For the first time since the swinging Seventies, we might have a Triple Crown winner. But instead of Andrew Beyer-like analysis (and Andy always bets against his Speed Numbers anyway), how about a look at some of the best Hollywood horse racing flicks?
Let It Ride
"Mrs. Davis: There's a fine line between winning and losing.
Jay Trottor: Yeah. The finish line."
Richard Dreyfuss, fresh from the shark's jaws, is great in "Let it Ride," an underrated gem of a Horse racing flick filmed at Hialeah Race Course in South Florida.
Dreyfuss, a degenerate gambler, drinks, bets football, and becomes obsessed with a decadent track buddy's hot tip. He lets it all ride.
Look at trackside for Jennifer Tilly, Teri Garr, Cynthia Nixon (long before Sex and The City), and my favorite hot hippie chick from the Mama and the Papas, marvelous Michelle Phillips.
The Sopranos (Season Four)
"Let’s get back to Pie-O-My, it's sad that you lost something you loved. That being said, it is a horse." Dr. Melfi
Who can forget Tony Soprano's murderous obsession with doomed Pie Oh My? Never bet over your head, which Ralphie had learned the hard way after Tony's beloved Pie Oh My pony is killed in a mysterious barn fire.
"The Sopranos" was still near the top of its game in Season Four and the Pie Oh My horse racing story arc offers a glimpse of the seedier side of horsing and insurance scams. But did Ralphie really do it?
The Sting
Doyle Lonnegan: I put it all on Lucky Dan; half a million dollars to win.
Kid Twist: Win? I said place! "Place hit on Lucky D-" That horse is gonna run second!
Doyle Lonnegan:[there is a pause, and Lonnegan runs horrified to the betting booth] There's been a mistake! I want my money back!
Well, they don't show an actual horse race, but the scam of the Sting is built around a horse racing sting. One of the all-time great Hollywood movies offers a glimpse of a time when Horse Racing was King...or at least not the seedy, drunken Duke it has become.
The Ragtime score is wonderful...not to mention Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and Robert Shaw, not yet in the shark's mouth, as the mean, high-rolling Lonnegan.
The Killing
"At exactly 3:45 on that Saturday afternoon in the last week of September, Marvin Unger was, perhaps, the only one among the 100,000 people at the track who felt no thrill at the running of the fifth race. He was totally disinterested in horse racing and held a lifelong contempt for gambling. Nevertheless, he had a $5 win bet on every horse in the fifth race. He knew, of course, that this rather unique system of betting would more than likely result in a loss, but he didn't care. For after all, he thought, what would the loss of twenty or thirty dollars mean in comparison to the vast sum of money ultimately at stake' From Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing."
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7 months ago
There's a load of great references here, topped perhaps only by your own hilarious Cloney Da Pony entry. Perhaps no one played a hard-ass better than Robert Shaw.
7 months ago
How about "A Day at the Races" with the Marx Brothers and "Crazy over Horses" with the Bowery Boys?
Nobody likes comedies?
ElPaso
7 months ago
While I'm a die-hard tb racing fan... I would recommend a couple of other flix...
Phar Lap
Man From Snowy River (and the sequel) I know it is not a racing flick but it's about horses :)
7 months ago
Hey, did no one see Hidalgo?
7 months ago
Much of Let It Ride was filmed at Hollywood Park.
7 months ago
The Black Stallion - For Seabiscuit, William Macy ripped off his radio announcer from the guy in this move. Mickey Rooney's last good movie, and the greatest thing is that when the horse needst to make up about 20 lengths, the run around the far corner heading into the stretch goes on about five times too long.
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