"Secretariat"

If one can suspend belief long enough to accept Keeneland Racecourse as Belmont Park and that the actor playing trainer Lucien Laurin is about twice as tall as the real one was, and if one can accept some creative license, the film based on the racing great's story (and actually more of owner Penny Chenery's life than the champ) is quite enjoyable.

I don't have a whole lot to say about it except Diane Lane basically carried the movie, and she was very good playing the well-to-do-housewife forced by circumstance to take over her ailing father's thoroughbred farm and ultimately to find tremendous success despite her initial inexperience. It would have been nice had her first big winner after she took over the Meadow, Riva Ridge, the winner of the 1972 Derby and Belmont, been mentioned, as I think Chenery always had a soft spot for this horse, but I guess when one makes a film, one has to cut some of the story out. Chenery herself has a cameo appearance in the final scene at "Belmont Park." So do writer Bill Nack and former Churchill Downs announcer Mike Battaglia earlier in the picture. Even Secretariat himself made an appearance, through a clever use of the kinescope of his 1973 Preakness race, thus saving the filmmakers money not having to film a reenactment at Pimlico or a similar track.

I wondered how the filmmakers would handle the Belmont, since reenacting it is basically unfilmable without using the original CBS footage, but they succeeded through tight editing and creative camera angles.

Of course there were many inaccuracies and omissions in the film. The ones that most jumped out at me had to do with Lucien Laurin and how he came be hired by the Meadow. I don't believe Bull Hancock had anything to do with it; instead, Lucien was recommended by his son Roger Laurin, when the younger Laurin decided to leave the Meadow. Bull Hancock actually had recommended Roger as trainer for the Meadow after the previous trainer had retired--not been fired, as was depicted in the movie. I also don't believe Chenery had that much trouble at all syndicating Secretariat, contrary to the film (of course, Riva Ridge was syndicated at the same time). By the end of Secretariat's two-year-old career--hell, by the time he won the Hopeful in the summer of 1972--he was already being hailed as the second coming of Man O'War. He was already seen as a shoo-in for the 1973 Triple Crown. It's possible it was in the Nack book, but since I haven't read it in years, I am not sure if Chenery had that much difficulty.

As for the 1973 Wood Memorial, Secretariat's most infamous defeat, the winner Angle Light was also trained by Lucien Laurin, but I don't think the film noted that. It should have been noted, and it also should have been noted people congratulated Laurin for having won the race--with the wrong horse. It would have made a good comic touch.

More inaccuracies are noted here.

If the film gets more people interested in horse racing and Secretariat, then it will have fulfilled its purpose.

As for the Belmont, you can see the entire CBS original footage on YouTube. This link is to part four of the broadcast. The Preakness and Derby races have also been uploaded. For the record, I have this DVD of it, probably a bootleg, as CBS has NEVER officially released any of the original broadcasts on either VHS or DVD. It should.

Miscellaneous links: Jockey Ron Turcotte gave his seal of approval of the movie.

A roundup of reviews is here. The Salon review was about the stupidest review I have ever read in my life, and I decided a few days ago not to put a link here.

Not every goddamned thing is a political statement, especially a movie about a racehorse and his owner.

Meanwhile, Andrew Beyer of "speed figure" fame remembers the champion:

At each stage of his career, Secretariat's winning times and speed figures provided objective evidence that he was an extraordinary runner. His greatest performance, of course, was the Belmont Stakes, where he dueled with Sham at a seemingly suicidal pace for three-quarters of a mile and proceeded to draw away to a 31-length victory. The prevailing track record, Gallant Man's 2:263/5, was considered almost unassailable; only one other winner in the Belmont's history had run faster than 2:28. When Secretariat crossed the finish line in 2:24 flat, he had raced into a new dimension.

Years later, when my speed-figure methods had matured, I revisited the data from the day of the 1973 Belmont and tried to produce a figure that would relate to my present-day numbers. I calculated that Secretariat had earned a 139, a figure that no horse after him has ever approached. (The best Beyer Speed Figure in the last two decades was Ghostzapper's 128 in 2004.)