The emphasis on fractional racehorse ownership has received a renewed push in the North American racing industry over the course of the past few years. New owners are getting into the game and are raving about the experience. Now, the bonding nature of fractional ownership is the subject of a full-length feature film.
‘Dream Horse’ tells the true story of Jan Vokes (Academy Award® nominee Toni Colette), a Welsh cleaner and bartender who decides to breed and raise a racehorse. Vokes persuades her neighbors and friends to contribute financially to the endeavour. The group’s investment plan pays off, as the horse rises through the ranks and puts them in a race for the national championship.
“I just fell in love with it. Until very recently, I couldn’t talk about it without crying because I found it so moving how this horse brought an entire community together,” Collette told TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven. “I’m a sucker for an underdog story and it’s so inspirational and so empowering to see this woman, who in her life who is a little lost, and she focuses on this horse and puts everything into it, is completely determined and changes not only her life but the entire community. It’s beautiful.”
“Collette easily carries the film’s emotional weight as a woman of very ordinary circumstances who needs something extraordinary in her life to give it hope and purpose,” wrote Dennis Harvey, in his Dream Horse review for Variety. “But almost equal emphasis is given to the excellent Damian Lewis, whose struggling yuppie ‘Howard’ is in a similar fix, complicated by the fact that he nearly lost his home and wife (Joanna Page) in a financially disastrous prior racehorse alliance. The support turns are colourful without going over the top.”
Dream Horse is expected to be released this coming May.
(With files from TheWrap and Variety)
This video brought tears to
This video brought tears to my eyes. When you see good things happening for racing it's not hard to shed a tear.