Image Not Available
1941-09-27
N/A
10 min
Kings of the Turf is a 1941 American short documentary film about horse racing, directed by Del Frazier. This entry in The Sports Parade series shows us how Mortimer, a Standardbred horse, is trained for harness racing. It was nominated for an Academy Award at the 14th Academy Awards for Best Short Subject.
Meet “Morty”, an horse that’s being groomed - physically and metaphorically - to be a champion at the trot. That’s different from an actual race, race - if you get my drift. How can you tell? Well that’s explained in a commentary that delivers quite an interesting accompaniment to the activities of these horses on the Californian dirt tracks. It’s all in the dynamics, you see. How many hooves are on the ground at any one time, and what synchronicity there is between opposite legs. You can just about spot those distinctions on the photography, once you know what you are looking for. There are some fine looking animals on display here and they can get up quite a speed pulling their light-weight buggies behind them in front of large crowds. Worth ten minutes, I’d say.
