The Greatest Racehorse Ever

Some of you have probably heard of the race horse known as Secretariat. Those of the older generation may have even seen him race. Those of the younger generation may not know who that is. Well Disney came out with the movie ‘Secretariat’ that is based on the true tale of his owner and the horse’s journey to fame.

His story starts in 1969. Penny Chenery Tweedy (Diane Lane), who lives in Denver, gets a call stating that her mother has just died. Her parents own a horse breeding farm in Doswell, Virginia and her mother was running it because her husband Chris Chenery (Scott Glenn) had dementia and couldn’t handle the business by himself any longer. Hollis (Dylan Baker), Penny’s brother, wants to put his father in a nursing home and sell the farm. He a college professor and doesn’t want to deal with the farm. But Penny doesn’t want to sell the farm and she knows that the farm is her father’s home. So she takes over the farm, against the wishes of Hollis and Penny’s husband Jack Tweedy (Dylan Walsh).

Two of the mares are pregnant by a great race horse named Bold Ruler. Penny believes that one of the foals will be a great racer. The horse farm has been losing money for some time and Penny believes that if one of the foals will be a great racer, than she can get the farm to make money again. Her father’s friend, Arthur ‘Bull’ Hancock (Fred Dalton Thompson), promises to help in any way he can. Due to a deal with the owner of Bold Ruler, a man named Ogden Phipps (James Cromwell), there will be a coin toss as to which mare’s baby will stay with the Cherery farm and the other will go to Phipps. The foal Penny won was the one she wanted and it was born a colt, or a boy horse. And only male horses can enter into horse racing.

Penny spends her time between her home in Denver with her family and the rest of the year at the horse farm. She is able to talk Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich), who is a horse trainer, into training the colt whom they call Big Red. Due to some help from Miss Ham (Margo Martindale), the Chenery’s secretary, Eddie Sweat (Nelsan Ellis), a groom who worked at the farm, Seth Hancock (Drew Roy), Bull’s son, and Ronnie Turcotte (Otto Thorwarth), who rode Big Red, Penny puts her all into getting the horse ready for the races. His first race was in 1972 and an official name of Secretariat was given to him.

Normally I wouldn’t give away the end, but Secretariat’s racing was too famous to have no one know the outcome. Secretariat was the only horse in decades to win all three races of the Triple Crown; the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont. And he set a record for the Belmont race that has yet to be broken. Secretariat has become known as the greatest race horse ever.

Watch along as this horse would lose races and win them. This is a wonderful tale with some life lessons thrown in. The movie is only PG for brief mild language. In the special features, they interviewed the real Penny Chenery (who had a cameo in the movie) and several other people who saw the life of Secretariat.