Anything can happen
Apr 13, 2015 22:05:58 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on Apr 13, 2015 22:05:58 GMT -5
I didn't know he wrote the book! CC - Is this the ne that filmed at Pimlico?
Anything can happen
Jay Cronley
ESPN
Each year before the Kentucky Derby, I write a little something about the film "Let It Ride," because I wrote the book, a novel called "Good Vibes."
Some horse players use the story to get in the right frame of mind, which is hopeful.
Here's how the book happened.
I hit a lucky one, one Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., wondered what it would be like if good luck at the track could run as hot as misfortune ran gloomy, and I sat down and wrote the little fantasy novel, whose film starred Richard Dreyfuss.
It has in the meanwhile become a cult classic, which is a work about a restrictive subject that is enjoyed most after the fact of its release in the home off a disc. As you might expect, this show was produced by a bunch of guys familiar with having a bet riding. The director was the man who did the Pepsi TV commercial where Michael Jackson's hair accidentally caught fire. The film featured several people who kept going in high style, Cynthia Nixon of "Sex in the City," and Robbie Coltrane, a fine British actor.
There are numerous reasons why some books become unrecognizable motion pictures. One reason is time restrictions. Book material has to be reduced to the standard length of a screenplay, about 120 pages. The chief reason some books are hard to recognize on a screen is because big stars get paid so much, the camera has to stay on them. Colorful secondary characters that helped to make a novel are lost in the screen-time shuffle. The horse race track became like a character in this story. The movie was exactly the book. Dreyfuss shared screen time with an assortment of race track natives, so the studio got its money's worth.
A highlight of the movie was the actual horse races themselves. These races were not bits of tape cut from cheap races at Finger Lakes or Charles Town. Numbers, and silk and even horse colors, did not change as the racers came around the track. These were real races staged for the film. To accommodate animal safety and insurance needs, the film company bought the horses, raced them, then sold them back to their owners.
The premise of the horse race film is anything is possible, even winning, a back story being that the obvious is always dangerous.
My favorite scene has a foundation that can be taken to tracks everywhere this very day. It's where Dreyfuss starts winning and tries to think of new ways to perpetuate his hot streak. So he makes the round of race track regulars and asks their opinions of the horse that is apt to win the next race. As is usually the case at the races, even chronic losers can sound like Racing Form writers before the race. After hearing why a horse couldn't lose if it tried, Dreyfuss would run a line through that one in his program. Then he put every dollar that he was ahead on the only horse that the regulars hadn't mentioned. And, like when Redford knocked the lights out in "The Natural," Dreyfuss hit the long shot and turned some of his friends against him by being so successful.
The night before filming was to begin, the cast and crew went to the dog races in Miami to get in the right frame of mind to do a gaming flick. Think what you will about the dog races, they're material. It's not every day that a dusty and rusty racing joint has an Academy Award winner in its midst. So thanks to Dreyfuss, our party was led to tables on the finish line where we were surrounded by the gang that couldn't handicap straight, seniors who were having a hard time collecting on two bucks to show on short prices. This place seemed to be run by an older woman who was star struck and kept coming to where Dreyfuss sat to whisper things into his ear, tips on what to wager, it seemed. Believe what you might about dog tracks, dogs seem to whisper to some people. The elderly woman kept whispering dog thoughts. Dreyfuss kept winning. But he wasn't sharing these hot tips. He kept private the numbers he wrote down after cozy moments with the old woman. The dogs I picked kept running all over the track as though searching for biscuits. So before the next to last race, I followed Dreyfuss to a betting window, put a $10 tip off to the side, and said to the teller I'd have the same thing that he, the actor, just ordered.
I won $150.
The message is this moving toward the Derby. Anything can happen at the races, even a favorite winning.
Anything can happen
Jay Cronley
ESPN
Each year before the Kentucky Derby, I write a little something about the film "Let It Ride," because I wrote the book, a novel called "Good Vibes."
Some horse players use the story to get in the right frame of mind, which is hopeful.
Here's how the book happened.
I hit a lucky one, one Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., wondered what it would be like if good luck at the track could run as hot as misfortune ran gloomy, and I sat down and wrote the little fantasy novel, whose film starred Richard Dreyfuss.
It has in the meanwhile become a cult classic, which is a work about a restrictive subject that is enjoyed most after the fact of its release in the home off a disc. As you might expect, this show was produced by a bunch of guys familiar with having a bet riding. The director was the man who did the Pepsi TV commercial where Michael Jackson's hair accidentally caught fire. The film featured several people who kept going in high style, Cynthia Nixon of "Sex in the City," and Robbie Coltrane, a fine British actor.
There are numerous reasons why some books become unrecognizable motion pictures. One reason is time restrictions. Book material has to be reduced to the standard length of a screenplay, about 120 pages. The chief reason some books are hard to recognize on a screen is because big stars get paid so much, the camera has to stay on them. Colorful secondary characters that helped to make a novel are lost in the screen-time shuffle. The horse race track became like a character in this story. The movie was exactly the book. Dreyfuss shared screen time with an assortment of race track natives, so the studio got its money's worth.
A highlight of the movie was the actual horse races themselves. These races were not bits of tape cut from cheap races at Finger Lakes or Charles Town. Numbers, and silk and even horse colors, did not change as the racers came around the track. These were real races staged for the film. To accommodate animal safety and insurance needs, the film company bought the horses, raced them, then sold them back to their owners.
The premise of the horse race film is anything is possible, even winning, a back story being that the obvious is always dangerous.
My favorite scene has a foundation that can be taken to tracks everywhere this very day. It's where Dreyfuss starts winning and tries to think of new ways to perpetuate his hot streak. So he makes the round of race track regulars and asks their opinions of the horse that is apt to win the next race. As is usually the case at the races, even chronic losers can sound like Racing Form writers before the race. After hearing why a horse couldn't lose if it tried, Dreyfuss would run a line through that one in his program. Then he put every dollar that he was ahead on the only horse that the regulars hadn't mentioned. And, like when Redford knocked the lights out in "The Natural," Dreyfuss hit the long shot and turned some of his friends against him by being so successful.
The night before filming was to begin, the cast and crew went to the dog races in Miami to get in the right frame of mind to do a gaming flick. Think what you will about the dog races, they're material. It's not every day that a dusty and rusty racing joint has an Academy Award winner in its midst. So thanks to Dreyfuss, our party was led to tables on the finish line where we were surrounded by the gang that couldn't handicap straight, seniors who were having a hard time collecting on two bucks to show on short prices. This place seemed to be run by an older woman who was star struck and kept coming to where Dreyfuss sat to whisper things into his ear, tips on what to wager, it seemed. Believe what you might about dog tracks, dogs seem to whisper to some people. The elderly woman kept whispering dog thoughts. Dreyfuss kept winning. But he wasn't sharing these hot tips. He kept private the numbers he wrote down after cozy moments with the old woman. The dogs I picked kept running all over the track as though searching for biscuits. So before the next to last race, I followed Dreyfuss to a betting window, put a $10 tip off to the side, and said to the teller I'd have the same thing that he, the actor, just ordered.
I won $150.
The message is this moving toward the Derby. Anything can happen at the races, even a favorite winning.