SATURDAY, MAY 7 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D5
connections. Silver Charm’s
daughter Private Charm was in “a
slaughter situation” in Louisiana,
Blowen said, so she resides where
her father lives and paternal
grandmother is buried. One
gravestone honors Leave Seattle,
a Seattle Slew progeny whose rac-
ing record goes: 3-0-0-0 (races,
wins, places, shows), for lifetime
earnings of, the stone notes, $0.
The departed resting here include
Derby winners Charismatic
(1999) and War Emblem (2002)
and apparent Derby winner Med-
ina Spirit (disqualified in 2021).
Supporters include the racing
Stronach family, whose 1996
Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, Al-
phabet Soup, lived and died here;
A&M Records founder Jerry
Moss, who owned 2005 Derby
winner Giacomo; and the Baf-
ferts, including Hall of Fame
trainer Bob Baffert, suspended
from the Derby at present after
Medina Spirit tested positive for
an overage of a medication this
past spring.
The cemetery up front is
named for Nikki Bacharach, the
late daughter of a ctress Angie
Dickinson and composer Burt
Bacharach, who have supported
and visited, including the time
Dickinson came and stayed and
encountered Little Silver Charm,
a miniature horse popular on the
grounds. “The third day she was
here,” Blowen said, “I brought
him in the house and I left. So
about 15 minutes later the phone
rings. ‘Michael?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘This is
Angie.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘There’s a horse in
your living room.’ I go: ‘I know. He
comes in, he watches Al Roker do
the weather, and then he goes
back out.’ ”
Who knew? Who knew any of
it? No wonder many a dusk will
find a 75-year-old man grabbing a
beer from a refrigerator in the
garage, heading to a gazebo in the
yard, looking around the rolling
green quilt of Kentucky at the
horses he reveres, now in the
motions of life with “no saddles,
no jockeys, no nothing,” a nd there
he will feel again a runaway won-
der.“They like neighbors. They just
don’t like roommates. Or that’s
what I’m told.” He c an tell of those
moments of waking to learn that
a horse has died and waiting a
spell while other horses surround
the fallen and attempt to nudge
him until they process the reality.
He dislikes the term “rescue” be-
cause he frets it implies superiori-
ty, and he can suggest that the
only reason people think horses
can’t talk is because people, as
usual, aren’t listening.
To a Game On Dude clamoring
for carrots, he will say: “I’m com-
ing! Jeez! You’re so bossy!” To
Summer Attraction, whom he
bought one day in 1999 at Finger
Lakes, he will say, “You’re still so
cute.” With Swain, who just ar-
rived this spring among six pen-
sioned sires from Shadwell in
nearby Lexington: “Swain, you
want to run?”
This fan of eccentrics has
learned something eccentric
about humans.
“For years, we didn’t charge
[visitors],” he said.
Then: “When we started charg-
ing, more people came.”
About 15 tourists arrive by the
barn into which Silver Charm has
gone, leading to an impromptu
Q&A.
He tells of Sheikha Hissa’s visit
from Dubai (“five bodyguards!”),
of Green Mask’s awkward walk
(“He’s not that attractive; of
course, neither am I”) and of the
horses giving people so much that
they deserve both “Social Secu-
rity” and “a 401(k).”
A man mentions he’s from
Washington state, and Blowen
tells how somebody called after
finding the late Ta ylor’s Special,
who finished 13th in the 1984
Kentucky Derby, up there in the
Pacific Northwest, wandering
abandoned in the woods. He re-
covered, lived and died here, and
Blowen bawled. “You’d think
you’d get used to it,” he said of the
deaths, “but you never do.”
The retirees do include the
unsuccessful, if sometimes with
FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
PHOTOS BY JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
Michael Blowen, founder of Old Friends thoroughbred retirement farm, r elaxes with Little Silver Charm. The farm i s home to
about 240 retired racehorses and breeding stallions, who live out their final years peacefully rather than being slaughtered.BY CHUCK CULPEPPERlouisville — The bugler at
Churchill Downs knows you
might have a question, a ques-
tion he fields more than any
other question, a question surely
posed to many a bugler through
time, an American question, a
nosy question, a polite question:
So what’s your full-time job?
Well, the bugler doesn’t just
turn up on the Kentucky Derby
infield and NBC telecast once a
year to play the 34 notes of “Call
to the Post,” the iconic strand of
music technically named “First
Call.” No, the bugler plays that
and the national anthem
through all the races at all the
meets across all the year at
Churchill Downs, which is not to
mention that Steve Buttleman
also plays at the Keeneland
track in Lexington and at wed-
ding receptions, Derby Museum
functions, sporting events, cor-
porate events and military fu-
nerals. “Every vet deserves to
have a live bugler,” he said
Friday morning. “It’s the least I
can do for them.”
And then, to note the gamut:
“One of the trade shows I did the
last few weeks was for electrical
contractors, and I played up in
one of the bucket trucks,” those
people holders often seen up
poles or up near wires. “I did ‘My
Old Kentucky Home’ and the
‘Call to t he Post’ from up in one o f
the bucket trucks.... I had all
the safety gear and everything,
got hooked in. It was really fun.”
Bugler, if you must know, is a
full-time job.
It’s one of the rarer full-time
jobs you can have, and in Buttle-
man’s case, for the past 27 years,
it has been one with one rare
office view. It’s out inside the two
tracks (dirt and turf ), in a white
pagoda with windows that allow
for gazing onto the Twin Spires.
It’s a job in which you meet a
slew of people and play in front
of slews more. It’s a job famed
enough that one time years ago,
when a kindergarten teacher had
the pupils state their parents’
professions, Buttleman’s son told
excitedly about how his father
was the bugler at Churchill
Downs, just after telling in a
humdrum tone about his moth-
er’s job.
That would be pediatrician.
“A nd I’m like, ‘Someday you’ll
have some perspective on that,’ ”
Buttleman said post-laugh.
It’s a job of waiting and play-
ing, waiting and playing, some-
times waiting on horse pundits
on TV to finish their yakking and
then playing. He waits at a desk
in the fine little structure, his
Derby outfit hanging on a wall in
a garment bag of the local shop
British Custom Ta ilors, amid
photos of Kentucky kids who
revel in his work, of Buttleman
pretending to blow his horn into
Bill Murray’s ear (Murray’s photo
concept), of Brett Favre in paja-
mas with Buttleman while film-
ing a commercial in which But-
tleman was supposed to awaken
Favre.
Then this husband of one,
father of two and grandfather of
three (and soon four) dons his
boots and hat and jacket and
steps out the door onto the
veranda to play, mindful of the
succinct instructions he has
printed for himself on the wall:
FOCUS.
Keep it close.
Keep it forward.Be present.
“Keep it close” pertains to the
notes of “Call to the Post,” which
can seem intimidatingly strewn
around: “When you’re playing G
and then C and then E and then
G,” he said, “in your brain it can
kind of seem like it’s far apart,
just when you’re thinking about
the [music] staff. So I try to focus
on, you know: ‘Keep it close.
Keep things forward in the
mouth.’ And that way, the air and
the tongue work better.”
Buttleman plays for hundreds
of people or a hundred thousand,
depending on the track day, and
to listeners it’s as much a part of
the process as the bourbon. They
roar three or four notes in at
Derby post time. It’s a role he
never imagined when he took up
trumpet in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
in fifth grade, when he got a
trumpet for Christmas in eighth
grade, when he matriculated to
the University of Louisville tostudy music, when he gave up
music for a spell and worked in
hospitals, when he met his wife
at that work in 1989 and went to
dinner and married that same
year (they were sure), and when
he learned Churchill Downs
sought a bugler in 1995, audi-
tioned among eight, auditioned
among two, got the job and felt
floored.
Now Buttleman has played the
34 notes (and so many others),
remaining hard on himself the
entire time. “Most musicians
are,” he said. “You could play a
thousand notes right, and the
one you’d remember is the one
[you missed].... I’d say there are
things, like little, teeny sounds
that I pick up that most people
don’t, that I don’t feel like it’s as
clean as I want it. But most
people don’t hear it.” He hears it,
and every so often he upbraids
himself: “ ‘Really, after 27 years,
you can’t play this right?’ You
know, there are times when I’m
practicing or warming up and
I’m like, ‘Really?’ But I guess we
all have days like that.”
He added: “I did find out one
thing that I thought was inter-
esting that, when we had the
Derby raced in September
[2020, because of the pandem-
ic], and we didn’t h ave a crowd, I
was actually more nervous with-
out the fans than with 100,000
people here. And I think what it
is, when I play the first three
notes of the ‘Call to the Post’
before the Oaks and Derby, the
place erupts, and so I’m think-
ing, ‘Okay, that’s good because if
I happen to make a mistake,
they’ll cover it up.’ But then I
also feed off their energy, the
excitement and — I don’t want
to get too dramatic — the mojo
that they give off really feeds
me. I think I play better when I
know I’m playing for people. I
want to play well all the time,
but maybe there’s a little bit
extra when you know you’re
doing it for the fans, too.”
That, like many other bugler
revelations, sounds curiously as
if it belongs to an athlete, as does
Buttleman’s Derby ritual an hour
before post time. Then and there,
he’ll take a little walk on the
grass up the inside rail, gather
his head, feel grateful, marvel
that he’s the guy who gets to do
this and maybe even run across
still more fans. “Oh, I’ve had
people, drunk people, think I’m a
jockey,” he said. “ ‘Oh, my God,
that’s a big jockey.’ How many
mint juleps have you had?”For bugler, it’s all work and all playingPerforming ‘Call to the Post’ at Churchill Downs is his claim to fame, but it’s far from his only gigTHE WASHINGTON POST
“I think I play better when I know I’m playing for people,” said
Steve Buttleman, who has been playing at the Derby since 1995.BY NEIL GREENBERGBettors and casual fans will
hear a lot about the top choices in
the Kentucky Derby and for good
reason. Zandon, the 3-1 favorite
on the morning line, closed
sharply to take the Grade 1 Blue
Grass Stakes on April 9 and was
narrowly defeated by Mo D onegal
in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes in
December. He was also third be-
hind Epicenter, the second choice
in the Derby at 7-2, in the Grade 2
Risen Star Stakes. Meanwhile,
Epicenter finished his preps with
a big win in the Grade 2 Louisiana
Derby, giving him a 164 Derby
points, the most of any horse this
year.
As good as those horses are,
neither is a lock to win Saturday’s
Run for the Roses. Zandon’s clos-
ing style and questionable pedi-
gree leave plenty of doubt he can
hit the wire first, while Epicenter
will have to deal with an inside
post, perhaps causing him to ex-
pend more energy than usual to
escape from the gate quickly and
avoid falling victim to traffic.
So what’s the alternative? You
could go with Messier (8-1 on the
morning line), my choice to win it
all, or you could go bigger and
look for one of the many horses
that should offer odds of 20-1 or
better at post time. If that’s your
preference, here are two horses to
be optimistic about in this year’s
Derby, along with the odds I feel
would be fair to warrant a win-
ning wager:No. 16 Cyberknife (20-1)
Fair value odds: 15-1 or higher
Cyberknife’s win in April’sGrade 1 Arkansas Derby was his
second in a row, and the Brisnet
speed figures he earned in his
past two races (94 in each) give
him what is referred to as a paired
top, a sign of improving form and
perhaps a breakthrough perform-
ance in his next outing.
A peak effort Saturday
wouldn’t be surprising. This son
of Gun Runner has finished first
or second in five of his six career
races, and jockey Florent Geroux,
in the irons for the Derby, has
been the rider for three of those
five first- and second-place finish-
es. Trainer Brad Cox also has
thrown a flat-bet profit in graded
stakes races, netting bettors a six
percent return on investment on
his horses.No. 18 Tawny Port (30-1)
Fair value odds: 22-1 or higher
Ta wny Port, another Cox horse,
won twice on the all-weather
track at Turfway Park before fi-
nally securing a victory on dirt in
mid-April in the Grade 3 Lexing-
ton (Ky.) Stakes at K eeneland. The
dark brown colt’s performance in
that contest was better than it
looked on paper. He was four
wide at the first turn and was
shuffled back down the back-
stretch, forcing him to cover more
ground than nine of the other 10
horses. Yet he still crossed the
wire first.
That shouldn’t be too surpris-
ing. Based on his pedigree, Tawny
Port should continue to have suc-
cess on dirt, especially at the
classic distance. His sire, Pioneer-
of the Nile, finished second in the
2009 Kentucky Derby and went
on to sire Triple Crown winner
American Pharoah. Other horses
on his sire line include Empire
Maker (who won the Belmont
Stakes in 2003) and Unbridled
(who won Kentucky Derby and
Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1990 and
was later named the champion
3-year-old).ANALYSISRose-colored long shotsmay have the right stuffTwo upset picks offer
solid alternatives in race
lacking a strong favoriteKentucky DerbyRecipefinderS0115-2x2Search our database of tested
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