The movie highlights the comfortable upper middle class Tweedy life at their family home in Colorado, but notes that this facade masks considerable internal conflict signaled by the two teen-aged Tweedy daughters having fallen in love with a hippie lifestyle and leftist political activity in direct opposition to their staid parents. Regrettably, too many precious moments of this two hour film are wasted on the flower power scenes of the Tweedy daughters to the detriment of the story. I would hazard a guess that these scenes were added as a marketing ploy to get more teenagers into the audience, but they don't work.

Adding to Penny Tweedy's angst is the fact that her husband, Jack (Dylan Walsh), resents her decision to leave their Colorado home to nurture "Big Red" on to a championship at her disabled father's Meadow Stables Farm in Virginia. Her brother is also against her, as he wanted to sell out after their mother dies and even more so when their father later dies after being incapacitated by a stroke. 

Fortunately, Chris Chenery (Scott Glenn) gave ownership of the horses to Penny, but then she had to devise a way to keep them and find another way to pay the family's hefty $6 million dollar federal inheritance tax bill. This involved a huge risk, as Big Red, an unproved young colt, could have been sold to pay the tax in full. The idea was advocated by her husband and her brother after they went behind Penny's back and colluded together. Our eyes shoot up at this blatant sexism, but this was 40 years ago when men made all the important decisions and woman were relegated to a supporting role. 

Neither man knew or appreciated the horse racing instincts that Penny had cultivated while growing up with her adored dad. Penny Chenery Tweedy was a risk taker, whereas they were risk adverse. She had vision whereas they didn't. She believed in the talent of this colt even before it was born due to its promising bloodlines, and she sighed in relief when Ogden Phipps (James Cromwell) took the colt of the other mare with an equally famous parentage when he won the coin toss. 

It was the obvious choice, but the much smarter choice was to make the decision Penny made because the sire of her colt had endurance. It was also a gutsy decision, because if the horse didn't pan out, or if it was injured, then the farm and everything else would have been lost to the tax collectors because the colt would no longer command a $7 million sales price.

This being a family movie, naturally the Chenery family all comes together to cheer on their valiant mother, sister, and wife when it appears that Big Red, now officially named Secretariat, might actually be a contender for the fabled Triple Crown. It makes for a sweet family film, but left unmentioned is the fact that Penny divorced her dull and unsupportive husband soon after Secretariat won the Triple Crown.

Great supporting characters make a movie even better, and this is no exception. John Malkovich is wonderful as Lucien Laurin, the curmudgeonly, clothing-challenged perfectionist of a trainer. Margo Martindale adds sweetness as Miss Ham, the long time family housekeeper, and Nelson Ellis adds his own special touch as Eddie Sweat, the loyal family stable caretaker. All three believe in Penny and all recognize a great horse when they see it. It was a great team.

I remember seeing the Belmont race on television, and the entire nation held its collective breath as we watched that historic moment unfold. It really was astonishing, and jockey Ronnie Turcotte (Otto Thorwarth) really did look back to find out what had happened to Sham, the other horse in contention. (I have to resist the temptation to inquire if Sham sired a colt to be named Sham-Wow!...) To this day Belmont has never been the scene of a race as widely spaced as the one won by Secretariat by an unbelievable 31 lengths in 1973. 123 minutes and rated PG for brief mild language.