User Reviews

An MGM Miniature Short Subject.

A young stallion has his TRAINED HOOFS put through the paces by his owner to turn him into a champion racer.

This is a very interesting little film which follows the life of the colt from birth until the day he leaves the farm for his first professional race. We are shown the training routine, the mixing of the special mash and the care given during a dangerous bout of pneumonia. The film gives a good idea of the devotion & expense necessary in raising a quality blue-blooded stallion. We're also given glimpses of legendary racers from the past - Sir Galahad III, Crusader & the mighty Man O'War.

The somewhat comic commentary is supplied by Pete Smith.

A Smith called Pete shows us some racing horses, retired from the track, now enjoying their retirement. He's respectful for a change. I think he must have won some money betting on them. He then narrates the early life of a colt he calls "Little Guy", from his foaling until he leaves for the track. He cracks a few jokes, but he seems concerned. Smith probably hopes to make some money at the pari-mutual window, or perhaps from his bookie. MGM in those days was its own little city, with a fire department and everything needed for civilized life. Surely there was at least one bookie on staff.

After twenty months of living the free life, with the usual childhood ills, Little Guy begins his training for the race course. The methods used in training him seem, like most of the techniques I associate with horse racing, almost ritualized: getting him used to having a blanket on his back; the gradual addition of weight; breaking him to the saddle, then the track, and finally the starting gate.It's a way of life that has goe out of favor, and shows signs of vanishing except among an increasingly minor part of the population. Once horse racing was the largest sport in the world. Now, although it's still important, it's not so much.