When Secretariat was released in 2010, comparisons to 2003’s Seabiscuit were inevitable.

Both are:

• “Based on a true story”
• About a championship horse
• Winning against vast odds (literal odds as well as figurative)
• An owner full of conviction facing multiple obstacles

 

 

It’s been several years since I read Seabiscuit and watched the movie, but I remember it quite fondly. We just saw Secretariat recently and I was interested to judge for myself how successfully it showed life in high-stakes horse racing.

Both stories capture that world, in my humble opinion. Although, since I don’t hang around racing stables (or even non-racing stables), race courses, or betting parlors, I’m probably not the best judge of that criteria.

Secretariat seemed a bit more contrived to me, perhaps heightening the conflicts between Penny Chenery Tweedy and her trainer, or Penny and her husband, or Penny and her brother.

In a head-to-head contest, I have to give it to Seabiscuit by a nose.