The Suspicious Death Of Alydar By Fred M. Kray — Review

This book that tells the compelling story of world famous racehorse, Alydar and his career, the gruesome details of his mysterious death, and the long process of unearthing of the facts and the shameless greed of those around the horse.

An extraordinarily valuable racehorse, alone in his stall one night, was fatally injured. How could this happen? Was this simply a tragic accident or was the horse murdered?

These are the questions that author Fred M. Kray, a retired trial lawyer who specialized in animal law, investigates in his book, Broken: The Suspicious Death of Alydar and the End of Horse Racing’s Golden Age (Live Oak Press, 2023: Amazon US / Amazon UK). This meticulously researched book presents Mr Kray’s years’ long investigation into the facts surrounding the perplexing death of American horse racing’s most valuable sire, Alydar. The horse was euthanized two days after he was discovered in his stall with a seriously fractured hind leg. Did Alydar hurt himself, or was he intentionally injured by someone? The cause of his death is still a hot topic of debate amongst horse lovers.

If you love racehorses, then you no doubt are well aware of Calumet Farm, which was one of the most influential and prestigious horse breeding and racing operations in the world. During its heyday, Calumet Farm’s horses won two of racing’s Triple Crowns and eight Kentucky Derbies. So you might think that Calumet Farm was one the safest places in the world for these celebrated horses to live out their lives. But with the growing greed and callus indifference towards its horses by its owners, Calumet Farm changed. Its legendary decades-long preeminence came to an abrupt end in 1990, when Alydar, racing’s most illustrious sire of champions at the time who was worth $45 million, died under inexplicable circumstances.

The night that tragedy struck on Calumet Farm was beautiful, cool and peaceful. All of the stallions were settled into their stalls for the night under the watchful gaze of night watchman, Alton Stone, who was filling in for the regular night watchman. Although the horses were calm and quiet, and Stone had finished his rounds at the stallion barn, he reported that he suddenly “had a bad feeling” and went to check on Alydar again. This was when he discovered the horse, obviously in shock and sweating profusely in agony from a severely fractured hind leg. What happened? Mr Stone’s discovery kick-started one of the most heart-wrenching puzzles in the world of horse racing.

Mr Kray’s part in this story began much later. After twenty years as a trial lawyer, Mr Kray walked away from his career because the stress was killing him. He followed a troubled and lonely path, until he finally realized that he wanted to give animals a voice in the courtroom. Not long afterwards, he rediscovered his youthful love of horse racing and horses — and especially Alydar.

Mr Kray found Alydar’s enigmatic death to be personally distressing and decided that the magnificent horse deserved justice, and that he was just the person to seek it. He began building his case by collecting and reviewing court records, notes, interviews, and published articles. He commenced interviewing as many witnesses as he could locate as well as others who had been involved with Alydar — especially focusing on those who had contact with the great horse in his last weeks of life. He spoke with former grooms, night watchmen, breeders, equine insurance agents, equine veterinarians, and writers, including Ann Hagedorn Auerbach, author of the book, Wild Ride, published decades earlier, which provided essential details of Calumet Farm’s financial history and shocking bankruptcy. It was Auerbach who went on the record by publicly stating what many had secretly suspected:

In an interview with USA Today, Auerbach summarized the value of Alydar to Calumet when he died: “That horse basically was a maxed-out credit card by the time he died . . . People said ‘You don’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg,’ but that horse was no longer the golden goose . . . He had become worth more dead than alive.” (p. 102)

For that reason, Mr Kray even interviewed a professional horse murderer — an interview that I personally had a difficult time reading.

As Mr Kray carefully researched and built his case, he asked questions that others before him had not. He pushed back on those who insisted it was ‘an accident’ by providing details from those who knew the horse, who knew the stall and the barn where Alydar lived, and who knew the precise nature of the horse’s injuries — injuries that revealed events could not have unfolded the way that these people said they did. Throughout the entire book, Mr Kray’s love and admiration for Alydar and his deep compassion for the horse who stoically endured terrible abuse and injury by those whom he trusted most to care for him becomes obvious to the reader.

Mr Kray presents the facts that he unearthed in such a compelling and logical way that the reader quickly becomes completely immersed in the story. This book is true crime and a murder mystery at its finest because of the extensive investigations and lucid writing about the facts of this magnificent horse’s tragic death — a horse who deserved so much better.