Dark Horse

Who doesn't enjoy listening to a real life story about a bunch of working class people who go out on a limb and invest what little money that they really cannot afford to spend, to see if their dream of owning a winning racehorse for a chance to enter the unattainable winners circle and have their picture taken with their champion racehorse?

This is a well produced documentary style story of a group of 30 people who agreed to invest a weekly amount of 10 pounds for an entire year to bankroll a horse fund of $15,600 pounds. Their bankroll allowed them to purchase a mare for a paltry 600 pounds and find a stud with some racing credentials to which we get to witness the actual birth of this teams dream. By group consensus they chose to name their new colt Dream Alliance.

Next, the group went looking for a horse Trainer to which they agreed to pay top dollar for securing his knowledge. Their logic in securing an experienced Trainer was they could have paid less for an inexperienced Trainer but they felt that since their yearling had no experience and neither did they, they had a better chance drawing from a well experienced Trainer to pass his knowledge on to their horse, than having an inexperienced Trainer pass on as little experience to an even greener horse.

This story has its ups and downs and rather than give away any spoilers it is suffice to say that this group of 30 shared in Dream Alliance's victories and losses and that they seemed to have accomplished the impossible going from Nags to Riches over a several year period.

What Mrs. Shullivan and I drew from this truly inspirational film was the sheer pride and joy Dream Alliance brought not only to this group of 30 investors and their extended families, but also to the small town they lived in, and eventually across all of Wales. This is a heartwarming true story with many narrative scenes occurring in the local towns pub where the original investor Jan came up with her idea to breed her own racehorse. It is a warm and sincere film well worth watching. I give it an 8 out of 10 rating.

26 June 2016. With a great sound track, this documentary style drama about a Welsh horse bred by commoners doesn't quite have then flash and sizzle of a Secretariat (2010) feature length drama. The documentary style format using extensive personal interviews while insightful and sometimes quite humorous seemed to slow the pacing of the movie at times. The movie succeeds mostly because of the story which had an unnecessary voice-over at the beginning which almost gave away the ending. The movie picks up about two-thirds through the movie offering a fascinating personal experience of anticipation and dread. There was some effort to offer some insight into the high and low class of society, but it didn't have the classic feel of snobbery and reaction from the upper class. And some of the footage used in the movie also seemed choppy at times and edited too much when the races were going on or there were a lot of skipping over such exciting outcomes.

A beautiful told story of a dream come true. Battling Welsh working class folk put faith and love in a racehorse who pays them back in spades! Inspirational story of highs and lows that reflects faith in humans and horses alike! Like so many racehorse owners they love and care for there animal long after there racing days are over.

"There are other things that I could do, but there's really nothing that I love as much as horse racing." Chantal Sutherland

I dislike being forced to feel good, as movies from the likes of Disney Studios regularly do, but Dark Horse, writer/director Louise Osmond's documentary about the Welsh "thoroughbred," Dream Alliance, made me feel better than when I walked in because it's true! Owned by a group of Welsh commoners from a small town, Dream is a winner from its beauty to its heart.

Not only is the story a rouser, but Osmond also uses cinematic techniques like artful slow motion, and she has the real characters from the story narrate with their abundant charm and impish humor. To listen to their affection for their horse and see how it has changed their lives to a loving community is to experience an authentic story. Although I'm not a fan of living anywhere other than the city, this town could easily win me over.

Not surprisingly, Dark Horse won the Sundance audience award this January. It appeals to those who love a story about working folk one-upping the gentry in the sport of kings, and those, especially Americans, who favor the underdog winning the gold ring. In this story, the horse, in 2000 the brainchild of a local barmaid, Jan Vokes, is comfort and joy for a town that has experienced the shutdown of its mine and the loss of spirit.

The strength of the doc is, as it should be, in the talking heads on camera, working-class folk with ample personality and pluck to make engaging commentators and models for a happy citizenry who never envy the swells, the usual owners of race horses. The class theme is handled by Osmond subtly and respectfully, easy enough because the Welsh are an independent and proud lot not about to envy anyone, much less the rich.

Osmond crafts this story as if it were a seamless fiction, so filled it is with the vicissitudes of life that affect all of us not able to live off fortunes. The heroes of this story are the townspeople who invest in the horse when economic times are tough and ROI not certain.

Beautiful horse. Beautiful film

Once in a while fairy tales come true in real life. This documentary charts the story of one of those times.

Louise Osmond unfolds her story in real time using a mix of interviews, reminiscences, TV footage and a variety of amateur video moments of varying quality, but the story is so compelling that some of the rougher bits merely add to the gritty reality of the tale set in the grimmest of Welsh valleys. In a former pit village (Cefn Fforest, Caerphilly) that could certainly not be described in any way as idyllic.

It really is a ripping yarn for our times and concerns the career of a racehorse called Dream Alliance owned by a motley crew of 30 working class Welsh men and women, bred by the cleaner at Asda and mared by what could best be described as a bit of a dray horse with literally no discernible racecourse form whatsoever. The sire perhaps had a bit more form, but hardly of Nijinsky proportions.

The subplot of the story is about class. The most noble, most royal and most privileged sport of them all (apart from, say, polo) is horse racing. So to enter the world of horse racing as a bunch of 30 complete amateurs who could barely afford the £10 a week the syndicate they formed in their local pub to breed and then race a horse was more than simply a "challenge" it was verging on the insane.

But slowly but surely Dream Alliance's story is told, from the search for his mother and father to his birth (caught on CCTV), his childhood being raised on an allotment and then his entry ("like a snotty nosed comprehensive schoolboy arriving at Eton") into Phillip Hobbs' Minehead yard.

It's perhaps ironic that Hobbs assistant trainer, Johnson White, who tells the story from the trainer's side has every familiarity with the concept of silver spoons and was initially horrified at the prospect of these oiks and their second rate unschooled horse infiltrating his yard but at the end of the day money is money and given that many a mickle make a buckle the thirty Welsh dreamers had amassed enough of a muckle to give it a go.

I won't spoil the story by going any further other than to say what now unfolds is Dream Alliance's at times roller coaster career. Told in almost breathtaking style. There were three or four moments that had me close to tears. Mainly in sheer admiration at Jan Vokes whose vision the whole idea was.

This is a beautiful documentary, truly heartfelt, and utterly compelling with a vestry, very warm heart and a tremendous fillip for all those dreamers out there who dare to be different.

Go and enjoy!