Black Thoroughbreds

[Katewerk]

Choice Production ran 2nd in the 6th at Louisiana Downs today. Looked black, sure enough - is registered as black. http://www.pedigreequery.com/choice+production

[ThreeMustangs]

National Hunt Sire Network (Monsun):



(Photo from racingpost.com)

[BaroqueAgain1]

Now that's the horse who should have been cast to play The Black in The Black Stallion.

[Katewerk]

BrightBlue.jpg (79.68 KiB) Viewed 1714 times

Bright Blue, 2012 g, registered black, debuted in R5 at Tampa Bay Downs today. (Midnight Lute x Lady Gallapiat)

[Treve]

Now that's the horse who should have been cast to play The Black in The Black Stallion.

Just for the racing parts I imagine ? After all he was an Arabian. As far as I know though the horse they used (Cass Ole) was hired for the film on condition he not be used for the running or swimming scenes so three other arabians were used for those (Fae Jur being his main double for the swimming scenes). Then if I recall correctly a thoroughbred and/or possibly a Quarter Horse was used for the actual racing scene at the end? (Though in the Black Stallion Returns they had a different Arabian from a straight Egyptian background *El Mokhtar iirc? Also that racing scene at the end of the film is genuine, the native berbers were urged to make a race of it, so his come from behind win is actual!)

***
Just went to rewatch the racing scene on youtube and sleuthed a little online - Fae Jur was used in the fighting scene with Sunraider just before the race and he is the horse seen breaking out of the gate and fighting Alec at first. Most of the wide angle shots and shots from afar were with a stunt double for the rider (the actor playing Alec was too small/not strong enough to hold back a QH/TB at full run) and a TB/QH for the horse.

Now you know
(and now I'm obsessed with figuring out all the details behind filmmaking of TBS and TBSR... gdi)

[BaroqueAgain1]

I think the first books I ever read were the Black Stallion stories.
IIRC, The Black was not a pure Arabian, but a bloodline that the Sheikh had developed that combined TB speed and size (he was 17 hands) along with Arabian endurance, all the better to win that desert race that the tribes contested with their best horses.
The 'stunt double' used for the racing scenes in the movie wasn't very convincing as a double...other than using a mostly-black horse, it didn't seem like they tried very hard to make the horse resemble the 'star.' He wasn't very attractive and, after a whole movie of watching a stallion with a high tail carriage, the race double had no loft at all...or the same long mane. I mean, they could have at least put a Saddlehorse-style fall on the double's tail to help maintain the illusion.

[lurkey mclurker]

The cinematography of the island parts of the movie was just breathtaking... and then they had to go and make Alec's racing helmet a, you know, actual helmet. With that stupid spike thing on top.

WHAAAAAAAT.

[Treve]

I think the first books I ever read were the Black Stallion stories.
IIRC, The Black was not a pure Arabian, but a bloodline that the Sheikh had developed that combined TB speed and size (he was 17 hands) along with Arabian endurance, all the better to win that desert race that the tribes contested with their best horses.
The 'stunt double' used for the racing scenes in the movie wasn't very convincing as a double...other than using a mostly-black horse, it didn't seem like they tried very hard to make the horse resemble the 'star.' He wasn't very attractive and, after a whole movie of watching a stallion with a high tail carriage, the race double had no loft at all...or the same long mane. I mean, they could have at least put a Saddlehorse-style fall on the double's tail to help maintain the illusion.

There was some weird inconsistency regarding that. Because the Black did turn out to have papers. I think in one of the books (The Black Stallion Returns?) the Sheikh tells Alec in confidence that there are very few purebreds in the world today with Johâr being one of the few remaining mares in the entire world to be a pure arabian amongst other things. (So I am guessing the Sheikh crossbred an Arabian stallion on a Thoroughbred mare perhaps? Or it was a multi-generational experiment...)
However I clearly remember the book where they discover The Black's sire (Ziyadah) and describe him as looking like an Arabian, stamping the beauty and dished face on his get (while noting that Black's get tended to lack refinement mostly looking like big beasts. I know he even sires a Standardbred at some point so the entire breeding notion is a mess in that book. That being said the only thing I sort of gave the benefit of doubt for his get being able to race was the fact Arabians were registered with the Jockey Club for a very very long time after their initial import to the USA so I could see where a technicality/loophole could have been played with behind the scenes ). I think they track him down because they spot some yearlings who look like the Black, track them back to a bullfighting stallion with a dished face who looks identical to the black but in bay. The owner tells them in confidence they are not actually his stallion's foal but rather share the same sire which leads them back to Arabia.

(Ah I found it on Wikipedia book #13 in the series The Black Stallion Mystery (1957) - When three yearling colts arrive in the U.S. that are carbon copies of the Black, Alec believes that his world-famous black stallion's sire may still be alive. His quest brings him to an unidentified location - a mountainous Shangri-La for horse breeding - held by Arabian sheikhs for centuries, along with Henry and the Black, into a neatly laid trap and a meeting with the sire of The Black.)

Then of course there was that monstrosity of a film "The Young Black Stallion" where they show The Black's father as being an alien/god horse thing from the horsehead galaxy coming onto the arabian peninsula to randomly breed a precious highly valuable arab mare (and they used a friesian in the film). No idea if this follows the Young Black Stallion book at all (which was written much later).

Of course there's also the mystery with Flame, the Island Stallion, said to look identical to the Black but in red and presumed to be a (spanish arabian?) horse from a conquistador's shipwreck. I also never quite understood the plot with the alien and the alien bridle that allowed Flame to be ridden bareback in a race. Maybe I need to reread.

Either way those books left a deep impression. I remember any horse simulation game I played at 11 or 12 I would always name at least one horse "Shêtan" "Black" - then when that was done, it was Banner, Flicka, Touch and Go, Thunderhead (from My friend Flicka and subsequent Thunderhead book).

Back on topic:
Kuro

[BaroqueAgain1]

The Black Stallion Mystery? Flame and aliens? I guess I stopped buying the Farley books at a certain age...and it sounds like I missed a couple of real odd additions to the series.

[Treve]

The Black Stallion Mystery? Flame and aliens? I guess I stopped buying the Farley books at a certain age...and it sounds like I missed a couple of real odd additions to the series.

Consider all books were published before I was born I had access to most of them in libraries if not bookstores.
Regarding Flame and aliens... that was in The Island Stallion Races. It was basically Walter Farley's gentle foray into science fiction. As a quirky historical nod though one of the aliens says that the last time he visited Earth (centuries ago), jockeys were still racing sitting straight up and long-legged in the saddle and that he secretly was behind the position we see today. Kind of whacky and quirky but that's how Flame gets broken in at the track (to eventually face The Black in a later book)