'Race Day' To Premiere At O’Briens

Standardbred Canada is pleased to announce that 'Race Day,' a short documentary about harness racing, will be premiered at the 2011 O’Brien Awards

Black Tie Gala on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at the Delta Meadowvale Hotel in Mississauga, ON.

Guests at the national gala, which honours the sport’s champion horses and horse people from the past season, will be able to watch the entire Race Day documentary, courtesy of its producers, Iron Horse Photo Inc., in co-operation with Standardbred Canada. All guests will also be given a complimentary DVD copy of Race Day to take home.

“We (Standardbred Canada) jumped at the opportunity to premiere Race Day at the O’Brien Awards when Iron Horse approached us,” commented Kathy Wade Vlaar, Standardbred Canada’s Manager of Industry Marketing, “I can’t think of a better racing event to showcase this much anticipated production. This is a great feature for us and it will be very exciting for Iron Horse to see the fruition of their efforts on the big screen and to get the reaction of the industry. I’m also guessing that we might catch a glimpse of some of the O’Brien Award nominees in Race Day.”

Race Day, which was partially funded by the Ontario Standardbred Revenue Allocation Marketing Fund, is 23 minutes in length. A sneak preview appears below.

Iron Horse Photo Inc., which is owned and operated by Kelly Spencer, an award-winning harness racing publicist and photographer, specializes in equine photography and video production. Spencer is also the Director Of Marketing & Communications at Grand River Raceway in Elora, ON Canada.

“We've focused on crafting a film which showcases the personality of the sport through its characters,” explained Race Day producer/director Kelly Spencer. “A good film is really just a good story told by great characters, and this film has plenty. Audiences can be captivated by a good story regardless of their familiarity with the subject matter. My hope for Race Day is exactly that — to raise awareness of the sport and broaden its appeal by facilitating a connection to its characters. After its premiere at the O'Brien Awards, we'll work hard to maximize the usefulness of this film in achieving that goal by plugging it into film festivals, local TV programming, online views, and other tactics that fit the specs.”

The inspiration for Race Day came from the global experimental feature documentary Life In A Day. A call went out to YouTube users in May 2010 to take a video camera and record their day on Saturday, July 24, 2010. The producers received 80,000 videos containing 4,500 hours of footage. The final piece was 90 minutes in length and premiered on YouTube during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Race Day was also created with user generated content. All of the footage used in the film was shot by the people who love, live and breathe harness racing on Saturday, August 6, 2011. Race Day tells a story filled with colour, emotion, and characters of the greatest game in the world.

Race Day will be played for guests prior to the awards in Graydon Hall, and will kick off the evening’s celebration of Canadian harness racing.

Following its premiere, Race Day will be available at www.RaceDayDoc.com and on the Race Day Doc YouTube channel. RACE DAY will be supported by a publicity campaign which will promote the film for inclusion in film festivals and contests, and for distribution across the country.