Wild Ride is Ann Hagedorn Auerbach's award-winning chronicle of the tragic story behind the downfall of horse racing's crown jewel. Founded in 1924 by Chicago mogul William Monroe Wright, Calumet Farm was to the world of thoroughbred racing what the New York Yankees are to baseball--a sports dynasty. The stable bred so many superstars that it became the standard by which all achievements were measured in the horse racing industry. But during the 1980s, a web of financial schemes left Calumet destitute. Auerbach's account is an investigation of the fast-track, multibillion-dollar thoroughbred industry and the fall of Calumet--the inside story of a debacle that extended further than anyone could have imagined. Spanning four generations, this fast-paced saga brings to life a gallery of colorful characters from Calumet's glittery past. Wild Ride shows the industry's transformation from a clubby blue-blood society where a handshake closed a deal to a high-stakes business bulging with bankers and scandalous deal making. When the Bluegrass Bubble exploded, one of America's largest family fortunes lay in ruins. "A fascinating tale with a cast of characters worthy of Dickens -- or Runyon." -- Carl Desens, BusinessWeek "A dramatic story ... [told] exceptionally well. Race fans will love the book, but so will anyone interested in recent cultural history, for Wild Ride is as much about the 1980s greed as it is about horses." -- Chris Goodrich, Los Angeles Times "Sets the standard for investigative journalism in the sport of horse racing." -- Neil Milbert, Chicago Tribune "This book blew me away. Behind the white fences and green pastures of a landmark institution, Ann Hagedorn Auerbach has found a tale of intrigue, corruption and family strife worthy of a novelist." -- Thomas Petzinger Jr., author of Oil & Honor: The Texaco-Pennzoil Wars Ann Hagedorn Auerbach is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and has also written for The San Jose Mercury News , The New York Daily News , and The Washington Post . She is the award-winning author of Wild Ride: The Rise and Tragic Fall of Calumet Farm, Inc. , which was a regional bestseller and launched a government investigation. She lives New York City. Wild Ride The Rise and Fall of Calumet Farm Inc., America's Premier Racing Dynasty By Anne Hagedorn Auerbach Holt Paperbacks Copyright © 1995 Anne Hagedorn Auerbach All right reserved. ISBN: 9780805042429 Wild Ride 1 Calumet Farm sits on a high plateau in central Kentucky, a land of rolling savannahs known as the Bluegrass and the world center of the thoroughbred horse industry. Here, partly because of an accident of nature, breeders have produced more champion racehorses than on any other piece of land in the world. The geological accident occurred more than 450 million years ago. At that time, while the eastern United States was still under water, great collisions on the earth’s surface forced the formation of mountains where the Appalachians stand today. Over the next 200 million years, a pattern emerged: the mountains eroded, the collisions resumed, and new mountains rose, only to erode once again. As each range of mountains formed, the impact sent waves of the earth’s crust westward. Of the many waves, one grew until it formed a high ground that consisted largely of limestone and measured fifty miles across and several hundred miles long, extending from what is now Ohio to southern Tennessee. On the surface of this high ground was a dark brown soil, nourished by the limestone beneath it and uncommonly rich in phosphate from millions of deposits of shells and skeletons. The soil also contained an abundance of calcium, but it was the phosphate, normally found at such concentration only on ocean floors, that would dazzle geologists for centuries. The grass that grew from this soil was unique in its ability to nurture strong bones in the animals that grazed upon it. And the greatest concentration of the soil was in a 2,500-square-mile area whose center would someday be Fayette County, Kentucky, the heart of the Bluegrass. Thousands of years after the first grass grew on the high plateau and many miles away, horse breeders in England began a centuries-long pursuit that would have as much impact on the future of the Bluegrass as geology. Their quest was the search for a new type of horse to take advantage of a new kind of weapon—gunpowder. Horses were used mainly to transport men, supplies, and weapons until the Normans, in 1066, won the Battle of Hastings with the help of superior horses. For several centuries thereafter, the breeding of a sturdy mount capable of carrying the 350-pound weight of a knight in full armor was a critical part of military strategy. But with the invention of gunpowder in the fourteenth century, armor became obsolete and armies needed fast, agile horses capable of darting quickly out of the range of fire. In the Middle Ages, though, the only light horses in Engla