Just wanted to share this....
 

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/P...id=GoH4Q1Kd-FY

I just wanted to share that our retired race horse Judge's Case passed away yesterday at Old Friends Farm in Georgetown, Ky. I can't thank Michael Blowen and all of the hard working staff at Old Friends enough for taking this horse in, and treating him like a King for the last 8 years of his life. He was special to us, and equally as special to Michael. He got the best care and attention that any horse could have asked for after his days on the race track.

I also want to thank Tom Schell and Lisa Mcfarland for everything they did for the horse both when we claimed and raced him, finding him a home, and eventually helping us get him to Old Friends.

My partner Dan and I were looking for a horse to claim for the Gulfstream meet back in late 2007. Tom calls us one night and mentions that he found a horse he loves for $5000, but he was a 10 year old ( soon to be 11 ). If it would've been 50k the outcome would've been different I am sure, but $5000 was easy enough for us to swallow knowing that we would like to win a race with him, break even, and then eventually be the ones who retired the old warrior.

We drop the claim, the connections are pretty surprised as they just want to be eligible to claim for the rest of the calder meet and surely didn't expect anyone to claim the horse. Well what happens next ? Tom runs him back for 16k and wins his first start for us !!!

He ended up winning once more for us, ran a bunch of nice races. Then shockingly he was claimed from us at tampa for $5000. Most people would've been jumping for joy, however not us. All of us agreed the only thing to do was claim him back so we could be the people who retired him.

The rest of the story is pretty much outlined in the article above, but I thought Judge deserved this write up, as he has given us so much over the years.

Jason

Sorry for your loss. Your horse's spirit will live on. Hope you feel better soon.

Here is the video of the win first off the claim. Tom knows the old warriors like nobody else in this business. I can't believe he doesn't have a barn full of them !!

Lisa and I are very saddened by the passing of Casey,But happy he got to have a great retirement at Old Friends,He was still a somebody!.Casey is very special to me as he won his first race for me on my birthday and then he won on xmas eve.I have the calendar from old friends with Casey on the main page.Many tears were shed the day he left my barn as we had a 3 hour retirement party for him,He left with a bloated belly full of carrots and I was left with the memories of one of the greatest warriors I had ever trained,What I never understood was why after all he had done,Why was he in for 5 k.Many thanks to Old Friends for taking him in and treating him like royalty,Many thanks to Dan and Jason for making the trips to old friends to go visit him over the years RIP Casey,You will always have my respect

Great article and sorry for your loss. As a fan of the sport, I appreciate good OTTB stories - props to all involved to allow your horse to live out his retirement in dignity. RIP

Very lucky horse as you gave him a great life, condolences.

The game needs more owners like this.

Thanks to you, Dan, Tom and Lisa for doing the right thing for the horse!

I was at Old Friends Saturday for a wedding.

I'm sure the crowd of 50 or so saw him, including me. Sorry for your loss and many thanks for your compassion.