On DVD or VHS: Explore the origin of today's THOROUGHBRED with this outstanding award-winning documentary - an instant classic! (19th Century ECLIPSE is shown in picture above).

 

 

Before recorded history, man had already tamed wild horses. For 6,000 years the horse was a swift conveyance, a source of power and an engine of war. The jockey and his Thoroughbred are but a continuation of this long partnership between man and animal. Only in recent years have scientists begun to examine this animal athlete; to analyze its action and the dynamics of horse and rider and to consider its physiology and training. And it is only recently that the science of genetics has modified or reinforced the myths and intuitions which up to now have guided decisions in the breeding of race horses.

 

 

From a small, dog-like creature living in the forests, the horse has evolved into a huge, powerful and graceful running machine. The history, origin, heredity, biology, breeding and training of Thoroughbred race horses around the world are examined by equine experts in their respective areas of study.

 

 

Many international stallions around Kentucky's Bluegrass are visited: THE MINSTREL; ALYDAR in a rare breeding scene at Calumet; NIJINSKY II; and the sire of sires, NORTHERN DANCER, at Windfields Farm in Maryland. You'll also visit a summer yearling sale at Keeneland - an international gathering!

 

 

However near the genetic limits the Thoroughbred has come, there are still horses born that we can only wonder at: see slow motion racing footage of SECRETARIAT overtaking RIVA RIDGE and winning the Marlboro Cup and many other film clips of him in retirement at Claiborne Farm running through his paddock and being walked back to his stall.

 

 

Dr. Pratt, a not-too-easily impressed expert at equine biomechanical technology, loses all staunch professional composure  boasting about what gave SECRETARIAT the physical edge to bury his counterparts and about some of his most remarkable feats and achievements: his incredible 31 length win in the Belmont run in 2:24 and his Kentucky Derby race with each quarter being run faster than the preceding one - he defies all logic and barriers! After seeing thousands of horses in his day, Dr. Pratt had the privilege of seeing SECRETARIAT at Claiborne Farm one day and had these words to say about him, "...he looked like he would run right straight through a stone wall....he is a mountain of muscle, he is a mountain of dignity, he is a mountain of aristocratic bearing, he is the most impressive alive creature I have ever looked upon, he came out of the stall and ...my god...I was frozen in my tracks - the heart stops, you know....".

 

 

Horses such as SECRETARIAT, NORTHERN DANCER, THE MINSTREL are the ultimate results of 20 generations of selective breeding; in a brief 300 years, man has built on 50 million years of speed and stamina to arrive at the Thoroughbred. Whether there are genetic or physical reservoirs still untapped, science can not yet give a certain answer.

 

 

From SECRETARIAT, to NORTHERN DANCER, to SEA BIRD to MAN O'WAR to ST. SIMON to ECLIPSE to the Godolphin Arabian, the champions and the also-rans and the men and women who lived and died for them have left us their legacy; a sport for kings and commoners alike; it is most often been a celebration of one of nature's marvels - THE THOROUGHBRED! 

 

 

This brilliantly produced and award-winning documentary from Canada is outstanding and is a timeless feature about one of the most noble of all breeds - the Thoroughbred.

  

 

 

60 Minutes.

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