American Black Beauty
An updated retelling of the classic story follows Cheryl, whose father has been killed in a tragic horse riding accident, as she's sent to live with distant relatives on their ranch. There she meets, and slowly bonds with, a horse named Black Beauty, whose friendship helps her conquer her fear. It's a heartwarming adventure for all the family.
Phar Lap
This is a true story of Australia's hero Phar Lap — a martyr in Australian tradition. Rising to fame between 1928 and 1932, Phar Lap's big heart gets him first across the line in 37 races including the 1930 Melbourne Cup and the horserace in Agua Caliente, Mexico, in 1932. But 16 days later in Menlo Park, California, the horse dies. Phar Lap's suspicious death made the horse a legend.
It begins at the end and then flashes back to that day in 1928 when trainer, Harry Telford (Martin Vaughan), purchases a rather unsightly chestnut horse for £168 (Dh1,232) from New Zealand — only because of its bloodline — for shrewd owner, Dave Davis (Ron Leibman). The horse is hopeless and loses his first five races, the stable boys laugh and name him Phar Lap which is Siamese for “lightning". And the rest, as they say, is history.
Ruffian
This made-for-television-movie offers a touching portrait of a racehorse, who captured hearts and headlines across US in the 1970s. The film chronicles the lightning-fast filly and two of her greatest admirers, trainer Frank Whiteley (Sam Shepard) and sports journalist Bill Nack (Frank Whaley). Whiteley and Nack follow Ruffian through victory after victory en route to her 1975 Filly Triple Crown. But when fans clamour for Ruffian to race a colt, Whiteley agrees to a battle-of-the-sexes showdown that ends in tragedy for his prize horse. The film follows predictable sports-movie conventions — the champion horse faces tougher and tougher competition, eventually leading to a one-on-one race against her only worthy rival, 1975 Kentucky
Derby winner, Foolish Pleasure.
Ben-Hur
This epic blockbuster was the most expensive film of the 1950s. Ben-Hur was also one of the most honoured, award-winning films of all time and crossed the finish line to win no less than 11 Oscars. But the film is mostly remembered for the chariot race sequence in the Roman Circus — one of the most thrilling and famous in film history. The chariot race segment was directed by legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt and the filming of the sequence took more than three weeks. Both Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd did all their own stunts in the carefully-choreographed sequence.
Although there were presumably white horses in Italy, the white horses used in the film were brought in from Lipica, Slovenia, the original home of the snow-white Lipizzaner horse breed. It is said that at the beginning of the chariot race, Heston shook the reins and nothing happened — the horses remained motionless. Finally, someone way up on top of the set yelled, “Giddy-up!" The horses then roared into action, and Heston was flung backwards off the chariot.
Seabiscuit
This is an Academy Award-nominated 2003 US drama based on the best-selling book Seabiscuit: An American Legend. The story recounts the life and racing career of Seabiscuit, an undersized and overlooked thoroughbred race-horse whose unexpected successes made him a hugely popular sensation in the US near the end of the Great Depression. There are many horse-racing scenes in which the camera is placed among the jockeys, giving the audience a realistic sense of “riding along" with the horses.
Mary Poppins
The movie is a mixture of live action, animation and memorable songs. It was nominated for 13 Academy Awards — a record for movie musicals. There is an episode in the film in which Mary Poppins, Bert, Jane, and Michael leap into a chalk drawing and find themselves in a colourful animated landscape. After the two adults have stopped at a riverside cafe, where they are served by dancing penguins, they go on to join the children for a ride on horses from a carousel, saving a fox from a band of hunters and joining in a horse race along the way. One of its famous song comes during the animated sequence when Mary Poppins wins a horse race and is harangued by reporters about how such an accomplishment makes her feel. Mary answers “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" and starts singing. According to Robert B. Sherman, co-writer of the song, the word was mostly created out of double-talk. The roots of the word are fairly clear, as Richard Lederer wrote in his book Crazy English: super- “above", cali- “beauty", fragilistic- “delicate", expiali- “to atone", and docious- “educable", the sum meaning roughly is “Atoning for extreme and delicate beauty while still being highly educable." This is the perfect word for Mary Poppins to use, being that she thinks of herself as incredibly beautiful and also extremely intelligent.
Dreamer:
Inspired By
A True Story
Starring Kurt Russell (Ben Crane) and Dakota Fanning (Cale), the film is inspired by the true story of an injured thoroughbred racehorse. In Lexington, Kentucky, the horse barn of the Crane family has been empty for years due to the financial difficulties of the family. When the female horse Sonador (Dreamer, in English) breaks one foreleg in a race, the owner decides to sacrifice the animal, but Ben Crane accepts the injured horse as part of three months' salary owed by Palmer. The arrival of the horse to Crane's farm is the perfect opportunity for both father and daughter to reconstruct their lost bond. And while the horse is rehabilitated, the wounds in the Crane family are also healed. Surely the ultimate fate of the horse and the family won't surprise anyone, but young girls who love horses often don't need a surprise ending.
Race
Bollywood's latest mystery thriller revolves around two people, Ranvir played by Saif Ali Khan and Rajiv played by Akshaye Khanna, who are half-brothers and own a huge stud farm in Durban, South Africa. They breed horses on their huge ranch and are also the biggest bookies on the horse racing circuit. With a backdrop of horse racing and beautiful locales of Durban, the film, which has just been released, is entertaining to say the least.
