Do you give the horse his
strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?
Do you make him leap like a
locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?
He paws fiercely, rejoicing in
his strength, and charges into the fray.
He laughs at fear, afraid of
nothing; he does not shy away from the sword.
The quiver rattles against his
side, along with the flashing spear and lance.
In frenzied excitement he eats up
the ground; he cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.
Job 39:19-24 (NIV)
Based on the remarkable true story, SECRETARIAT is a
spectacular journey of the 1973 Triple Crown winner and is undoubtedly one of
the greatest horse racing movies of recent times. Anyone even slightly familiar
with horse racing knows the name of the horse who's considered the greatest to
ever circle the track. Secretariat left behind an unbelievable legacy with his
string of record-setting wins that may never be broken.
The movie revolves around Penny Tweedy (played by Diane Lane), owner
of Meadow Farm, a horse breeding business in Virginia that was founded by her father. French-Canadian Lucien Laurin, the former
horse jockey who became Secretariat’s trainer is played by John Malcovich. Penny comes home to her father's Virginia horse farm in
the late 1960s after the death of her mother. Her father suffers from dementia.
Her Harvard professor brother (Dylan Baker) is all for selling the farm
at a loss and getting on with his life. Penny Chenery agrees to take over her
ailing father’s Virginia-based Meadow Stables, despite her lack of horse-racing
knowledge. She studies the books and the horse charts and does her research and
discovers that two of her father's mares are expected to foal and the sire was
a Hall of Famer named Bold Ruler. She does her homework and decides in advance
that the seemingly less desirable foal could be a champion, if she reads the
genetics right. Penny is a Denver housewife,
dividing her time between Virginia
(and the training of the horse) and the household she manages for her lawyer
husband (Dylan Walsh) and their four children. Against all odds, Chenery, with
the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin, manages to navigate the
male-dominated business, ultimately fostering the first Triple Crown winner in
25 years and what may be the greatest racehorse of all time.
The most enthralling scenes of this movie were in its races.
The racing scenes, as expected did get the viewer excited during Secretariat's
wins in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. The Preakness Stakes was
"glossed over" in the form of Penny’s children watching it on
television. Clods of earth flying up from Secretariat’s hooves put us directly
in the moment and able to feel the pounding.
The story of one of a few horses to win the Triple Crown of
the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Preakness Stakes makes this movie a must
watch for all horse lovers out there.
When in Lexington
this past fall for the World Equestrian Games I took the above photo of
Secretariat who, rightly so, has been memorialized at the horse
park. The opening night for the movie coincided with the Games and
was held in Lexington
with its red carpet debut and Diane
Lane present. My friend Anne Buchanan of
International Horse Productions, http://horsecapitalproductions.com/index.php
was instrumental in organizing this event.