9. Off to the Races

You know, everybody thinks we found this broken down horse and fixed him, but we didn’t. He fixed us.

—Red Pollard, voiceover, Seabiscuit, (Screenplay by Gary Ross, based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand)

Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) works out with Seabiscuit (Fighting Furrari).

Before Hollywood opened the starting gate on its long run of horse-racing films, motion-picture pioneer Thomas Edison turned his camera on a race at Sheepshead Bay, New York. The year was 1897. In 1904, The Great Train Robbery director Edwin S. Porter made Two Rubes at a Country Fair, featuring a horse race with female jockeys. Director Reginald Barker established a soon-to-be-clichéd plotline in The Thoroughbred (1916), a comedic tale of a man struggling to get out of debt by entering his horse in a big race. A New York Times critic praised The Thoroughbred and commented, “It is a wonder horse racing has not been used oftener for movie purposes.” Yet Hollywood was still slow to place its bets on a winner.

Although the pageantry, win/lose suspense, and hoof-pounding excitement of a good horse race inspired dozens of British films in the early 1900s, Hollywood lagged behind until a big red Thoroughbred stallion named Man O’War brought “the sport of kings” to the common American. Beaten only once in his career—and that by a nose in a race he began by facing the wrong way—Man O’War was a national sports hero by 1919. Fans who couldn’t make it to the track at Saratoga or Belmont could cheer Man O’War while listening to his races on the radio. America’s fervor for horse racing had been ignited, and the motion-picture industry jumped on the bandwagon.

Man O’War led the cast of illustrious racehorses in this 1925 blue-grass romance.

From the 1920s to the present, the colorful characters of the racetrack milieu—from wealthy owners, gifted trainers, weight-battling jockeys, unscrupulous competitors, and touts to low-heelers hoping to hit the jackpot—have provided inspiration for screenwriters. Common themes, the winning racehorse bailing out a desperate owner, a long shot coming from behind, a former champion making a comeback after an injury, have all been worked and reworked over the decades.

Kentucky, the home state of Thoroughbred racing, became a popular setting for films such as Kentucky Derby (1922), My Old Kentucky Home (1922), Kentucky Pride (1925), and Kentucky Handicap (1926). These were followed in the 1930s and ’40s by movies such as Old Kentucky (1936), which featured Will Rogers, Pride of the Bluegrass (1939), and Bluegrass of Kentucky (1944).

Many stars have wagered on racehorse movies, from Clark Gable in Sporting Blood (1931) and Saratoga (1937), Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry (1937), the Marx Brothers in A Day at the Races (1937), Abbott and Costello in It Ain’t Hay (1943), and Bob Hope and Lucille Ball in Sorrowful Jones (1949) to Sharon Stone, Nick Nolte, and Jeff Bridges in Simpatico (1999). Jeff Bridges made a better bet with Tobey Maguire and Chris Cooper in the Oscar-nominated Seabiscuit (2003). The gamble hasn’t always been successful, but the track continues to lure filmmakers. Movies about Thoroughbred racing are the most common, but Standardbred harness racing, Quarter Horse racing, and endurance racing with a variety of breeds have also provided fodder for a number of features.

Casey’s Shadow

Set in the world of Quarter Horse racing, Casey’s Shadow (1978) starred Walter Matthau as Cajun horse trainer Lloyd Bourdelle. The film, directed by Martin Ritt, was inspired by the success of a small-time trainer, Lloyd Romero, who made it big when his long shot won the million-dollar purse at the All-American Futurity, at Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico. A Time magazine review said the film “accurately recreates the arduous rituals of training, the sweaty romance of jockeying, and the cracker-barrel humor of the eccentrics who build their lives around long shots.”

The film concerns an orphaned colt sired by a champion named Sure Hit. One of Bourdelle’s three sons acquires his dam in foal, and she dies soon after giving birth. Bourdelle is disappointed because the blaze-faced sorrel colt has white stockings and therefore white hooves, which are supposedly weaker than black ones. His youngest son, Casey (Michael Hershewe), refuses to let the colt die and coaxes him to suckle his lactating pony who has a weanling foal. The colt, named Casey’s Shadow for the way he bonds to his rescuer, grows into a strong, incredibly fast horse, and Bourdelle sees his chance at winning the coveted All-American. After the horse is injured, the usually principled Bourdelle is faced with the moral dilemma of realizing a lifelong dream at the risk of destroying the stallion. The tale of human frailty and greed ends on a redemptive note, but not before driving home the point that incredible stress is put on racehorses who as two-year-olds are pushed to perform before their leg bones have fully matured.

Several horses played the young Casey’s Shadow, and although they embodied the right spirit of a developing racehorse, an astute observer can see that their blazes don’t always match. The lead horse playing the two-year-old was a flashy bald-faced sorrel with four white socks. Although he was supposed to be a registered Quarter Horse, Casey, as he was named for the production, was actually a Morgan/Quarter cross. He did 90 percent of the work but was doubled by Baldy Socks, who, according to wrangler Phil Cowling, required makeup applications of “Streaks and Tips” to match Casey. Cowling taught Baldy Socks to lie down for a scene in which Casey is ill. He worked under the supervision of his boss wrangler, the late Al Janks, who supplied all the horses for the film.

Walter Matthau and Alexis Smith pose with their equine costar of Casey’s Shadow (1978).

Racehorse Biographies

Several biographical stories of famous racehorses have made it to the screen. Ironically, the more fictionalized scenarios have not usually been as compelling as the scripts that stick closer to the truth.

The Great Dan Patch

The life of Dan Patch, an unbeaten Standardbred harness racer who became a household name in the early twentieth century, was perfect movie material. Sired by Joe Patchen, a renowned pacer from Illinois, the exceptional colt from Indiana was foaled in 1896. He was owned by his breeder, dry-goods merchant Dan Messner Jr. Trained by Johnny Wattles, Dan Patch (named for his owner and his sire) did not race until he was a four-year-old. After cleaning up on the county-fair circuit in Indiana, the fabulous pacer went on the national Grand Circuit and won fifty-two consecutive races.

After his mare Lady Patch was poisoned, presumably by gamblers, Messner feared for Dan Patch’s life. He sold the colt to M. E. Sturgis of Buffalo, New York, for $20,000. Dan Patch continued his undefeated career, touring the country in a private white railroad car emblazoned with his picture and name. Wherever he stopped to race, the locals proclaimed a Dan Patch Day. Pampered by four grooms, the horse reportedly loved the attention, including the band music that usually heralded his arrival.

By the end of 1903, no horse in America dared to challenge the remarkable stallion. Sturgis sold him for $60,000 to Marion W. Savage, owner of International Stock Food Company of Hamilton, Minnesota. A marketing genius, Savage used the Dan Patch name to promote a variety of products, including horse feed, cigars, silk scarves, and pillows. Dan Patch raced only in special exhibitions against the clock, pulling his trademark white sulky. The other horses in these races were there purely to give Dan the incentive to strut his stuff. He commanded a stud fee of $300, a fortune at the time. Breeders were enticed by Savage’s assurance that “a colt by Dan Patch is just like a government bond.” Dan Patch made millions for Savage, who reportedly loved the great pacing horse. In 1916, at age twenty, Dan Patch collapsed and died. Savage died thirty-two hours later, from complications after a heart attack. Dan Patch and his devoted owner were buried at the same hour.

The 1949 equine “bio-pic” The Great Dan Patch left out most of the dramatic details of the horse’s career in favor of a sappy fictionalized love triangle between a fictional owner, David Palmer (Dennis O’Keefe), his socially ambitious wife Ruth (Ruth Warrick), and Cissy Lathrop (Gail Russell), the pure-hearted, horse-savvy daughter of Dan Patch’s equally fictitious trainer, Ben Lathrop (John Hoyt). While the gorgeous black horse with a white star who played Dan Patch was cited by the Hollywood trade publication Variety for his beauty and performance, no credit is given in the film to either the horse or his trainer.

Phar Lap

Many believe a New Zealand-bred gelding named Phar Lap (“lightning” in Siamese) was the greatest galloper the world has ever seen. Director Simon Wincer’s 1983 film Phar Lap is a valentine to the remarkable horse, whose astonishing career was cut shockingly short by a mysterious death.

In the movie, trainer Harry Telford (Martin Vaughan), betting on the colt’s ancestral bloodlines, buys the horse in New Zealand for an Australia-based American owner, Dave Davis (Ron Leibman), in 1928. The ungainly fifteen-month-old red chestnut arrives in Australia, and Davis is so unimpressed, he agrees to let Telford lease the gelding for three years. Convinced Phar Lap has a lazy streak, Telford is hard on the colt on which he has staked his economic future. Slow-motion scenes depicting the trainer legging up Phar Lap by galloping him in sand dunes reveal just how arduous this is for a horse. Despite the rigors of training, Phar Lap doesn’t show much speed until he reaches the age of four. Topping out at 17 hands, he finally hits his gargantuan stride—with the help of his strapper (Australian for “groom”) Tommy Woodcock (Tom Burlinson), who figured out the key to unlocking his competitive spirit. Phar Lap simply needed to be held back and then allowed to run from behind. His jockey, Jim Pike (James Steele), never even has to use the whip.

Phar Lap wins the 1930 Melbourne Cup and the Futurity Stakes, races of greatly varying distances. After winning thirty-six races, “the Red Terror” as he was known by his many fans in his adopted country, is handicapped so heavily it is impossible for him to continue racing in Australia. Greedy for more winnings, Davis and Telford decide to send him to America to run in the Aqua Caliente Handicap on the California-Mexican border. Woodcock is promoted to Phar Lap’s trainer and nurses him through a badly cracked hoof to win the $100,000 purse on March 20, 1932.

Seventeen days later, Phar Lap suddenly becomes gravely ill on the northern California farm where he is resting up for his next big race. Woodcock, sleeping in a nearby stall, is awakened by the horse’s pitiful groans. Despite the desperate ministering of Woodcock and a veterinarian, Phar Lap drops dead. Gamblers’ henchmen are suspected of poisoning the big red horse. Although a postmortem showed evidence of poisoning, the tragic mystery was never solved.

In preparing Phar Lap (1983), producer John Sexton was so concerned about historical accuracy that he sent master of horse Heath Harris and head trainer Evanne Chesson on a month’s long search for a red chestnut horse big enough to portray the 17-hand wonder. They looked at horse after horse, but none had the size and rich red color of Phar Lap. Then one day, lunching with friend Shirley Pye McMillian at Branca Plains, her sheep and cattle station at Walcha, Harris and Chesson spotted a big red horse in a paddock. McMillian had been traveling and was totally unaware of the search for Phar Lap’s double. Her horse, the 17-hand Thoroughbred/Whaler cross Towering Inferno, was a ranch mount that the stockmen didn’t like. “He was just too big for the men to keep getting on and off,” said McMillan. “Even so, I kept him as I thought he might one day do something worthwhile.” According to Harris, it was kismet. He knew he had found his star horse as soon as he walked toward the gelding. “He moved just like Phar Lap,” he later recalled. “His color was exactly right, even his hind fetlocks were white.” He also had a white star and, most surprisingly, a distinctive pattern of black spots on his thigh in the shape of a Southern Cross, like Phar Lap.

Towering Inferno was nicknamed Bobby after Phar Lap’s own stable name. The script required him to rear, strike, paw the ground, look in both directions, nod his head, and play dead. He had to tear a shirt off the back of a stableboy—like the real Phar lap used to do. In addition to all these tricks, he had to learn to gallop with a camera car right beside him. Harris and Chesson quickly discovered that Bobby had the smarts to go with his movie-star looks, and the trick for them was staying one step ahead of the clever horse. Their patience and hard work with Bobby paid off, as the horse turned into a fabulous performer who never spooked at the camera. In fact, he became something of a ham and reveled in the attention of the film crew. Those who remembered the real Phar Lap were astonished by the resemblance. When Bobby was presented to the press, veteran racing journalist Johnny Tapp turned to producer John Sexton and said, “It’s a reincarnation.”

Tom Burlinson, the handsome young star of The Man from Snowy River, is wonderful in the role of Tommy Woodcock. Fortunately, the late Woodcock was, at seventy-eight, still very much alive when Phar Lap was being made, and the actor was able to glean a great deal from him. Woodcock even lent a custom-made horse blanket that had belonged to Phar Lap for a scene depicting the gelding’s trip to America. Amazingly, it fit the movie Phar Lap as if it were made for him.

Tommy Woodcock was with Phar Lap almost constantly during his short-lived career. When Phar Lap died, Woodcock could not control his tears for the horse he had loved greatly. Under the direction of Simon Wincer, Burlinson and Towering Inferno recreated this heartbreaking scene so convincingly that it’s difficult to keep a dry eye while watching the sad finale to the beautifully crafted Phar Lap.

Towering Inferno, aka Bobby, was purchased by Heath Harris after production. He was retired from movie work but raised more than $300,000 for charities in Australia and New Zealand making personal appearances as the horse from Phar Lap. At age twenty-six, a bizarre turn of events claimed his life. Bobby was struck by lightning—the very thing Phar Lap was named for—while taking shelter from a thunderstorm under a tree on the Harris ranch. Since the veterinarian was too far away to euthanize the fatally injured gelding, Harris—who felt about Bobby the way Tommy Woodcock had felt about Phar Lap—was obliged to put his suffering old friend out of his misery. He has said it was the hardest day of his life.

With James Steele as jockey Jim Pike aboard Towering Inferno, in white bridle as Phar Lap, towers over the competition at the start of a turf race.

Tom Burlinson and Towering Inferno recreate the tragic end of Phar Lap.

Two Seabiscuits

A horse that could have given Phar Lap a run for the money was Seabiscuit, an underdog who bucked the odds to become America’s sweetheart during the Depression. The two biographical films about Seabiscuit, made more than fifty years apart, couldn’t be more different. The Story of Seabiscuit (1949) starred Shirley Temple and suffered the same type of truth tinkering that had plagued The Great Dan Patch. Not only were the lives of the real people surrounding Seabiscuit altered to ill effect, but in this case the equine actors also were uncooperative. When the horse portraying War Admiral kept beating the movie’s Seabiscuit, director David Butler resorted to archival footage of the famous match between the two rivals.

The true story of Seabiscuit, a crooked-legged horse who went from loser to champion with the help of a half-blind jockey and a washed-up trainer, was magnificently told in Laura Hillenbrand’s marvelous book Seabiscuit, An American Legend, published in 2001. Ripe for a remake, Seabiscuit’s incredible rags-to-riches story was given topflight treatment by the A-list producing team of Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall and director Gary Ross. For the 2003 Universal Pictures movie Seabiscuit, Ross cast Tobey Maguire as Seabiscuit’s jockey Red Pollard, Chris Cooper as trainer “Silent” Tom Smith, and Jeff Bridges as owner C. S. Howard. Elizabeth Banks was cast as Marcela (Mrs. C. S.) Howard, and William H. Macy as racing wag “Tick Tock” McGlaughlin. With the human stars set, the awesome task of casting the equine hero of the movie was next. Enter the wrangler from Montana, Rusty Hendrickson.

The forty horses initially selected for the film were between three and seven years old. Culled from all over America, most were Thoroughbreds, but a few Quarter Horses and solid color Appaloosas made the grade. None of the horses was a big winner at the track. As Hendrickson pointed out, “A good movie horse is different from a great racehorse.” Six weeks before the cameras rolled, He and his crew began prepping the equine cast, gaining their trust and exposing them to new experiences. They learned to follow the camera car by working alongside a pickup truck. They learned to stand for long minutes in the starting gate while microphones on rods hovered overhead. As the weeks went by, one small Thoroughbred gelding from Kentucky, Fighting Furrari, emerged as the star. A slight wind problem had kept the athletic little bay from being a top racehorse, but Hendrickson saw his potential as an “actor.” He resembled the real Seabiscuit, Hendrickson said, and “he has a cute personality.” His nice temperament made him an ideal cast horse, one that the star, Tobey Maguire, could handle with confidence. Having taught Maguire to ride on the Western Ride with the Devil, Hendrickson knew the actor could sit a horse. Riding a racehorse, of course, is a whole different proposition.

Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron coached Maguire on the finer points of balancing on a horse galloping 40 miles per hour. “I started going to Tobey’s house in late July [2002] and put him on the Equicizer [a mechanical horse jockeys use to condition themselves]. He learned his lessons extremely quickly.” Although for safety reasons, during most of the race close-ups, Maguire is aboard the “S.S. Seabiscuit,” a customized Equicizer mounted on a flatbed truck, the star does quite a bit of riding in the film. According to McCarron, who videotaped the young actor’s progress, Maguire easily earned the respect of the professional riders on the film. “After four lessons, I showed the video to the jockeys, and they were very impressed. I think it all worked out very well.”

Once the lead horse was chosen, nine more were selected to play Seabiscuit’s doubles. Some are seen only from a distance. All are Thoroughbreds except one, a Quarter Horse, Triple Digit Cash, owned by Hendrickson and nicknamed “Biscuit” for the production. A trick horse, Biscuit specialized in “mouth work” and had his moment when Seabiscuit rips the silks off a rival jockey. Because the real Seabiscuit was a complex character, it took more than one horse to duplicate his quirks. Another, nicknamed Gravy, was taught to rear for his role as the angry Seabiscuit. Muffin, however, had the cushiest role as the lazy Seabiscuit, who lies down in his stall. The horses were all made up to match Seabiscuit’s plain bay color, with socks and stars carefully painted brown.

In addition to Triple Digit Cash, Hendrickson brought four more of his own Quarter Horses to the production: Cutter Bailey Ford, Go Benny Dial, Keepin Doc’s Memory, and Doc’s Keepin Gossip. The latter two horses were sired by Rex Peterson’s movie horse Doc’s Keepin Time. Used to pony the racehorses to the starting gate and for mounts as outriders (the ones who help pony particularly fractious racehorses and capture runaways), the quiet-tempered Quarter Horses were the supporting actors to the Thoroughbred stars.

Director Ross, who grew up riding western on family vacations and spent a fair amount of time at the track in his youth, readily admits that recreating Seabiscuit’s famous races with historical accuracy was the film’s biggest challenge. From Lexington to Los Angeles, the action was carefully choreographed by the film’s consultant, jockey Chris McCarron, who planned every shot with the director and cinematographer John Schwartzman. With the help of graphic designers, the team created “race books,” huge maps laid out on the clubhouse floor that the jockeys could walk around to learn their moves. The meticulous planning proved invaluable, but there were still problems. Horses are not always the most cooperative actors. “It’s very hard to control nuances of speed,” said Ross after filming, “if a horse wants to go, you can only contain him so much.” McCarron readily agreed. “The most difficult challenge was dealing with horses not necessarily ready or willing to do what it is the director is looking for.”

Although professional jockeys were hired to make the races look as realistic as possible, they sometimes had trouble rating their mounts. Even McCarron, cast as War Admiral’s jockey Charley Kurtsinger, had trouble holding on to the big black gelding Cobra Flight in a scene of the legendary match race between War Admiral and Seabiscuit. “That was a very embarrassing moment for me,” McCarron recalled after the fact. “I pretty much picked Cobra Flight to be one of the ones that would let Seabiscuit pull away from him. He showed me no speed in the morning workout. But when the cameras were rolling, he moved up head to head with Seabiscuit and then won by a nose.” In the end, another horse, Made to Space Jam, played the losing War Admiral.

The horses were tested by long hours of shooting, but AHA monitors made sure the Thoroughbreds were not galloped longer than three furlongs three times a day and were given rest days in between races. The jockeys were even required to carry bats of foam rubber. Another concern was the stress of travel between far-flung locations. Weight was carefully maintained with a high-calorie diet of alfalfa hay supplemented with beet pulp. Keeping the horses healthy and sound was ensured by a top-notch team of veterinarians and farriers. The diligence paid off: no horses were harmed during the making of Seabiscuit.

After making the film, director Ross said that he has “a different understanding of the process of horse racing. It’s much less controllable than I thought.” He also came away from the film with a renewed admiration for horses and the people who ride them. “It’s an amazing fusion between man and animal. When you think that thousands of years ago man climbed on the back of an animal and became mobile in a way he had never known … you’re reconnected to that very elemental thing.”

Jockey Ricky Frasier, doubling Tobey Maguire, rides Fighting Furrari’s Racing double Mountain Skier, as Verboom, with Cory Black aboard, loses ground on the inside as they head for the finish line.

Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story

John Gatins, the writer-director of the 2005 release Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, was moved by the near miraculous comeback of a filly named Mariah’s Storm who broke her canon bone—the long supporting bone below a horse’s knee —and healed to continue her racing career. In Dreamer, a chestnut filly named Sonador (Spanish for “dreamer”), fractures her canon bone in a spectacular fall during a race. Her owner, Prince Tariq (Antonio Badrani) wants her destroyed, but her trainer, Ben Crane (Kurt Russell), asks for the mare as part of his severance. Ben did not want the mare to run and is fired after butting heads with Tariq’s arrogant henchman, Palmer (David Morse). He is determined to rehabilitate Sonador and breed her in hopes of selling the foal for enough to revitalize his struggling business. His young daughter, Cale, longs to learn the horse business and forms a bond with the injured filly.

Actress Dakota Fanning was just ten years old when she starred as Cale Crane in Dreamer, but despite solid performances from the entire cast, it is her movie all the way. Her luminous presence and scenes with Sonador enliven a rather far-fetched plot.

Fanning had no previous experience with horses but enjoyed working with them immensely. “I had never really been around horses,” she admitted. “I didn’t know anything!” She learned to ride on Pablo, a little black Quarter Horse that belongs to head wrangler Rusty Hendrickson. Although she took a couple of falls while learning, she was not injured and gamely got right back on Pablo. She ended up falling in love with horses. “I think they’re so beautiful,” she said. “I love them all!” Fanning’s newfound affinity for horses shows as she looks completely at ease with her equine costars, especially two look-alike Thoroughbreds, Go John and Harbor Mist, with whom she has the most scenes.

According to Hendrickson, Harbor Mist is a Kentucky-bred Thoroughbred who was originally bought at the famous Keeneland Sale, where many potential top racehorses are traded, for $65,000. Rusty found him through an Internet search that led him to the River Downs racetrack in Cincinnati, Ohio. Although Harbor Mist did win some races, his price for the production was considerably less. He’s now trainer Rex Peterson’s top trick horse and the veteran of several movies, including Secretariat.

In Dreamer, Harbor Mist is the main horse who portrays Sonador when she is suspended from the Crane’s barn ceiling in an elaborate leather sling while her broken leg heals. According to Peterson, “He had the most character” for the scene, in addition to being calm enough to handle being trussed up and hoisted in the air. The sling, modeled on one that Peterson used to rehabilitate one of his own horses, was only used for short periods of time during filming.

Peterson also taught Harbor Mist to pick up Cale Crane’s backpack and follow her around. One thing Harbor Mist would not do, however, was eat sweets. Sonador is supposed to have a sweet tooth and Cale feeds her popsicles, licorice, and chocolate cake. We never really see a horse eat a popsicle as Cale slips them to the mare through a slat in her stall and extracts the empty stick.

Trained by Rex Peterson to carry a backpack, Harbor Mist faithfully follows Dakota Fanning in this Dreamer poster image with Kurt Russell.

Go John loved licorice but none of the Thoroughbreds on the production would eat chocolate cake in a scene that depicts Cale feeding Sonador a slice. Benny, a Quarter Horse with a taste for chocolate, was recruited for that scene. According to Hendrickson, Benny ate an entire cake during multiple takes.

Benny also portrays Sonador in an exciting sequence when Cale, upset with her father, tries to run away on the mare once her leg has healed. Fanning rode the big, trusty gelding out of the barn but was doubled by a stuntwoman in the hard galloping scenes when Sonador takes off. The sequence is pivotal to the plot as Sonador’s veterinarian has determined she is barren and therefore worthless as a broodmare, but her amazing display of speed shows that she is ready to race again.

She comes in third in her first comeback race and is claimed by a new owner for $15,000. Cale is bereft and her grandfather Pop (Kris Kristofferson) stakes his savings to buy Sonador back. Cale is given the controlling ownership of the mare and after a series of plot twists, Sonador is accepted to run in the prestigious Breeder’s Cup. Prince Sadir (Oded Fehr), Prince Tariq’s rivalrous brother, puts up the $120,000 entrance fee, and with her faithful exercise rider Manolin (Freddy Rodriquez) aboard, Sonador becomes the first filly to ever win the Breeders’ Cup.

At the beginning of the Breeders’ Cup sequence, Sonador is possibly injured during an encounter in the paddock with a rival horse. She flatly refuses to return to the stable to be examined. She rears and paws, leans back and pulls against the lead rope, and refuses to budge. It took three horses to create the sequence, with Harbor Mist performing his awesome rear while trainer Peterson cued him offscreen. Of course, Sonador gets her way and runs the race.

The racing action in Dreamer is expertly choreographed by Rusty Hendrickson and his crew. For Sonador’s initial fall, the spectacular somersault was accomplished using a mechanical horse built by Bruce Larsen. The animatonic horse was modeled on Benny, the cake-loving Quarter Horse. Benny also appears in the sequence as the injured Sonador, lying down on the track and in the barn. The live horses in the stunt sequence were cantered past the mechanical horse repeatedly until they got used to its presence. A mechanical horse was also used for riding close-ups of actor Freddy Rodriguez, who is actually allergic to horses, during the Breeders’ Cup sequence, and also for detailed close-ups when the jockey he portrays, Manolin, loses a stirrup.

Hendrickson chose a beautiful sprinter named Sacrifice to portray Sonador in all her big racing scenes, and it is this horse that receives sole mention in the final cast credits. Sacrifice was given to director Gatins at the end of production.

Dakota Fanning also received a horse, a present from her screen father, Kurt Russell. She named the palomino Quarter Horse Goldie, after Mr. Russell’s off-screen partner, Goldie Hawn.

Sonador (Harbor Mist) and Cale Crane (Dakota Fanning) forge a strong bond in Dreamer.

Cinematographer Fred Murphy focuses on capturing Dakota Fanning’s acting in this scene from Dreamer. the mechanical horse not only makes close-ups possible, it also frees Fanning to concentrate on acting and not worry about hanging on to a real galloping horse.

Secretariat

When the big 16.2-hand chestnut stallion named Secretariat won the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes on June 9, 1973 by an astonishing 31 lengths not only did he become the ninth horse to ever win Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, he set an unprecedented speed record that still stands today. Since 1919, only eleven horses have won the Triple Crown. The story of the legendary horse known as “Big Red” and his owner Penny Chenery’s belief in his greatness are the focus of Disney’s 2010 film Secretariat.

A Colorado housewife and mother of four, Chenery—whose married surname is Tweedy—is summoned home to her family’s Meadow Stables horse farm in Virginia after the death of her mother. Once a brilliant horseman, her father Christopher is in no shape to continue running his racing business. Chenery’s Harvard law professor brother wants to sell the farm, but Chenery refuses. Instead, she is determined to resurrect the business, taking on the male-dominated old boy’s club of the horse-racing elite in the process.

Two of the farm’s best mares are in foal to Bold Ruler, the champion sire owned by billionaire Ogden Phipps. Keeping the gentlemen’s agreement of letting a coin toss decide which colt will go to Phipps, Chenery loses the toss to the billionaire, who then picks the foal of the younger mare bred for speed. Chenery is pleased to lose, as she has studied the pedigrees and believes the older mare, Somethingroyal, has the genetic advantage. When the chestnut colt is born, he stands almost instantly, astonishing observers who have never seen a newborn horse stand so quickly. Eventually named Secretariat by Chenery’s faithful secretary, Miss Ham, the colt fulfills his early promise by becoming one of the greatest racehorses to ever put hoof to turf. The road to his Belmont victory is hardly smooth, however, and Chenery is pressured to sell Secretariat as a two-year-old to pay estate taxes. Instead she convinces Phipps to buy the first breeding share of the unproven stallion for $190,000, ultimately syndicating his breeding rights for an unprecedented $6.08 million.

The film really belongs to Diane Lane who portrays Penny Chenery, and it is more a story of a woman’s conviction than it is a horse story. Detractors claim that some of the story points have been exaggerated and that syndicating Secretariat was easily accomplished and not the cliffhanger depicted in the film. Chenery’s hiring of Secretariat’s trainer Lucien Laurin, played by John Malkovich sporting a series of garish hats, is also overdramatized. Curiously, there is very little interaction between the trainer and his star horse in the movie. The characterizations of Secretariat’s devoted groom Eddie Sweat (Nelsan Ellis) and jockey Ronnie Turcotte (Otto Thorwarth) seem closer to the truth. Purists might want to read veteran sportswriter William Nack’s book Secretariat, The Making of a Champion, on which the screenplay was based. Despite its flaws, the movie does a great job depicting the racing action. All the racing scenes were staged except The Preakness, which is archival footage of the actual race seen in the film on the Tweedy family television.

Five main horses were required to portray Secretariat and more were used for the race sequences. Head wrangler Rusty Hendrickson put the word out that he was looking for handsome chestnut horses with calm temperaments. Soundness was a key requirement. As Secretariat was a muscular horse with a short back and round hip, America Quarter Horses were considered as well as Thoroughbreds. One Quarter Horse named Copper made the cut. The rest of the horses were Thoroughbreds, including one named Sky, who was a descendant of the famous Triple Crown winner. Trainer Rex Peterson’s horse Harbor Mist, who was one of the main horses in Dreamer, was utilized for a scene where Secretariat acts up as he is led across the stable yard at the Belmont track. Longshot Max and Trolley Boy, chosen by the real Penny Chenery as winner of a Secretariat look-alike contest, did most of the close-up work with the actors. Trolley Boy’s markings were very similar to the real Secretariat who had three white socks, a star and narrow stripe. Assistant wrangler Lisa Brown painted the Secretariat doubles to match, creating all the white markings. Sometimes white would have to be painted out, sometimes added as for the solid chestnut Longshot Max. He is the horse seen in a particularly emotional scene with Diane Lane when Chenery is shown communicating with Secretariat telepathically before the Kentucky Derby.

Despite their excellent work on camera, none of the movie horses has the charisma of the real Secretariat who was known for being a ham. To see the spectacular stallion in action, cavorting in his pasture and posing for photographers, take a look at the bonus features on the DVD release of the film.

Secretariat Star Diane Lane and head wrangler Rusty Hendrickson with Longshot Max, whose white markings were hand-painted by assistant wrangler and photographer, Lisa Brown.

Endurance Races

Nothing could be more elemental than the intense bond between a man—or woman—and a horse required by the demands of an endurance race. Covering hundreds, even thousands, of miles together over all kinds of terrain in variable weather conditions, these partners are totally reliant upon one another to make it to the finish line.

Run, Appaloosa, Run

The controversial Omak Stampede and World Famous Suicide Race in northeastern Washington State was the setting for the Disney theatrical featurette Run, Appaloosa, Run. It is unlikely that Disney would make a film about this race today as the Omak Stampede has received much bad publicity because thirteen horses have been killed in the race since 1983. Although not long like most endurance races, the Omak Stampede is treacherous, with a 120-foot running start, a 210-foot downhill plunge into a river of varying depths, and for the survivors, a final sprint of 500 feet. Animal-rights organizations have been working since the mid-1980s to abolish the race.

In 1966, however, no such controversy surrounded Run, Appaloosa, Run. The fictitious story concerns an orphaned Appaloosa and a young Nez Perce woman who rescued him as a colt. Adele Palacios played Mary Blackfeather, the young woman who is obligated to sell the colt, Holy Smoke, to help her tribe. After Holy Smoke has been abused and passed from owner to owner, Mary discovers him working with a rodeo clown, outfitted in humiliating donkey ears and baggy pants for the amusement of the crowd. When an enraged Brahma bull charges the stallion, Mary’s dog, Silver, a highly trained Australian Shepherd, comes to the rescue. Once again, Mary saves the Appaloosa, this time by purchasing him. She trains him for the suicide race even though she knows that as a woman she will not be permitted by her tribe to enter. Inspecting his tribal herds in his 1926 classic convertible, Chief Greystone (Walter Cloud) is impressed when Mary and Holy Smoke come thundering out of the blue to jump the stalled car. He tacitly gives his consent for Mary to enter the race.

A charismatic sorrel stallion, with a spotted hip blanket, named Baldy’s Holy Smoke played the lead equine role. Formerly owned by Ross Worthington of Spokane, Washington, the stallion was purchased by Disney and trained by the late Jimmy Williams, renowned for producing international show jumpers. Holy Smoke did all his own stunts in the film, including the car jump and the climactic 210-foot downhill charge into the Okanogan River during the race’s grand finale. Filming took place during the actual race, and director Larry Lansburgh, an experienced horseman and camera operator, got into the act and handheld an 85mm camera while galloping down a 250-foot sand track into the river. The rider’s eye view gives the film an extra dose of realism. Run, Appaloosa, Run of course, has the requisite Disney happy ending, with Mary and Holy Smoke winning the grueling race after some suspenseful moments. It’s interesting to note that former singing cowboy star Rex Allen narrated the film and sang the title song.

Bite the Bullet

A much darker movie, Bite the Bullet (1975) also featured an orphaned Appaloosa. Directed by the veteran Richard Brooks, the gritty film dramatized a 700-mile endurance race across mountains and desert in the American West at the turn of the century. Shot in Nevada and New Mexico, the movie stars Gene Hackman as Sam Clayton, a cowboy hired to escort a fancy Thoroughbred racehorse to the start of the race. Clayton’s intrinsic goodness is revealed at the outset when he interrupts his mission to rescue an Appaloosa colt from an abandoned glue wagon. The colt’s plight is unflinchingly depicted with graphic shots of his deceased mother, who had been tethered by a metal ring through her nose. Clayton hoists the little fellow onto his saddle and cradles him with his free arm until he finds a young boy tending horses on a ranch. Satisfied he has found a good home for the orphan, he gives the colt to the boy.

Hackman’s mount, a buckskin Quarter Horse gelding named—you guessed it—Buck, belonged to the movie’s wrangler Rudy Ugland, who said he was “probably the best horse I ever owned in my life. The horse I started my business with, my own personal horse.” Buck was bred by Bronc Curry in Montana and was a roping ranch horse. He was eight years old when Ugland purchased him and began taking him on film sets to get him used to the frenetic atmosphere. Four years later, the horse appeared in Bite the Bullet, his first film. His movie career lasted two decades, and he died of natural causes at age thirty-six. The little Appaloosa colt was out of a mustang mare owned by the wrangler as well, but after working with him for a year, Rudy decided he wasn’t movie material, and he was sold as a pleasure horse. The colt’s dead movie mama was a very realistic-looking stuffed horse.

After delivering the Thoroughbred mare to her owner in time for the start of the race, Hackman’s Clayton enters the competition, pitting himself and Buck against his old friend Luke Matthews (James Coburn), Miss Jones (Candice Bergen), a whore who needs the purse, and Carbo (Jan-Michael Vincent), a brash young man who misdirects his need for attention by abusing women and animals. In the field also are Ben Johnson, in a brief cameo as Mister, Ian Bannen as a British sportsman foolish enough to attempt the race in an English saddle, and Mario Arteaga as a poor Mexican. Robert Hoy portrays Lee Christie, rider of the fancy mare, who was actually not a Thoroughbred at all but an Arabian. James Coburn rode a Quarter Horse called Brownie, and Candice Bergen was mounted on a big beautiful dappled gray named Dude. Both horses belonged to Rudy Ugland, as did Jan-Michael Vincent’s mount, Cricket, who has the most excruciating scene in the entire film.

The script called for the horse to be literally ridden to death. He had to look as if he just dropped dead so could not be pulled into a fall. Drugs, still permitted by the AHA at the time, would have to be used to create the desired effect. A week in advance of shooting, a test was made with a veterinarian to determine how long it would take Cricket to fall after being administered a nonlethal shot of phenobarbital. Six seconds was all it took. Then Ugland and the filmmakers figured out how far the little bay horse could travel in those six seconds and planned the shot accordingly. The sequence was staged in sand dunes, and a softened landing spot was prepared. Covered with shaving cream sweat, Cricket really looks awful as Jan-Michael Vincent pushes him those terrible six seconds before he collapses. The sequence was shot in agonizingly slow motion, and the sound of the horse struggling for breath was amplified for effect. After his horse was down, Carbo began to beat him. While this action was simulated, the drug caused Cricket’s tongue to loll out, making the scene all the more gut-wrenching. Once Cricket revived, he was sponged off and given his oats for a good day’s work. He went on to do many more films for Rudy Ugland.

The realism of the equine action in Bite the Bullet and the unsentimental depiction of the human qualities that drive such intense competition combined to make a compelling film that, as Clayton helps his buckskin to the finish line, ultimately celebrates that elemental connection between a man and a horse.

Rudy Ugland’s prized horse Buck served Gene Hackman well during the arduous filming of Bite the Bullet.

Hidalgo

“Nobody hurts my horse,” says cowboy Frank T. Hopkins in a soft growl before sending his nemesis to his doom in the old-fashioned epic adventure Hidalgo (2004), which centers on a 3,000-mile endurance race across the Arabian desert. Playing Hopkins, actor Viggo Mortensen became so bonded with his pinto costar RH Tecontender, or TJ, that the words could have been his. They were penned by American Paint Horse aficionado John Fusco, who spent years researching his screenplay, based on the writings of Hopkins, a half-Native American cowboy who, on his red-and-white mustang Hidalgo, is credited with winning four hundred endurance races. There has been much controversy about the veracity of Hopkins’s claims, especially the existence of the pivotal race of Hidalgo. In the film, set in 1890, Hopkins and his eight-year-old mustang, Hidalgo, are challenged by Sheik Riyadh to compete in the Arabian Desert Challenge, across 3,000 miles of brutal terrain known as the Ocean of Fire. At stake for the sheik (Omar Sharif) is his family honor, symbolized by his prized black Arabian stallion, Al-Hattal. At stake for Hopkins is his own personal honor, shattered when, as a United States Calvary dispatch rider, he unwittingly delivered the orders that instigated the Indian massacre at Wounded Knee. More than that, Hopkins rides for the honor of his horse—a lowly mustang in the eyes of the sheik, one unfit for breeding or unworthy of his claim to fame as the world’s greatest endurance horse. After debasing himself by performing drunk in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show in New York, Hopkins rises to the occasion, and he and Hidalgo board a ship for Morocco to face the greatest challenge of their lives.

Horse trainer Rex Peterson faced his own challenge, finding the five sorrel and white overo Paints who would play Hidalgo. Combing corrals and barns from Oregon to Missouri, Texas to Michigan, Peterson considered and rejected close to a hundred horses before finding TJ, who would become the main Hidalgo. The distinctively marked, bald-faced Paint stallion became the model for Hidalgo’s four doubles.

Riders battle for the lead in the 3,000-mile endurance race portrayed in 2004’s Hidalgo. The sorrel and white overo playing the title character is easy to spot amid the solid-colored horses.

RJ Masterbug, or RJ, was an untrained three-year-old stallion when Peterson acquired him, but after five minutes with the horse, Rex knew he had the perfect personality for a trick horse. RJ can be seen rearing, grabbing objects, and dragging them in the film. His cute and clever tricks are a refreshing throwback to the days when a cowboy’s best friend was his horse. The toughest trick to train was for a dragging scene, in which Hidalgo pulls his drunken master out of the Wild West Show exhibition arena. Since horses are herbivores, they simply do not have the jaw strength to pull much weight with their mouths. RJ, however, was able to master the task, and the scene is truly charming. TJ was no slouch either when it came to a difficult lay-down scene in which Hopkins and Hidalgo endure a locust invasion. To protect himself and his horse from the swarming insects, Mortensen lies down with TJ and covers them both with a blanket. Rex Peterson taught Mortensen to lay TJ down, as the trainer could not be close enough to cue him. The scene required multiple takes, and Mortensen later said this about his costar’s performance: “To get a horse to lie down like that 30 times in a row is not easy. To get him to hit the same spot over and over again, then to throw a blanket over him and blind him that way, well, most horses, especially stallions, are not going to put up with that. But TJ did.”

TJ also proved to be a quick study for another scene in which Hidalgo is supposed to pick up Hopkins’s hat and bring it to him. RJ was trained for the sequence, but director Joe Johnston decided he needed a close-up and TJ would have to be trained to do the scene. According to Mortensen, “TJ had been standing there the whole time, quietly, just watching Rex work with RJ. So, when they wanted this close-up, Rex said, ‘Well, let’s just try it,’ and we brought TJ in. The first time, TJ picks up the hat, gently holds it, and looks me right in the eye. Every take! I mean that was amazing!”

Director Johnston was also amused by TJ’s voracious appetite. “He was different from the other horses. He was smaller, and all he wanted to do was eat. At times, you’d look over and it looked like he was eating sand. He’d eat a candied locust [used as props in the film], a regular locust—he’d eat anything.”

For the jumping scenes, a gelding named Oscar, who had competed as a show hunter, got the job done. “He’s an incredible jumper,” said Mortensen. “The part where I’m racing the guy in the beginning of the movie and we’re jumping those fences: that was Oscar. He could sail over them.” Honkey Tonkin Tuff, a gelding nicknamed DC, was a daring horse, except when it came to another species on the set—camels, of which he was decidedly not fond. Bigger than the other Hidalgos, DC was used for longer running shots, in which his size would be an advantage. Ima Stage Mount Two, known on the set as Doc, was tough and willing. His bravery enabled him to be trained for the film’s most treacherous stunt, a slide into a pit trap. The frightening scene took over three months of training to achieve. Doc gradually learned to gallop to a slide-stop onto a platform that eventually lowered him into a pit almost 10 feet deep. Rex Peterson’s most oft-stressed training tool, patience, was the key to getting this spectacular stunt on film.

Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) and Hidalgo, played here by Doc, attempt to outrun a raging sandstorm in Hidalgo.

 

Equine makeup artist Garrett Immel skillfully painted the Paints to match. For the larger areas, he used an airbrush, but for the more intricate markings and facial areas, he used a variety of paintbrushes. He had no trouble with the horses standing still. In fact, Immel has joked that horses are much easier to work on than humans.

Viggo Mortensen, who had honed his riding skills on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, still needed some brush-up lessons with Peterson. Mortensen did nearly all his own riding in Hidalgo; he was doubled only for difficult stunts, by Mike Watson. Peterson couldn’t say enough good things about the star’s ability and horse-friendly attitude. Careful to dismount to rest the horses’ backs between takes, Mortensen had the utmost respect for his equine costars. Peterson said, “The show would not have been possible without Viggo.” The actor in turn had this high praise for Peterson’s ability and his choice of Paints: “Rex has a good eye and he picked well.” He enjoyed working with all the Hidalgo horses, but at the end of filming, the bond he had forged with TJ was too tough to break so Mortensen decided to give him a permanent role as stablemate to his The Lord of the Rings costars, Uraeus and Kenny. About TJ, Mortensen said, “He is a good friend that I went through hard challenges with. I feel a loyalty to him.”

Screenwriter-producer John Fusco also added a Hidalgo horse to his stable, the talented Oscar. “I had to have a ‘Hidalgo,’ and Oscar is the one I rode initially,” said Fusco. “I had checked on all their backgrounds and knew that he was good with children. I thought he would be great for my son.” Rex Peterson kept RJ, while DC and Doc found happy homes as pleasure horses.

For the impressive black Arabian stallion Al-Hattal, director Joe Johnston wanted an animal that would tower over Hidalgo. This was a tall order for Rex Peterson as most Arabs are not that big. After much research, the trainer found the 16-hand black TC Bey Cedar, born in 1994, at a Kentucky breeding farm. According to Peterson, the stallion struck him immediately as “an exceptionally nice horse that had an ‘OK, what do you want me to do?’ attitude.” He decided to buy the stallion for the production after working with him for only a few minutes. Peterson’s instincts proved to be correct: the stallion trained beautifully, and although he had plenty of presence to play the prancing Al-Hattal, TC was easygoing on the set around the other equine cast members. Peterson purchased the black at the end of filming and retired him from show business to resume enjoying life as a breeding stallion.

Hidalgo’s climactic release of 572 wild horses presented Peterson and his team with another unique challenge. Finding that many wild horses was the first obstacle, and it took seven different Native American herds to fulfill the casting call. No stallions, who might have disrupted the herds by fighting, and no foals, who could have been hurt with so many horses running, were used. A number of additional professional wranglers were hired to marshal the action, which took four days to shoot in Montana. The horses first had to be acclimated to the sound of a helicopter for the breathtaking panoramic aerial shots. Peterson and his team worked with wild-horse experts to prevent a real stampede, all the while making sure American Humane guidelines were followed—as they were throughout Hidalgo’s production. The result is an unforgettable finale to one of the finest horse movies in modern times.

For actors, the work often continues on a film long after the cameras have stopped rolling. Big stars are obliged to show up at movie premieres to greet their adoring fans and members of the press. TJ was no exception and made a crowd-pleasing appearance with Viggo Mortensen on the red carpet when Hidalgo premiered on March 1, 2004, at Hollywood’s famed El Capitan Theater. Several days after the premiere, the actor left for a European publicity tour for Hidalgo while, like a cowboy’s true partner, TJ stayed behind in Hollywood to greet admirers at the El Capitan during the movie’s opening weekend.

Viggo Mortensen and TJ take a break between takes with trainer Rex Peterson and Doc, whose face paint needs some touching up.

Hidalgo screenwriter John Fusco with Hidalgo double Oscar (right) and Chato—star of Young Guns, The Three Amigos, and Young Guns II—at home on their Vermont farm.