Dark Horse 2015

     Jan Vokes works as a bar maid and supermarket cleaning woman in the small depressed valley town of Cefn Fforest located in South Wales.  She overhears Howard Davis talking about the business of raising racehorses.  He previously owned a racehorse and he lost a lot of money.  She decides she would like to breed a horse to race but not lose money.  She talks to her husband Brian and he agrees.  She begins talking to some of the people in town about forming an alliance to pool their money. Thirty people agree to pay a weekly amount of 10 pounds for a year to bankroll a horse fund of $15,600 pounds.  They purchase a mare for $600 pounds and they pay a stud with a refund if a foal isn't produced.  Since they didn’t pay high dollar for the mare and the stud, they have enough money to pay the most experienced horse trainer they can find.  They believe this is where the money will be well spent.  At first, they were going to put names in a hat for the horse but Jan decides he will be named Dream Alliance.

     This was a big gamble for all the people involved.  Everything requires a LOT of money and only a small percentage of horses make money.  There are expenses for food, training, medical care, entry fees, salary for the jockey and their transportation costs.  The Alliance attends all the races with Dream in the running.  They have badges for horse owners and they can go into the posh places where the other wealthy owners can go.  One of the men takes a sandwich wrapped in foil and cans of beer because he doesn’t want to pay the steep price for food and drink at the track.  I thought this was very interesting, sometimes funny and the races could be very tense.  Dream united all the people in the village and not just those involved in the Alliance.  It was their horse and he represented the town!!  4* (I really liked this movie)

85 min, Doc directed by Louise Osmond with Jan and Brian Vokes, Howard and Angela Davies, Tony Kerby, Maureen Jones, Eddie Thomas.

Note:  Imdb 7.3 out of 10, 96% critic 78% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 29 reviews, Metacritic 75 out of 100 with 29 critics 6.7 out of 10 with 7 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Wales, UK.  All the people in this film are not actors but members of the community or people involved with Dream.  This film won the Audience Award at the 2015 at Sundance.