<p>My sister and I saw the sneak preview Saturday night. We have been looking forward to it and it was wonderful, even better than I expected. When I heard John Malkovich would be in it, as the trainer, I couldn’t picture it. Well, they took a lot of liberties with Lucien Laurin’s character and it provided one of the most memorable visuals…the trainer in a magenta golf shirt in front of cherry red Knock Out roses! Another one was the shot of the real Penny Tweedy, a stop action, cheering in the crowd at the Belmont.</p>
<p>The best movie since Seabiscuit!!</p>
<pre><code>And that put us in the mood to see another one, we saw the Facebook movie and enjoyed that, too.
I wouldn’t mind seeing either of them a second time.
Has anyone else seen Secretariat yet?
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<p>I saw it too on Saturday night. I was quite surprised to have really enjoyed it. I thought that it would be too similar to Seabiscuit to be enjoyable. I was so wrong! I really liked Diane Lane’s portrayal of a 60s mom who still retained her own identity.</p>
<p>One of D’s hs tennis teammates is a student at UK. Much of the filming took place at Keeneland and she worked as Diane Lane’s double one week and as her wardrobe assistant for another week or two. I asked her mom if we would see her as an extra or something and she said only from behind in a wig. I spent lots of time at the track as a college student and can’t wait to see this film. Over time I’ve come to appreciate Secretariat’s accomplishments even more. Did they feature anything about Riva Ridge, Secretariat’s older stable mate from Meadow Stable, who won the Derby the year before? That horse’s success was critical in paving the way financially and in other ways for what Secretariat could do, if I’m remembering correctly.</p>
<p>I was a senior in high school the year Secretariat won the Triple Crown … but I was a junior in college when my “Light Horse Management” professor showed a film about racehorse conformation and development that included several minutes of Secretariat in motion, identified only as “a pretty fair two year old colt”. He was absolutely spectacular – talk about poetry in motion!</p>
<p>dmd77: You are correct about Knock Out roses, I should have thought of that myself. Maybe they should have used Fragrant Cloud. There was no dialogue about roses.</p>
<p>She’s On: Yes, Diane Lane was excellent. </p>
<p>Riva Ridge: I don’t think they mentioned Riva…that’s another movie. They used Sham for a defeat in a race that Riva Ridge actually won.</p>
<p>Is the racing footage actual documentary footage of Secretariat himself, or is it “recreated”? Does the horse portraying the hero look anything like Secretariat? Is he a good actor?</p>
<p>My dad worked at Belmont and Aqueduct - I think one of the first newspapers i read was the Daily Racing Form - so I can’t WAIT to see this movie.
PS Penny Chenery was a Smith grad!</p>
<p>Right, and Secretariat defeated Riva Ridge when they raced each other later. Film of Secretariat passing Riva Ridge for the lead was shown in slow motion on an episode Nova to show how Secretariat’s stride was slightly more mechanically efficient - which made all the difference.</p>
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<p>If it’s not the real Secretariat they will need a very large red horse with three white feet to play the role.</p>
<p>Newborn Secretariat is played by a BAY foal.</p>
<pre><code>The chestnut horse actor has Secretariat’s face markings done with makeup. The racing actor seems to have real white socks but who can act a forty (42?) foot stride.
I do not think there was any actual footage used.
? Was Penny’s family really back at home during the Preakness?
Another favorite scene: the coin toss
And actor: the part of the jockey Ron Turcotte
Riva Ridge: No, he doesn’t seem to be mentioned in this movie. That was odd, considering they raced against each other. He’ll have his own movie.
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<p>An even bigger omission is that there is barely any mention of Angle Light, the horse that defeated both Secretariat and Sham two weeks before the Kentucky Derby. </p>
<p>The episode of Nova I mentioned earlier dealt with Throroughbreds in general and their progession and evolution over time. Naturally they spent a lot of time talking about and analyzing Secretariat. The conclusion was that horse breeding had reached its peak and leveled off some decades ago, and that modern Thoroughbreds were not intrinsically any faster than the great horses of the 1920s and 30s. Any increases in performance could be attributed to better care, drugs, training, and track surfaces and not improvements in the horses themselves. BUT the big exception to this rule was Secretariat - a genetic fluke in which cardiovascular capacity and mechanical efficiency of the gait all came together in near perfection to create a horse like no other. </p>
<p>They analyzed his quarter-mile split times for the Kentucky Derby and showed that he ran each quarter faster than the previous one - for all five quarters. In other words, he was accelerating for the entire race. Normally, as they come down stretch the horse that appears to be speeding up as he powers past the others is actually just slowing down less than the others. Not so with Secretariat. He actually still had the ability to accelerate after having run the first four quarters in track record time. Something no other Derby winner has ever done.</p>