Secretariat (2010)

Okay, I know I missed two days.  Don't ask me how I was able to post from Italy when I couldn't manage it from Alabama.  I've got two movies at home so this weekend we should be able to go back to our regularly scheduled programming.

This was my gift to my mother for Mother's Day.  I am not a huge fan of horses or horse racing, however, I regularly make a point of watching the Triple Crown (that's the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont).  There has not been a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime.  Mother has seen 3, with this horse being the first.

So this movie meant a lot to her since she could actively remember the races themselves.  For the rest of us, there's YouTube.

Secretariat started life as an idea, the product of a long-standing arrangement between horse breeders Christopher Chenery and Ogden Phipps.  Every year, Phipps allowed his best stallion to cover Chenery's best two mares and they would flip a coin over who got first pick of the resulting foals.  After Chris Chenery fell ill, his daughter, Penny Tweedy, took over.  Technically, she lost the coin toss but she ended up with the foal she wanted anyway.

After dealing with money issues, training issues, and family issues, Penny comes up with the idea of selling stock in the horse against his future earnings.  This had never been done with an untried two-year-old.

Obviously, it paid off since Secretariat broke records at two of the three major races, which remain unbroken to this day.

As a movie, I felt like it was just your typical Disney feel-good film.  John Malkovich and Diane Lane do great jobs, as expected, and the supporting cast is great.  For me, it seemed a little too syrupy but I am not the target demographic by a long shot.  My mother loved it.  Watching it with me was her fourth time seeing the film and she still enjoyed it.

I wish I had more praise for the movie but I just didn't think it was as good as Seabiscuit or Hidalgo.  Honestly, if you're going to watch a movie about horses, you'd be better off with one of those two.