gaga.

The podcast Major League Eventing always asks guests the question, “if you could ride any horse, past, present, or fiction, who would it be?” If I’m ever a guest (lol!) American Pharoah is my answer.

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They did not let anyone pet them, which I can understand. There is no screening process for the farm tours, and I’m sure plenty of people show up with no horse knowledge. So it would be too easy for something to go wrong.

American Pharoah seems to be incredibly mellow and laid back, even with a bunch of strangers showing up to see him in big groups all the time.

He stood there like a rock looking completely relaxed the whole time. The handler was just holding the shank with a big loop in it while the horse posed on his own like a supermodel. Lol.

Justify behaved well, he just did not look quite as nonchalant as American Pharoah.

They also pulled out Maximum Security, who seemed to be very well mannered. There were several other famous stallions there that we got to see in their stalls, including Uncle Mo, Tiz the Law, and Munnings.

The farm is very beautiful. They said that all the money from the farm tours is donated to organizations for retired racehorses and the injured jockeys’ fund.

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No plans. I always try to see the sights a bit whenever I’m in Kentucky. :slight_smile: :racehorse: :slight_smile:

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A lot of the other big name farms are surprisingly casual with their farm tours, to the point of letting you feed expensive stallions obscene amount of treats. :joy:

Coolmore is a bit prim and proper by comparison. But seeing as how they got the whole Horse Country thing off the ground so we the people could visit American Pharoah as we wish, I’ll give them a pass. :upside_down_face:

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Several years ago, I took a trip to Kentucky and visited some of the big farms. I went to Coolmore and thought it looked like something out of a fairy tale.

Thanks for sharing your pictures!

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Yes, I was quite surprised at the number of treats we could feed the stallions at Claiborne! It’s a miracle those horses aren’t much more chubby. Lol.

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The website is visithorsecountry.com for anyone who is interested. It’s very easy to book the tours online, and they have a lot of different farms and options available, including many in the $20 range.

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Right?!? I think I fed War Front more peppermints on the tour than my horses have gotten their entire lives. :joy:

The Horse Country phenomenon has been incredible. I mean, anyone could always arrange farm tours on their own in the past, but the website has really streamlined the process and opened up places I would have never dreamed of asking. And I can’t believe how gracious these farms are. I’ve visited many of them as a mare owner and was always treated very well, but it’s a whole different experience on the tours. It can be even better on a tour because they know you are there as a fan of the horses and not just for business.

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I remember my first visit to Kentucky in 2011 for the Breeders Cup with my friend and horsemanship mentor, and our last day there, the last farm we toured was Airdire. It was just the two of us, and we got to feed Indian Charlie some treats. The tour guide told us we HAD to get pictures of him (they knew he had cancer at that point, but they didn’t tell us outright about it.) Was awful news hearing about his death not long after.

I always loved the farm tours. Got to cuddle with AP Indy once.

I never did the Horse Country Tours, but my mentor had seen something about them and one of the non-TB farms they visited, which was a Haflinger breeding farm so she arranged a visit there in 2011. I got to see so many Haflingers, including one of my favorite stallions, and even got to ride one (I was missing my own Haffie something fierce) before we went off to see more Thoroughbred farms.

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Speaking of Claiborne, this jump was in the ring at the horse show, along with the Churchill Downs jump.

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What a great experience @dreamswept!

@MHM those jumps are amazing!

Everything looked fantastic. Great job by the course designer and his crew.

I went on a private tour for work where they let us pet him. He was very mellow and sweet and perfectly happy to accept pets and scritches from a group of graduate students!

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Yes, I’ve seen pictures from people I know who were able to stand next to him and pet him on their tours. I’m guessing it has to do with how you got in there, and whether you can be presumed to know one end of a horse from the other. Lol.

I have more pictures I can post if anyone is interested.

Has anyone been able to go to Old Friends? If you do go, would you please look for our WMW’s memorial brick and perhaps take a photo?

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Yes, please! I have fond memories of my farm visits so I like seeing recent pictures of the farms and horses.

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Ok, I always take a lot of pictures, so I’m happy to share them. Lol.

This statue of Giants Causeway is out in front of the original barn. The tour guide said he was one of the first stallions who stood there, and he was extremely successful, so he gets a lot of credit for putting the place on the map.

This is the bridge that goes out towards the paddocks. Apparently it was included in the movie Dreamer, which was partially filmed there.

They said the stallions usually get turned out for at least a couple of hours every day, and they don’t do any sort of exercise during breeding season, although they said sometimes they lunge them during the off-season to maintain their fitness levels.

American Pharaoh and Justify also shuttle to Australia to breed in the fall, so they stay pretty busy year-round.

It looks like pretty much anywhere a horse will walk on the property has the rubber bricks in every direction. Not in the paddocks, though. Lol.

This is the original barn viewed from the opposite side. You can see the statue of Giants Causeway out in front of it at the far end. The other barns were built afterwards, but they all look the same from the outside. They are all beautiful, and also they look very functional.

The original barn has a very pretty wood interior, while the newer barns are cement block construction on the inside, as you can see in the pictures.

I believe they said there were four of these barns in that section of the property, and I think the ones we saw all had five stalls plus a tack room/office.

More rubber bricks.

This is Munnings, who has been a very good horse for them. His offspring have done very well, so his stud fee has risen pretty dramatically since they’ve had him. He was the only horse I saw there on shavings instead of straw, because they said he has a tendency to eat his straw.

Note that he has his own hoof pick and thermometer above his halter. Each horse has his own set by his stall door.

They also said that the horses know where they’re going when they leave the stall, since they use a bit on them when they are going to the breeding shed, and a halter when they are going to the paddocks.

He was eating his dinner at the time, but he also had some very nice hay available.

And he had a choice of red or white salt blocks. Lucky horse!

Uncle Mo and his son Mo Town live in adjacent stalls. Maybe they discuss baseball scores at night. Lol.

They did not have a horse in every stall, so some of the barns had a hay stall in them. I would not want to pick up any one of these bales. I think they said they usually add one bale of straw to each stall each day.

This is Tiz the Law, who was very popular in New York since his owner was from Saratoga. Stewart’s, the local chain of convenience stores, even named an ice cream flavor after him. :icecream:

I like the fact that the stalls had yokes on the back doors so the horses could hang their heads out and watch the world go by. :slight_smile:

This is Maximum Security, the one who was disqualified for interference 20 minutes after he won the Derby a couple of years ago.

This is the entrance to Coolmore. It’s a little fancier than the driveway with the police car and the traffic cone for this year’s Derby winner. Lol.

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