Wild Ride: The Rise and Tragic Fall of Calumet Farm Inc., America's Premier Racing Dynasty

The characters include a multi-million dollar race horse,Alydar---famous for being second to 1978 Triple Crown Winner Affirmed, heirs of Warren Wright who took their inheritance for granted and ignored the source of their riches---Calumet, the banks who continued to loan millions of dollars to Calumet solely on the value of their star stallion Alydar. Even if you are not a fan of thoroughbred horses, the story is as much a moral tale for the 90's as it was for the 80's.

The story moves fast, and is particulary fascinating when the author flashes back to the heydey of Calumet. The antidote retold by the author describing how Alydar was named is particularly amusing. The painstaking research into the where to's and how to's of syndicating breeding shares to star stallions and borrowing money against shares can be dull reading if you are not interested, but can be skimmed over since this is not the focus of the book. Highly recommended.


A must read for Thoroughbred historians   April 3, 2002
Highland Bloodstock Co. (Western Oregon, USA)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Reads like a novel. An interesting peek inside one of the nation's most famous farms. Our copy has made the rounds of our barn many times, each border has read it at least twice. At times "Wild Ride" is sad, almost gut-wrenching, sometimes it can be rather amusing, and other times it reads like a Dick Francis murder mystery. This book belongs on every horseperson's desk. A valuable insight into early Thoroughbred history.


Hold on for (a) Wild Ride!   June 11, 2000
Alison Gibson (Ripley, Ohio)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Once again, truth is stranger and more powerful than fiction. In one book, Wild Ride provides a family saga, an industry history, an as yet unsolved murder mystery, a portrait of the greed of the 1980s, and an insight into a world only lived in by a few, coveted by many and musunderstood by most. This saga artfully weaves the history of the Calumet Farm, considered to be among the true dynasties of the fabled Bluegrass area, with the history of thoroughbred horse breeding and racing. Even if the horse racing industry did not interest the reader (but almost everyone at least watches the Kentucky Derby!), the speed in which the power of greed and corruption, along with an amoral attitude can cause an old-line successful business to collapse in a matter of a few years is astounding and compelling reading. Ann Hagedorn Auerbach skillfully takes the reader on a ride through the Bluegrass country, after clearly doing a tremendous amoung of digging into the past and present to off the reader a comprehensive tale that is very, very hard to put down. A great read on multiple levels.