Wednesday’s best bets, by Chris Cook
How thrilling to learn that the story of Dream Alliance is to get the full movie treatment and with actual stars lined up to take roles. Damian Lewis and Toni Collette are to play members of the unlikely ownership syndicate behind the horse who was raised in an allotment on top of a slag heap and won the Welsh National a decade ago.
It’s a great story, told in The Guardian at the time and in many other places. There was much praise for a documentary some years later.
Now that Dream Alliance is to get another outing on the big screen, the key question for we racing fans becomes: who will play Philip Hobbs, who trained him, and Tom O’Brien, who rode?
The thing about jockeys is that non-jockeys tend not to look very like them, or walk like them, or speak like them. So I’m thinking you might get Tom O’Brien to play Tom O’Brien, if he’s up for it. After all, you need someone who can actually ride for the horseback scenes. The producers would find that O’Brien comes at a very reasonable fee since, like all other jump jockeys, he is prepared to risk his neck every half an hour for £173.59.
Who, then, could capture the quiet genius of Hobbs, the thoughtful and reserved man who has enjoyed lasting success in a cut-throat business? (Yes, I am hamming this up a bit. It’s Hollywood, baby)
For no particular reason, I thought of Hugh Grant and now I’ve got trouble shaking the idea out of my head. I can just picture him saying: “Training’s easy. Send them up a hill twice a day and run them when you like.”
Unexpectedly, he’s slightly too old for the part, because Hobbs was 54 when Dream Alliance won the Chepstow race, while Grant is 58 now. But I’m prepared to overlook such trifling matters … unless you can come up with a better idea through the comments section below.
I guess Hobbs is not going to be a huge part of this movie but the lure for any actor is the chance to join a short list of luminaries who have played trainers on the big screen. I can think of Edward Woodward, a forbidding Josh Gifford in Dead Cert, and Pierce Brosnan, who was Edward O’Grady in Murphy’s Stroke, possibly the most flattering piece of casting in film history.
Market Rasen stages Wednesday’s only jump racing and I expect to see horses and jockeys engaging in the type of heroics that might make them film-worthy in the future. I have particular hopes for Second Time Around (3.45), whose name will appeal to folk in Hollywood, where they love a sequel.
Alan King’s chaser has that unattractive “F” next to his name but a novice must be allowed to make mistakes and he was fancied and still going well when he came down at Kempton in January. That was only his second start over the big obstacles and he was an encouraging second the time before. He’s bred for this game, being from the family of Strong Promise.
Torrent Des Mottes (3.15) had so much in hand at Huntingdon last week that I have to give him a go at 4-1 under a penalty, even while accepting that that was a weak race that panned out well for him.
There’s another interesting 4-1 shot at the end of the card, when Siannes Star (5.20) has a hood fitted and Jonjo O’Neill aboard for the first time, having shown a bit of promise when too free here last time out.
Wednesday's racing tips
Lingfield
2.00 Image Of The Moon 2.30 Pytilia 3.05 Deira Surprise (nap) 3.35 Harry Callahan 4.10 Creative Talent 4.40 Smiley Bagel
Market Rasen
2.10 Yaa Salaam 2.40 Bubbles Of Gold 3.15 Torrent Des Mottes 3.45 Second Time Around 4.20 Back On The Lash 4.50 Bucaneros 5.20 Siannes Star (nb)
Southwell
2.20 Twentysvnthlancers 2.50 Escapability 3.25 Marble Bar 3.55 Tagur 4.30 Liamba 5.05 Baron Run
Kempton
5.30 Moment Of Hope 6.00 Lehoogg 6.30 Dawn Commando 7.00 Capofaro 7.30 Crystal Casque 8.00 Unforgiving Minute 8.30 Choice Encounter
