Broken: The Suspicious Death of Alydar and the End of Horse Racing’s Golden Age by Fred M. Kray

Broken: The Suspicious Death of Alydar and the End of Horse Racing’s Golden Age Reviews

• 
  Blaine DeSantis

  As a horse racing fan you get few books to review, and so I was quite happy to get this book by Fred M. Kray which deals with the mysterious death of the fabled horse Alydar back in 1990. Kray has waited almost 30 years to begin his investigation as to how a seemingly healthy, and wonderful horse who had become the #1 breeding mare in the US could sustain a fatal injury in his stall one evening which resulted in his euthanasia less than 2 days later. Laid out in 4 parts, one of my favorites is Part 2 which is a synopsis of Alydars races and famed races against Triple Crown winner Affirmed, and then watching those races on YouTube.
  Kray has done extensive research into the question of whether the injury was an accident or an intentional act for the payout of $35 Million. After reading the book, which includes a lot go testimony from related but unrelated trials we end up with Kray, in Part 4, giving us a jury summation and asks us to decide the question of Accident vs. Intentional.
  A very tangled web of intrigue is presented, a very well written book by the author, and one that, for me, leaves as many questions as it gives answers.
  Well done, Fred!!! A book every horse racing fan should read.
• 
  Stacey Blanton

  I am going to ramble in this review. I am also going to include spoilers.
  
  I was the quintessential horse girl growing up. I lived and breathed horses. I collected Breyers. I read everything having to do with a horse. My favorite series was the Black Stallion. Marguerite Henry's books were the bulk of my library. I followed the triple crown and all of the races leading up to them. I knew the names of the elite of the horse racing world: Man O' War, Sam Riddle, Sir Barton and Hamburg Place, the Cinderella story of Black Gold, Citation and Calumet. Claiborne Farms, Darby Dan Farms, Spendthrift Farms. But I always knew that Calumet was at the top of the chain. I followed Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and I was team Affirmed. I knew virtually nothing about Alydar other than he was Affirmed's rival.
  
  Because my parents couldn't fund a horse, I wasn't able to own one until I had a job of my own. Every penny went to my new horse that was stabled at the Ft. Sam Houston barns. My dream as a teenager was to be an exercise rider in the thoroughbred racing world. I was small enough to do that and the Kentucky Horse Park had a program to train exercise riders. But my parents would not approve of that lifestyle (Mom thought it was the carnival lifestyle and didn't want that for me). Eventually, I ended up living in Lexington with a Veterinary Technology degree in tow. I had a job interview at Calumet in the summer of 1986 for a groom. I walked through the fields toward my interview, passing through a couple of the barns. They were amazing. Everything was immaculate. I always regretted not fighting for that job, but because I had no experience with thoroughbreds, I wasn't considered for the position. But I was thankful for the chance to walk these hallowed halls.
  Life took over and I married and left horses behind. I soon stopped following the track world. I remember vaguely that Calumet heirs had squandered the money and the farm was sold at auction to a foreign national. I always thought the Commonwealth of Kentucky should have purchased it as a working park (similar to the Kentucky Horse Park) because of its history and because almost every horse farm photo of Kentucky and Lexington was represented by Calumet.
  
  In 1993, I started working for a harness track, Thunder Ridge, which was recently built close to home. I learned a lot about the racing world. I learned what people will do to win, even if the stakes weren't millions of dollars. I also learned that most of the people who work with racing horses on a daily basis love these animals, and for the most part, would not intentionally hurt them. But I wasn't so naive that I knew that there were people, mainly those funding these horses, who treated these animals as a cash cow and when they were no longer viable, they were disposed of in one way or another.
  
  Fast forward to 2023. I was trolling Facebook and an add popped up about this book. I contacted Mr. Kray and asked if I could purchase a signed copy. He graciously obliged and a week later, I was camping at the Kentucky Horse Park Campground, sitting in a chair under a large oak tree, listening to bluegrass music (we were at the Spirit of the Bluegrass Festival), and reading this book. As I sat there on what was once a bluegrass horse farm, I read the history of the last of the thoroughbred stars of the golden era. I read the tremendous spirit of Alydar, something as team Affirmed that I didn't know. I think I would have probably been team Alydar if I had known his story and that he was a Calumet horse. As Mr. Kray explained what happened that evening and in the following days, I became overwhelmingly sad. I felt in my heart that this horse was sacrificed for greed. The insurance adjuster, Tom Dixon, was either incompetent or indifferent in investigating the situation. No one questioned JT Lundy. He was very vague or, at the least, sketchy. After reading the entire book, I think Lundy had overspent Calument's money and then was pressured to come up with a large amount of money in a short time. I think Frank Cihak from the First City Bank was wanting their loan payment to help fund his criminal enterprises. I think Frank insisted Lundy kill the horse for the loan payment. Because Cihak was involved in breeding rights with the stallions at Calumet, he knew that Alydar was not bringing in money to the farm (Lundy would give away breeding rights to his friends, so the income from breeding looked good on paper, but in reality, there was no money coming in). I do not think Lundy injured the horse personally, but he or Cihak arranged for the horse to be injured, which led to his death.
  
  I do not think Stone injured the horse. I think he was chosen because he would not ask questions or investigate the situation. I also think the management knew that Kipp (the regular night watchman) would pose a bigger problem because he would not have left the horse unattended or questioned the situation of the injury, so "they" arranged the substitution.
  
  Dr. Bramlage, the best equine orthopedic surgeon in the country, was put in a position to defend a scenario that did not happen. He put his signature on the fact that this was an accident, but when evidence proved that it was not, he couldn't retract his former claim. To Dr. Bramlage, his reputation was more important to him than the truth.
  
  I loved the chapter on Tommy Burns. He is a self-proclaimed "hitman" in the horse industry. He was hired many times to injure and kill horses, primarily in the show jumping world, for the insurance. He explained how horses were injured or killed to make it look like an accident. He gave insight into the dark, but real world of the horse industry where money is more important than the horses that sacrifice their lives for their owners.
  
  I believe Alydar was murdered. I believe JT Lundy had knowledge of it. I believe that Cihak pressured Lundy to kill the horse. I believe Stone did not injure the horse. I believe Dr. Bramlage could have helped solve this if his ego would have allowed him to follow the evidence and not protect his reputation.
  
  Unless someone has a deathbed confession, we may never know what the truth actually is. But I closed this book feeling overwhelmingly sad and very angry. I looked at Calumet as the poster child for thoroughbred racing, Lexington, and Kentucky. Their legacy is part of the reason I came to Kentucky to live. I wanted to be a part of that. It makes me so angry that certain people saw Calumet as a cash cow and raped it with no regards to its history or heritage. I think Mrs. Markey would have the same broken heart I have with all that has happened. My final wish is that Calumet finds someone who will try to restore it to its prior glory and help bury this black spot on its storied history.
• 
  Krista

  "Broken" is about a murder with the most unthinkable victim at the most unthinkable venue. Amid the classic farms of Kentucky's blue grass racing heritage, Calumet was one of the greats. And at that barn, one of the prides not only of the family who owned it, but also of the entire Thoroughbred racing community, was Alydar, a stallion best known for showing unbreakable heart in racing neck-and-neck with Affirmed in the Triple Crown. One terrible night, Alydar is found in his stall with his leg broken--a devastating injury. The initial story put out, essentially, that he'd just kicked his stall door in the wrong way.
  
  Unfortunately, however, there were reasons to wonder. As Kray shows, Calumet's financial situation was in the hands of a man best described as an incompetent seemingly determined to milk the once-great farm of its last penny; at the moment, the farm was teetering on the edge of all of the financial misbehaviors coming to light. And there were many coincidences that merited another look.
  
  Kray, a lawyer specializing in animal care cases, builds a case in "Broken" that what happened that night at Calumet reflected a horrific broader occurrence of insurance scams and equine murders. Moreover, he shows the guardians of racing's heritage failed universally to consider the unthinkable, and in so doing, terribly failed Alydar.
  
  What's good: Kray's writing is clear and his research impeccable. His attempts to interview all parties are evident and his passion for the project undoubtable. What I found most admirable is how he kept coming back to justice for Alydar as a unique horse--we learn that Alydar loved TV, that he had an extremely high recall for humans he'd met, that he would paw his floor when he wanted attention, that he enjoyed racing Affirmed in their paddocks in retirement. (One wonders who won those matches!) We learn that he was playful and could be grabby, but for the most part a horse who could be handled easily by those he trusted. When witnesses attempted to spin Alydar as an excitable horse who threw tantrums and frequently kicked his stall, the author consistently pushes back with the testimony of all who actually interacted with Alydar. What could have been dismissed coldly--a tragic accident of a fractious animal--is shot down by the author with the consistent comments of those who knew the horse. And in its place we are left with a sickening suspicion, for which Kray brings a significant amount of evidence.
  
  Kray provides a closing argument but also allows the reader to fill out their own jury slip. After reading this book, I have no doubt about how I'm voting.
  
  With gratitude to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read an ARC of this book.
• 
  Nyx

  I loved reading this book! Having been surrounded & working with horses my entire life, I’m usually the opposite & avoid most horse books & movies (normally because the inaccuracies are unbearable), but this was an awesome read.
  
  I’ve heard Alydar’s name growing up & knew of his trials in the Triple Crown, but the events & controversy surrounding his death was entirely new to me. It was hard to read through the first few chapters because it was so easy to picture the pain & emotions everyone was feeling. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that if my horse went through a similar experience, that would be my villain origin story. So naturally, I was invested & wanted to determine what happened that night almost as much as the author.
  
  Despite Fred Kray’s lack of experience as a writer, I thought the flow of the story was smooth & easy to follow. I honestly avoid reading nonfiction because most books I’ve picked up in the past were dry & uninteresting to me. This was not the case & I applaud Kray for his work. It was interesting to learn about Alydar’s racing career up until his retirement, the trials following the horse’s death, & then Kray’s own investigation. There are so many voices within these pages, as well as the love those closest to Alydar felt for him. This is definitely I book I would recommend to all horse lovers, no matter their riding discipline.
  
  I received an ARC version through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  J. Elliott

  I was a beta reader for Broken, so I read a less-polished version.
  I'm not a particularly horsey person, though I love animals.
  Not into horseracing.
  I do love a mystery.
  This is a heartbreaking story that sheds a sickly light on the racing business. Animals are ultimately commodities. What grabbed me about this book was Kray's determination to get to the bottom of the mystery. Interview by interview, tiny details emerged and conflicted. Wait, what? No, that doesn't sound right. Wait what? But I thought...
  You can't help but feel like you are a detective along with Mr. Kray.
  That's what makes this book great.
  I'll be honest: this was not a book I really wanted to read as you know up front it's going to be rough. I'm still traumatized by the theater experience of Dumbo's mother dying. Yet, I was quickly drawn in, compelled to find out in the end, who was telling the truth and who was lying, what really happened and WHY.
  Well-written, heartfelt, this is a story about human nature as much as it is about a poor animal with a huge heart caught up in a messy business.
  Bravo Mr. Kray for keeping the spirit of Alydar alive and for going the distance to sift through all the obfuscation to show the tarnish on the golden age of racing.
• 
  Kellye Filer

  Fred M. Kay, a fan of the world of horse racing and lawyer turned advocate for the animals, takes you into the saga and the mystery that still surrounds the unusual and untimely death of Alydar.
  
  Alydar, the premiere breeding stud in the world of horse racing, was found in his stall, with a broken rear leg that no one could explain. Who would have known that after surgery, Alydar would then come up with his front leg broken. Unbelievably, within two days times from the initial broken rear left leg, the foremost stud, the mighty Alydar, would be put down.
  
  Scrutiny and mystery still surround the unfortunate and horrible demise of this magnificent race horse, Alydar. It makes you question all parties involved, and was Alydar, no matter his history and magnificence, worth more dead than alive. The investigation and the trials, which there were several, will still leave with the question of what really happened that November night in Alydar’s stall at Calumet Farms.
  
  Thank you to Live Oak Press and NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read this interesting book written by Fred M. Kay, and for the chance to review and provide me honest and unbiased feedback.
• 
  Lauren Nicole

  Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
  As a horse owner of 23 years I was excited to be approved for this book. It delves into the dark side of horses and the things that do still go on to this day sadly.
  Author did good with research and telling the story.
  Worth the read especially if you like horses.
• 
  Valerity (Val)

  This was a thorough look into the questionable death of the race horse Alydar and the financial game playing that went on around his death. Kray goes the distance to give a voice to this horse and tells the story in a wonderful way that I found moving, honoring this magnificent animal.
• 
  Teresa

  I was very excited to read this book thanks to Net Galley. I am a Kentucky girl and work in the area of Calumet Farms and others. This was a great read.! I enjoyed the history of the horse, the farm, and the players involved. I enjoyed the thoroughness of the research as I had no idea that there could be so much entailed in a single race horses life and the worth of that life.
  My favorite part is the end —- and the verdict. I will passing this book on to my friends in law and horse racing.