"Riding High" on TCM tonight @ 7p/10e

[bigchump]

One of the great horse racing movies.
Was the Camptown Ractrack really nine miles long?

[DJofSD]

Frank Capra to boot - thanks!

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=88273

[andymays]

Riding High (1950)
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=88273

Synopsis excerpt:

Dan Brooks is about to marry Margaret Higgins, daughter of the wealthy and powerful J. L. Higgins. While waiting for Maggie's divorce to come through, Dan has been put in charge of Higgins' paper box company, on probation, and will become president, just like the husbands of Maggie's two married sisters, if he can run the company properly. Dan's real interest, however, is in a horse he owns, Broadway Bill, whom he wants to someday race. Maggie's younger sister Alice, whom Dan calls the "Princess," is secretly in love with Dan and encourages the venture. One night at a family dinner, J. L. tells Dan that he is not properly committed to running the paper box company and that he must get rid of Bill. Dan replies it's true he hasn't done well for the company, but that he's not interested in it.

Cast & Crew
Frank Capra
Director
Bing Crosby
as Dan Brooks
Coleen Gray
as Alice ["Princess"] Higgins
Charles Bickford
as J. L. Higgins
Frances Gifford
as Margaret Higgins
William Demarest
as Happy [Oscar Maguire]
Raymond Walburn
as Prof. Pettigrew
James Gleason
as Racing secretary
Ward Bond
as Lee
Clarence Muse
as Whitey [Clarence White]
Percy Kilbride
as Pop Jones
Harry Davenport
as Johnson

[fmolf]

who knows...I do know that in the early 1800's a match race would be run at different heats of four miles each,with a half hour between heats.The horse that was the first to win two heats took the purse.This was called the " heroic" distance.so in a two horse match race often times 12 miles were run by each horse to decide a winner.

[DJofSD]

And hence the expression "dead heat" which means a tie during one of those heats which was then thrown out or did not count.

[46zilzal]

There was the misplaced belief that once the photo finish was brought in around 1931, there would be MORE dead heats but of course there were far fewer.

[WinterTriangle]

It's on at 9:00 CST here. Got it auto-tuned, thanks for telling us. :) Yes, it's a good movie!

[098poi]

Right now (8:00 eastern) on the same channel is Capra's Broadway Bill. 1934 The manager of a paper factory quits his job to devote his life to horse racing. Early version of the other I think.

[bigchump]

"Broadway Bill" was indeed the original that was later copied as "Riding High".

Some trivia:

The star of Broadway Bill was Warner Baxter who reportedly hated and/or was terrified of horses.

The racetrack scenes for both movies were filmed at Tanforan in 1934 and 1950.
Capra used some of the 1934 footage in the 1950 re-make.

The big guy standing over the mound of torn up tickets was none other than Oliver Hardy.