Horse Racing
| Title | Year | Genre | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Derby | 1895 | Documentary | Silent film |
| Sporting Blood | 1931 | Comedy | Rid Riddell (Clark Gable) enters his horse Tommy Boy in the Kentucky Derby. |
| Thoroughbred | 1936 | Drama | A plot in Australia to kill favored Stormalong before the Melbourne Cup. |
| Educated Evans | 1936 | Comedy | A wealthy couple ask a Cockney tipster to train their horse. |
| Racing Blood | 1936 | Drama | Jockey buys lame colt for under $5, turns him into a champion. |
| A Day at the Races | 1937 | Comedy | Marx Brothers in a horse-racing farce. |
| Saratoga | 1937 | Romance | Bookie Clark Gable and thoroughbred owner Jean Harlow horse around at Saratoga. |
| Kentucky | 1938 | Drama | A Civil War family feud continues 75 years later for a Derby horse owner (Loretta Young). |
| Trouble Brewing | 1939 | Musical | Light-hearted adventure of a racetrack gambler paid off in counterfeit cash. |
| Flying Fifty-Five | 1939 | Drama | British film about the life of a jockey. |
| Long Shot | 1939 | Comedy | Certified Check has an outside shot to win a big race at Santa Anita. |
| Maryland | 1940 | Drama | A young man decides to ride in Maryland race over his mother's objections. |
| It Ain't Hay | 1943 | Comedy | Abbott and Costello mistakenly steal the race horse Tea Biscuit. |
| National Velvet | 1944 | Drama | A young Elizabeth Taylor and the steeplechase horse she loves. |
| Home in Indiana | 1944 | Drama | An old-timer (Walter Brennan) gives his nephew lessons in harness racing. |
| My Brother Talks to Horses | 1947 | Comedy | Lewie Penrose's brother (Peter Lawford) has everything riding on the Preakness. |
| Green Grass of Wyoming | 1948 | Drama | The past owners of Flicka and Thunderhead take their trotter Crown Jewel to a race in Ohio. |
| The Return of October | 1948 | Comedy | Horse trainer Uncle Willie is reincarnated as a Derby horse called October. |
| The Great Dan Patch | 1949 | Biographical | Based on true story of the famous turn-of-the-century trotter. |
| The Story of Seabiscuit | 1949 | Biographical | A partly fictionalized account of Seabiscuit's success, starring Shirley Temple. |
| The Rocking Horse Winner | 1949 | Comedy | British tale about a boy with a knack for picking racetrack winners. |
| Riding High | 1950 | Musical | Bing Crosby in a racetrack tale directed by Frank Capra. |
| Under My Skin | 1950 | Drama | A jockey (John Garfield) races in Europe, is pursued by a mobster. |
| The Galloping Major | 1951 | Comedy | Exploits of gamblers at an England race course. |
| Boots Malone | 1952 | Drama | A sports agent (William Holden) takes a jockey under his wing. |
| Derby Day | 1952 | Romance | A day at Epsom Downs for the running of the Darby. |
| Born to the Saddle | 1953 | Western | Outlaws try to keep Blue Chip from winning a big quarterhorse race. |
| Fast Company | 1953 | Romance | Gay Fleet's owner (Polly Bergen) falls for a fellow who fixes horse races. |
| Glory | 1956 | Drama | Margaret O'Brien wants to run her filly in the Kentucky Derby. |
| Just My Luck | 1957 | Comedy | Fable of a British bloke whose one-pound wager at the track could win him sixteen thousand. |
| April Love | 1957 | Musical | In Kentucky, a wayward youth (Pat Boone) trains a sulky racehorse. |
| Bite the Bullet | 1975 | Western | Cowboys compete in a 700-mile race. Co-starring Gene Hackman and James Coburn. |
| International Velvet | 1978 | Drama | Tatum O'Neal in an updated version of the 1944 classic. |
| Casey's Shadow | 1978 | Drama | An aging New Mexico trainer (Walter Matthau) has a lot riding on a two-year-old colt. |
| Run for the Roses | 1978 | Drama | Vera Miles as the owner of a long-shot Derby contender. |
| The Black Stallion | 1979 | Family drama | A boy and a horse are rescued from a desert isle, then become masked rider and "mystery horse" in a race. |
| On the Right Track | 1981 | Comedy | A homeless child (Gary Coleman) has an uncanny knack for choosing winners. |
| Champions | 1983 | Biographical | Based on the story of the winners of the 1981 Grand National—Aldaniti, who came back from chronic leg injuries, and jockey Bob Champion, a testicular cancer survivor. Starring John Hurt. |
| Phar Lap | 1983 | Drama | Australian film based on a true story of doomed Depression-era racehorse. |
| The Black Stallion Returns | 1983 | Family | In sequel to 1979 story, a boy travels to Morocco to try to get his horse back. |
| Sylvester | 1985 | Family | Wild horse is turned into competitive jumper by young woman (Melissa Gilbert). |
| Hot to Trot | 1988 | Comedy | Bobcat Goldthwait and a talking horse. |
| Let It Ride | 1989 | Comedy | A down-and-out racetrack gambler (Richard Dreyfuss) has the wildest day of his life. |
| Fire, Ice and Dynamite | 1990 | Action | German film about a man who fakes a suicide. |
| Eden Valley | 1994 | Drama | Story of a British harness-racing community. |
| Shergar | 1999 | Biographical | True story of a champion Irish racehorse that mysteriously disappears. |
| Ready to Run | 2000 | Drama | Disney Channel family film on a 14-year-old girl who's an aspiring jockey. |
| On the Nose | 2001 | Comedy | Dan Aykroyd wants a lucky charm that helps gambler Robbie Coltrane pick winners. |
| Seabiscuit | 2003 | Biographical | Based on a true story, with Jeff Bridges as the great horse's owner and Tobey Maguire as his jockey. Nominated for 7 Academy Awards. |
| Hidalgo | 2004 | Drama | Based on true story of a 19th century Arabian distance race, starring Viggo Mortensen. |
| Dreamer | 2005 | Drama | Family film with Kurt Russell and Dakota Fanning owning an injured thoroughbred. |
| Racing Stripes | 2005 | Family | A zebra tries to win a race against horses in Kentucky. |
| Ruffian | 2007 | Drama | Made for TV; based on a true story of tragic ending of undefeated filly. |
| Race | 2008 | Thriller | Bollywood story. |
| The Boys Club | 2008 | Thriller | Crime story, marginal connection with racing. |
| Secretariat | 2010 | Biographical | Based on a true story, with Diane Lane as the Triple Crown winner's owner. |
| Shannon's Rainbow | 2011 | Drama | A teen girl finds a race horse, plus a mother she never knew. |
| Charismatic | 2011 | Documentary | Made for TV as a follow-up to ESPN's 30 for 30 series. Chronicles the run of Charismatic and his jockey Chris Antley in the 1999 Triple Crown races. |
| The Cup | 2011 | Drama | Australia film about Damien Oliver, the jockey who rode Media Puzzle to victory in the 2002 Melbourne Cup. |
Read more about this topic: Sports Films
Famous quotes containing the words horse and/or racing:
“TAKE CARE TO SELL YOUR HORSE BEFORE HE DIES
THE ART OF LIFE IS PASSING LOSSES ON.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)