Broken: The Suspicious Death of Alydar and the End of Horse Racing's Golden Age
One fateful winter night, a famous racehorse mysteriously broke his leg while alone in his stall. An investigation ensued, but the real story has never been told...until now.
It was a cool, quiet evening at Calumet Farm, where the most valuable racehorses-including the prolific stallion Alydar-had settled into their stalls for the evening. Alton Stone, filling in for the regular night watchman, completed his rounds at the barn. Although nothing seemed out of the ordinary, an inexplicable hunch led Stone to check on Alydar. What he found-a grievously injured horse with no discernible cause-jump-started one of the biggest mysteries to ever hit the horse racing world.
One part true-crime investigation, one part evocative history of the adrenaline-filled days of horse racing's golden age, Broken follows Alydar's rise to fame and then dives into the sordid details of the crime and trial that came to define his legacy. Told with the taut pacing of a legal thriller, Broken investigates Alydar's death, the $41.5 million insurance payout, and the stain it left on the sport of horse racing.
Throughout, animal rights attorney and author Fred M. Kray weaves together shocking testimony and key evidence from the trials, featuring dramatic photos taken the night of the incident. Drawing on interviews conducted with more than twenty-five key witnesses, Kray reveals insider-only details and, in order to discover the truth about the death of this magnificent horse, embarks on a major investigation-one that leads to an unexpected and startling conclusion.
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Gold/First Place award in the 2024 Feathered Quill Book Awards Program, Animal category (Adult books)
"Alydar did everything that was asked of him. Second always to the Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, he was caught in the financial corruption to save and protect those who deserved no protection. He was a sacrificed athlete that Fred Kray has memorialized. Thanks to Kray's professional training inspired by his sincere love for the racehorse, Alydar, the true story is now ours forever to learn from, to protect others from, to deepen our understanding of the forces that corrupt a sport."
-Shelley Fraser Mickle, author of Barbaro, America's Horse and American Pharoah, Triple Crown Champion
"What a wonderful book. Reading about Alydar brought back beautiful memories of the time I spent with Alydar during his racing career, and Kray got everything right. I thought I knew everything about Alydar's death until I read the exhaustive investigation contained in this book. It was thorough, comprehensive, and like nothing I had ever read before. Kray uncovered facts that nobody else did. Thank you, Fred M. Kray, for a book that represents Alydar's legacy and answers the question of what happened to Alydar on the night of November 13, 1990."
-John Veitch, Alydar's trainer, who was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2007
"Broken is a fascinating read. Endlessly researched and easily flowing, the book grabs you from the start and never lets go. By interviewing so many people associated with Alydar, Kray allows the reader to review their dissimilar statements and make his or her own conclusion. This book is a must-read for any fans of Alydar or Thoroughbred racing."
-Bill Heller, Eclipse Award-winning author of twenty-seven books, including The Will To Win: Ron Turcotte's Ride to Glory and Graveyard of Champions: Saratoga's Fallen Favorites
"Fred M. Kray's crackling story of Alydar's tragic demise is history at its best, painstakingly researched and deeply felt. While not drawing any definitive conclusions concerning guilt, Kray honors the horse himself, and that's clearly a superior form of justice."
-Michael Blowen, founder of the Old Friends farms, retirement homes for Thoroughbreds
"Fred M. Kray's Broken builds admirably on the body of work concerning the fall of Calumet Farm and the unsolved death of its star Thoroughbred stallion, Alydar. In particular, Kray advances the groundbreaking investigative reporting of Ann Hagedorn (then Hagedorn Auerbach) in the 1995 first edition of her book Wild Ride. Kray goes in a new direction, adding a lawyer's perspective to this notorious cold case. He is an animal law attorney who is at home in his genre; his empathy for the fear and suffering that Alydar surely experienced after the unthinkable happened in his stall is one hallmark of Broken. Another is Kray's research: he benefited from trial transcripts that were mostly nonexistent when Hagedorn, journalist Carol Flake, and others originally investigated in the early 1990s. While we might never know who or what caused Alydar's death, Kray's work represents another major move forward in solving this horse-racing mystery."
-Maryjean Wall, PhD, retired horse racing journalist and author of Madam Belle
