A Look at Horse Racing as an Enduring Hit Movie Theme

by Staff & Contributors on February 3, 2015

in Gaming

The forthcoming Cheltenham Festival in Gloucestershire, England (March 10 – 13) is the ultimate four days of drama, suspense, triumph, and tears of the whole international racing season. If you aren’t able to see it for yourself, then get into the spirit of the big event by taking a look back at some of the best horse racing movies that have lit up the screen over the decades. Here are just a few recommendations.

There have literally been hundreds of dramas, comedies, romances, and thrillers based on or around horse racing for almost as long as they’ve been making ‘talkies’. The manic Marx Brothers used the sport as the theme for their 1937 smash hit ‘A Day at the Races’, while the 1944 British movie ‘National Velvet’ launched the career of a teenage Elizabeth Taylor. It’s the tale of a girl rider who disguises herself as a boy to ride her horse The Pie to an improbable victory in “the world’s greatest steeplechase”, the Grand National at Aintree. The 1978 sequel, ‘International Velvet’ starred Tatum O’Neill, Anthony Hopkins, and Christopher Plummer.

More so than the Cheltenham Festival, The Grand National has formed the backdrop for many movies, most memorably the 1983 success ‘Champions’. This was a biopic which told the true story of British jumps jockey Bob Champion, who was diagnosed with cancer at the height of his career. His star horse Aldaniti was also sidelined after a serious injury. Champion (played by John Hurt), overcame all the odds to recover, as did Aldaniti – who played himself in the movie. The pair then went on to win the 1981 Grand National race, run over four-and-a-half-miles and negotiating the famous 30 massive spruce fences in front of more than 100,000 spectators at the Liverpool  track. In view of the tribulations of both horse and jockey, it was one of the most emotional finishes to any sporting event.

The victory of Aldaniti was another major sporting first as well. That was because his trainer Jenny Pitman became the first woman to ever send out the winner of the great race.

In 1973, US horse racing and 1930s Chicago combined to form the backdrop to the superb movie ‘The Sting’. This starred Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Robert Shaw. The film told the story of a pair of conmen who produce a sting on a local mafia boss by intercepting horse racing results and swindling him out of a fortune. The film was a huge hit, winning seven Academy Awards, including ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ (George Roy Hill), and ‘Best Music’ (Marvin Hamlisch).

Thirty years later, racing was again big box office ($120 million) at the moves as the 2003 film ‘Seabiscuit’, based on the 1930s true story of the legendary American rags-to-riches racehorse of the same name, proved tremendously popular. Starring Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire, and Chris Cooper, ‘Seabiscuit’ was nominated for six Academy Awards, and also starred US ‘Hall of Fame’ jockey Gary Stevens.

Kids didn’t miss out in the horsey movie stakes either. The 2005 movie ‘Racing Stripes’ took in more than $90 million at the box office as the tale of a zebra who thinks he’s a racehorse proved a family favorite. 

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