The 14 Best Horse Racing Movies of All Time

Underdog stories, Oscar contenders and one Marx Brothers farce, all set at the track. A couple of them only ever had the horse.

1

Phar Lap

The 1983 Australian film about the Depression-era champion who died in California.

1000pts

2

Sylvester

A 1985 story of a teenage rider and a stubborn horse aiming for the three-day event team.

877pts

3

Secretariat

Disney's 2010 telling of the 1973 Triple Crown, with Diane Lane as owner Penny Chenery.

800pts

4

National Velvet

The 1944 classic that made a twelve-year-old Elizabeth Taylor a star.

771pts

5

Ride Like a Girl

The 2019 story of Michelle Payne, the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup.

600pts

6

50 to 1

The 2014 account of Mine That Bird, the gelding who won the 2009 Kentucky Derby at long odds.

600pts

7

The Black Stallion

The 1979 shipwreck-and-a-horse film Francis Ford Coppola produced and Carroll Ballard directed.

491pts

8

Seabiscuit

The 2003 Depression-era drama that took seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

491pts

9

Champions

The 1984 film about Bob Champion winning the Grand National after cancer treatment.

491pts

10

The Rider

Chloe Zhao's 2017 drama about a rodeo rider told he can never ride again.

491pts

11

Dreamer

Kurt Russell and Dakota Fanning nurse an injured filly back to the Breeders' Cup in 2005.

360pts

12

Let It Ride

Richard Dreyfuss has the luckiest day of his life at the track in this 1989 comedy.

360pts

13

A Day at the Races

The Marx Brothers take over a sanatorium and a racehorse in 1937.

360pts

14

Hidalgo

Viggo Mortensen rides a mustang across the Arabian desert in this 2004 adventure.

360pts