Genuine Risk
Exterminator
I agree with Black Gold. That was always my favorite Marguerite Henry book. I read it probably 20 times as a kid…I loved it more than Misty!
Canonero II.
Swaps–western horse raised on scrub grass and a pile of rocks outside of LA, took on the Eastern Establishment back when that really meant something, trainer hacked him around in a stock saddle, did all of the farrier work himself and slept in his stall at Churchill Downs.
Wooley and Mine That Bird were pale imitations of the originals.
[QUOTE=mroades;4842994]
Exterminator[/QUOTE]
Yes, my choice too. And Man O’ War…
I also wish that someone involved in film would take on a 'Life After the Track" documentary.
There are so many great stories to tell of ones that didn’t make it as race horses (or did and had 2nd successful career). It would make a great PR film for the retirement organizations as well as an educational movie for TB owners at the track…
[QUOTE=HenryisBlaisin’;4844672]
I agree with Black Gold. That was always my favorite Marguerite Henry book. I read it probably 20 times as a kid…I loved it more than Misty![/QUOTE]
I just can’t read that one any more. I’ve seen enough elsewhere to think that the old movie (that portrayed his connections in a negative light) was probably closer to the truth and the whole “I ran him in good faith” thing was BS. Plus it’s a little hard to get all up in arms because Hoots wouldn’t hand over U-See-It after she was claimed when…well, that’s how claimers work. While striking her from the registry (if that actually happened) is a bit OTT he absolutely deserved a lifetime ban. You don’t want a horse claimed, don’t run her in a claimer. I think to be true a Black Gold movie would probably end up being more off-putting to the general public than anything else.
Likewise, I really just don’t think it would do racing any favors to make a big production out of stories where the horse breaks down. I knew how the Ruffian movie had to end, to this day I have no problem with the decision to run her IRL (to breed Reviewer over Shenanigens is another stroy), I realize it was just a movie and it was CGI, and I STILL was nauseated by the slo-mo closeup of her leg snapping. Bad enough it happens IRL. No need to emphasize it in movies when there are horses like John Henry, Man o’ War, Exterminator to talk about.
(Though I know they’re doing it with John Henry and Secretariat, personally I’d rather they avoid too many stories where the connections are still living, let alone the horse.)
Smarty Jones ~
Spectacular Bid and the mystery of his Belmont. I love that horse. Best racer, except for Tim Tam, who didn’t win the Triple Crown.
If Swaps, I would hope they would include the sad history of his dam, Iron Reward. She starved to death in a field in California, IIRC.
Alydar and Affirmed would make a good movie, especially if they covered the mystery of Alydar’s death.
There are a lot of good stories in horse racing, but the screenplay would be crucial. They aren’t all Walt Disney type stories, and some of them would make movies for grownups.
A TV series of historical documentaries could be very interesting.
Regret. I imagine they could get some mileage out of the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby, and as it took place in 1915, an era which really doesn’t resonate in the popular imagination, we’d be spared ‘colorful’ horrors of the sort inflicted by Seabiscuit.
But really, I just wish they’d do a racing movie where the races are shot well - as in, focus on the horses running. I’ve had enough of racing movies where the camera can’t tear itself away from the jockeys, either the face of the lead actor or a shot from behind of all the bobbing white jockey butts. No offense to the jockeys, but neither is a really dramatic, involving view:lol:
I believe that the reason they don’t show races well in movies has to do with the cost of filming a fake race. The way you describe is how they can film a fake race without actually having horses present.
[QUOTE=vineyridge;4845438]
I believe that the reason they don’t show races well in movies has to do with the cost of filming a fake race. The way you describe is how they can film a fake race without actually having horses present.[/QUOTE]
And thus without endangering the lives of anyone, human or equine, in the name of making a movie.
Re: Black Gold. I know the Henry portrayal of the connections was most likely romanticized - people who knew Webb, for example, said he was “the world’s worst horseman”. But the “I ran him in good faith” quote was actually pulled from a New Orleans Times-Picayune interview with Webb after the fatal breakdown.
[QUOTE=Mara;4844053]
Seattle Slew. Ugly foal from unproven parents. Formerly blue collar owners acquire formerly ugly foal, now an unimpressive yearling, at bargain basement auction price. Unknown trainer gets unimpressive yearling and make him the first undefeated TC winner in history.
Horse almost dies between 3 and 4 year old season, makes impressive comeback.
LOTS of material there.[/QUOTE]
Yes!!!
And Hoist the Flag! What a story!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8925-2002Jun6.html
I would love to see the book Wild Ride made into a movie. That story is so unreal that it reads like fiction!:no:
I do not follow racing much but what about Cigar? I always loved him.
Excellent idea- "After the Track
[QUOTE=danceronice;4845316]
I just can’t read that one any more. I’ve seen enough elsewhere to think that the old movie (that portrayed his connections in a negative light) was probably closer to the truth and the whole “I ran him in good faith” thing was BS. Plus it’s a little hard to get all up in arms because Hoots wouldn’t hand over U-See-It after she was claimed when…well, that’s how claimers work. While striking her from the registry (if that actually happened) is a bit OTT he absolutely deserved a lifetime ban. You don’t want a horse claimed, don’t run her in a claimer. I think to be true a Black Gold movie would probably end up being more off-putting to the general public than anything else.
Likewise, I really just don’t think it would do racing any favors to make a big production out of stories where the horse breaks down. I knew how the Ruffian movie had to end, to this day I have no problem with the decision to run her IRL (to breed Reviewer over Shenanigens is another stroy), I realize it was just a movie and it was CGI, and I STILL was nauseated by the slo-mo closeup of her leg snapping. Bad enough it happens IRL. No need to emphasize it in movies when there are horses like John Henry, Man o’ War, Exterminator to talk about.
(Though I know they’re doing it with John Henry and Secretariat, personally I’d rather they avoid too many stories where the connections are still living, let alone the horse.)[/QUOTE]
Agree on both these- the Black Gold, and the Ruffian.
if I had to make a mini list though:
Sir Barton
Tim Tam
Exterminator
Little Current
Red Rum
Arkle
Shergar (already done?)
Oh, golly. I’ll have a hard time stopping. One of my favorite books is by Peter Chew, about the first one hundred years of the Kentucky Derby. I shed many tears reading the stories, both happy and sad.
Regret
Man O War (Much can be done with the fact that few top mares were sent to him , and why… Oh, and the relationship the horse had with his groom.)
Timely Reward (a middling race horse who went on to a career as a police horse)
Exterminator
Whirlaway
Swaps
Black Gold (One of the saddest racing stories ever)
Battleship
Kelso
The Alydar/Affirmed rivalry. One of the best!
CanoneroII
The story of Count Turf and Conn McCreary
So many possiblities – and other here have cited others just as fine!
WOW. Where did you read that? I have been Googling around and could find nothing other than she had her last foal in 1969, when she was 23, and died in 1975.
Iron Reward
Correction — appears she was one of five dead horses (out of 130 total) taken from Rex Ellsworth’s ranch by the SPCA in 1975. From Sports Illustrated, February 3, 1975.
Ellsworth doesn’t deserve to have any film wasted on him, ever, IMHO. That Ellsworth was back racing horses in California in the 1980s is REVOLTING.
Big ditto! 
Shergar was a movie, but given that to this day it’s uncertain what happened, there was some…creative license. And if you believe the IRA killers who’ve spoken on the matter it would be a pretty short film–fairly successful race stallion is stolen by terrorists, they realize pretty fast they’re in over their heads and can’t handle him, and shoot him (not in the head, with automatic weapons fire.) The movie took a more Hollywoodized view (the horse still ends up dead, but not so fast.)
Probably the most important aspect of the film–ideally, the people around the horse have to have compelling stories. That was why people liked “Seabiscuit” so much–Howard, Red Pollard, the Iceman. The horse is interesting but he doesn’t have much in the way of a personal drama. They look to have gone the same way with Secretariat, building a story around Penny. So Man 'o War, you have the Belmonts who bred him and almost didn’t sell, Samuel Riddle buying him on the trainer’s advice and figuring if he flopped on the track he’d at least make a nice fox hunter, the jockey who got set down (and may or may not have taken a dive on the horse’s one loss), the incredible bond with his groom, and despite not always getting the best mares, he was an incredbily influential sire whose descendents are still racing.
With some of the suggestions–Black Gold you have the questionable circumstances of his return to racing (not in the best interests of the horse to say the least) plus a depressing ending, Ruffian been done and again, bad ending…Sir Barton raced doped (“coked to the gills” was one description I recall) and ended up dying out west after having spent time as a sire for a cavalry remount station, not to mention his last race involved being distantly outclassed by Man o’ War…Alydar/Affirmed you could end up getting bogged in the ugliness around his death (check out the lovely thread about “Reille Hunter”/Lisa Ducker for how the horse-killing scandals are still news) which could even get into people being VERY ANGRY about how they’re portrayed.
Man o’ War or Exterminator would be excellent choices–happy endings, everyone involved is for the most part long since dead, and horses with stories raced by people with stories.
