Michael Blowen, the co-founder and principal of Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Center, will receive the prestigious Sam McCracken Award for Lifetime Achievement from the New England Turf Writers Association (NETWA) for his outstanding work with the rescue and retirement of Thoroughbred racehorses.

The honor is the highest bestowed by the NETWA and the membership this week voted unanimously to give the award to Blowen at the organization’s annual dinner to be held on July 21 in Danvers, Mass. It is named for McCracken, the late renowned turf writer for the Boston Globe. Blowen and his wife and Old Friends co-founder, Diane White, also wrote for the Globe and were on staff with McCracken for more than 20 years.

"This is absolutely unbelievable," Blowen said from Old Friends’ Georgetown, Ky., farm when reached by phone. "Sam was such a great friend and a wonderful colleague. He was the one who introduced me to racing. This a huge honor, so huge that it is really overwhelming."

Old Friends, which Blowen and White began on a shoestring in 2002 and at first was home to one horse, now cares for 100 retired racehorses at its main farm in Kentucky and another 10 horses at its Bobby Frankel division in New York. Blowen got his start in the business as an assistant groom for New England trainer Carlos Figueroa before becoming an owner who campaigned his horses at Rockingham Park and Suffolk Downs