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

by Fred M. Kray Narrated by Stephan Watson

Overview

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 discernable 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 law 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

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2023-03-28
Kray presents a true-crime book, set in the high-stakes world of horse racing and breeding, about the life and tragic death of a thoroughbred racehorse in the 1970s.

Horse-racing aficionados, and even some who have only a passing familiarity with sport, will know the name Alydar. The championship steed came in second to the champion thoroughbred Affirmed in all three of 1978’s Triple Crown races: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. Those races are covered in exciting detail in this nonfiction account, but it’s the events of Nov. 13-15, 1990, that form the crux of this work. During that period, Alydar, then retired and the top breeding stallion in the United States, was injured in his stall at Kentucky’s Calumet Farm and then euthanized. Although $36.5 million was paid out in insurance, there were questions raised about Alydar’s death that wouldn’t become public until more than a decade later. The author, an attorney specializing in animal law, presents a theory that the horse was killed for monetary gain. Kray details an official investigation, an insurance-fraud trial, and his own search for the truth in which he painstakingly interviewed key players to reconstruct what might have happened that fateful night in Alydar’s stall. It’s a heartbreaking but compelling story, meticulously researched and skillfully written. Kray’s love of horse racing shines in his recaps of races and equine descriptions, and his pacing and storytelling skills make this true-crime work feel like a gripping thriller. The fraud trial put two men behind bars, but no one was ever tried for the death of Alydar, and the last portion of this book offers a poignant closing argument that Kray says he would have made if he’d tried the case: “Today, I am representing Alydar, who never had a voice of his own. Today, I will be his voice,” he says, in part, to his imaginary jury. “Today will be his day. He deserves that, at the very least.” With this book, Kray has indeed given Alydar his day.

A poignant and thorough look at a real-life horse-racing mystery.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159268907
Publisher:	Live Oak Press
Publication date:	09/18/2023
Series:	null
Edition description:	Unabridged

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