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An inspirational true story of a group of friends from a working men’s club who decide to take on the elite ‘sport of kings’ and breed themselves a racehorse.
“Dark Horse” isn’t the usual rags to riches story, nor is it the Hollywood take of an unparalleled athlete that overcomes everything in his path. Instead, it is about having a dream and seeing it through in the middle of life’s imperfect moments and hardships. A true story of a group of friends from a very blue collar Welsh village who take on the “sport of kings” by raising a champion race horse.
The documentary is full of quirky Welsh personalities. With a combination of present day interviews, news media footage and personal videos, the story of Dream Alliance is perfectly told and unfolds with warmth and heart. Two characters stand out above all others, one human and one equine.
The biped is a twinkly-eyed, middle-aged woman named Jan Vokes, who works as both a barmaid and a supermarket cleaning woman in the depressed Welsh village of Cefn Fforest. Tending bar one night, she hears a tax lawyer named Howard Davis discoursing on the ins and outs of raising race horses. Horse racing, of course, is a sport that’s belonged to the aristocracy and the well-heeled for centuries, but Jan has a idea. The expenses are more than she could afford, obviously, but what if a group of friends shared them?
She quickly assembles a team of allies, who each pledge £10 per week to the venture. Some of her backers are unemployed, and all know that the odds against any kind of success going up against such well-funded, experienced and tony competitors are high indeed. And Jan isn’t proposing to buy a horse, mind you. She’s starting from square one. A mare must be found, a stud fee paid, and birth awaited.
The colt that results, initially all eyes and spindly legs, looks like it might not even be suitable for racing. But Jan proceeds with her plans, undaunted. A trainer is engaged and does his work. The horse, named Dream Alliance (Dream for short), eventually gets entered in a race and astonishes his backers by coming in fourth. But very soon, the real astonishment arrives: Dream wins a high-profile race.
It would be lovely to say that Dream continues to win race after race, and that they all live happily ever after. But life doesn’t work that way. Be prepared for the telling of this amazing story to bring with it real heartache, courage and the pain that real love brings with it.
For me, the real magic of the story was seeing how one woman’s dream transformed an entire village.
The manor in which the interviews were done, and the personal stories and perspectives shared, made me feel as though I were sitting in these people’s living rooms, enjoying a cup of tea as Dream’s story was told to me. Welsh charm, humor and story-telling style makes “Dark Horse” a documentary not to be missed.
Nothing explodes. No one flies through the air. Aliens don’t invade New York. Superheros aren’t there to save the planet. However, an unlikely horse does save a village. Thirty people’s lives are forever changed. The belief that anything is possible is given to them by an unlikely horse. At the end of the day, for a person to be given hope and a dream, is what really matters.
Opens at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas, Friday, May 20th
