Updated November 2026 · BourbonTown Tours
For Kentucky horse farm tours, BourbonTown Tours supplies the ride rather than the farm tour: each farm runs and sells its own visits, and a transportation-only booking puts our private vehicle and driver on your group's plan for the hours you book. Rates for a farm day on that booking: SUV for 1 to 5 guests, $100 an hour. Van for 6 to 14 guests, $150 an hour. 4-hour minimum, plus 6% KY sales tax and a 3% booking fee. Billing runs from the time our vehicle leaves our garage until it returns.
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Most working Thoroughbred farms open their gates through Horse Country, a nonprofit that sells behind-the-scenes farm tours. Every guest books ahead, nothing is sold at the farm gate, and tours run rain or shine. Horse Country does not provide transport between farms, which is the gap a transportation-only booking fills.
Old Friends in Georgetown and Claiborne Farm in Paris book visits only directly, and Spendthrift sells its tours both ways. Book the farm first, then send us the times, and the vehicle runs to them.
Ashford Stud is Coolmore's American stallion farm, on Frankfort Road in Versailles. The visit is a working-farm tour that ends at the visitors' center, where stallion videos run on screens. Justify, the 2018 Triple Crown winner, is on the farm's 2026 roster. Tickets are sold in advance only, through Horse Country.
WinStar's tours take in the stallion barn and the breeding shed, and some add a shuttle out to the broodmare division or the training center. The shuttle tours run April through October, and the stallion-complex tour runs all year. Justify's Triple Crown trophy is on display. There are no tours on holidays, Oaks Day, Derby Day or Breeders' Cup race days. Book through Horse Country.
Gainsborough is Godolphin's broodmare farm, a little over 1,500 acres. Visitors meet the mares and, depending on the season, the foals, weanlings or yearlings. Pretty Mischievous, winner of the 2023 Kentucky Oaks, retired here in 2024. Book through Horse Country, where it is listed under Godolphin.
Jonabell, founded in 1946, is where the Godolphin stallions stand in Lexington. The visit starts with the farm's history, then walks through the stallion complex and the breeding shed, and stops at the grave of Affirmed, the 1978 Triple Crown winner. There is no petting or feeding. Book through Horse Country.
Mill Ridge was founded in 1962 and bred Sir Ivor, winner of the 1968 Epsom Derby. Its public tour runs about 90 minutes, and guests follow the farm's guide from barn to barn in their own cars, with no taxis or rideshare on that tour. A group arriving in one hired vehicle should ask the farm for a private tour, and confirm with the farm that the vehicle can follow. Book through Horse Country.
Spendthrift dates to 1937 and covers more than 1,200 acres on Iron Works Pike. Visitors pass through the stone gates to the visitor center, then take a shuttle tour of the mares and foals, a stallion tour, or both. Into Mischief, one of the leading sires in the country, stands here. The farm books its own public and private tours, and also lists them on Horse Country.
Old Friends is a retirement farm for Thoroughbreds, founded in 2003, with more than 200 horses on more than 200 acres. The general tour is a guided walk of about 90 minutes to the paddocks. Silver Charm, the 1997 Kentucky Derby winner, lives here and is the oldest living Derby winner. Every tour is reserved ahead with Old Friends directly, and groups book by phone.
Hermitage Farm sits in Goshen, about 20 minutes from Louisville, which makes it the farm closest to a Louisville hotel. The main house dates to 1835, and Dark Star, raised on the farm, won the 1953 Kentucky Derby. Barn8, a restaurant and bourbon bar, is on the property. Farm tours were not on sale when we checked in October 2026, so confirm with the farm before you put it on the plan.
Claiborne Farm in Paris is where Secretariat is buried. It books its own visits, online, by phone or by email, and runs morning stallion tours most days.
The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington is state-owned and open to visitors without a farm booking. It holds the Hall of Champions and the International Museum of the Horse, and in its main season it is closed on Tuesdays.
On a transportation-only booking the plan belongs to your group, and the vehicle and driver follow it. You pick the farms, book each visit and pay for your tickets at each one. The vehicle is held for your party alone, so a farm can sit on the same booking as distilleries you have arranged yourself.
The rate follows the vehicle your headcount puts you in, and the FAQ below gives the seats in each one. Groups over 14 travel in multiple vehicles or a bus or motor coach we contract. The four vehicles and how many each one seats sets out the fleet, and transportation-only terms in full covers the rest of the booking.
Most of these farms sit around Lexington and Versailles, and Versailles is about 15 to 20 minutes from downtown Lexington. From Louisville, downtown Lexington is about 90 minutes, so a Louisville group spends real time on the road before the first farm. Private bourbon tours from Lexington covers that base.
A custom private tour is a separate product, built around distilleries. It bills by the head, at $275 to $425 per person depending on group size, plus 6% KY sales tax and a 3% booking fee, with everything except lunch and driver gratuity covered. Farm visits are yours to book with the farms, but distillery tickets on a custom tour are ours, and we reserve them for your dates once the tour is confirmed.
Keeneland is one of the add-ons a custom tour can carry, and on race days a morning at the distilleries and then the track works. Keeneland race days with a distillery morning explains how, and custom private bourbon tours shows how the day gets built.
We reply the same day between 8 AM and 8 PM Eastern. Requests after 8 PM get a reply the next morning.
No. BourbonTown Tours does not run horse farm tours. Each farm runs and sells its own visits, most of them through Horse Country, while Old Friends and Claiborne Farm book only directly. What we supply is the ride: a transportation-only booking puts our private vehicle and driver on your group's plan for the hours you book, at the hourly rates on this page.
Book the farm before you book the vehicle. Horse Country sells every tour in advance, with no tickets at the farm gate, and Old Friends takes reservations only. Once each farm visit is confirmed, send us the times and the order, and the quote comes back with the vehicle and the hours. Derby week and Breeders' Cup week fill early.
Yes, on a transportation-only booking. The plan is yours, so your group can arrange a farm visit and distillery visits and put them all on one booking, with the vehicle and driver running the list. On a custom private bourbon tour, the add-ons we fit around the distilleries are Keeneland, Churchill Downs and the Louisville Slugger Museum.
The fleet: Audi A8 sedan up to 3 guests; GMC Yukon Denali SUV 1 to 5 guests; Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van 6 to 14 guests (seats 14); Ford Transit vans (seat 14). Your headcount decides the vehicle and the hourly rate. Groups over 14 travel in multiple vehicles or a bus or motor coach we contract. Some farms limit how vehicles move on the property, so check with each farm.
Pickup is at the guest's hotel or door in Louisville, Bardstown or Lexington. Airport pickup can be arranged, so say so when you send your dates. Most of the farms sit around Lexington and Versailles, so a Lexington base puts the first farm closest, and where to stay in Kentucky bourbon country compares the three bases.
Tell us which farms you have booked, the visit times, your group size and the date, and the quote comes back with the vehicle and the hours. Wineries book the same way: see Kentucky wine tours by private vehicle. For rides to and from the Derby itself, see Kentucky Derby transportation.