D23 Members First to the Starting Gate for Secretariat

D23 Members First to the Starting Gate for Secretariat

Great news for D23 Members from the Max Lark at the D23 website. Be sure to check out the pictures from the event in the link below.

D23 Members and their guests enjoy a special sneak peek at Walt Disney Pictures’ Secretariat, an unforgettable film that tells the inspiring story of the legendary thoroughbred Triple-Crown winner — a muscle-bound chestnut colt who delivered arguably the greatest athletic performance of all time.

“Secretariat is moving like a tremendous machine… ”

With those famous words, uttered during the 1973 Belmont Stakes, famed announcer Chic Anderson artfully encapsulated the nothing-less-than eerily mystical scene he took in from the press box at the famed 1.5-mile-long Elmont, New York, track on that fateful day. After all, Secretariat, a one-of-a-kind equine, was in the process of securing thoroughbred racing’s elusive and ultimate prize — the Triple Crown (winning, in order, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes) — and in so doing besting his closest rival, the extraordinarily fast Sash, by 30 lengths. The record still stands today, and Secretariat’s run was one of the most amazingly dominant performances in the history of thoroughbred racing — and sport itself — a performance that not only amazed the world, cut capped off the truly special journeys of both the beautifully named horse and its owner, Penny Tweedy (born Penny Chenery).

That riveting scene, as more than 400 D23 Members and their guests who attended the September 13 preview showing of the film at the Studio Theatre at the Walt Disney Studio Lot can attest, is the centerpiece of this extraordinarily moving film. In the movie, Penny Tweedy (Diane Lane) plays a married housewife who takes over her father’s farm, and, with the help of a fateful coin toss, sets in motion the events that will eventually lead to her triumph in the Triple Crown. She is helped in her unlikely journey by an eccentric and — sartorially challenged — trainer named Lucien Laurin, impeccably portrayed by John Malkovich. The movie splendidly captures Penny’s and Secretariat’s respective journeys, movingly showing how each of them had to run his and her own life races.

Click here to keep reading more.

By D23’s Max Lark.

Photo and article from d23.com

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Chip is the owner, editor, and writer of Chip and Company. When he is not writing about Disney News or Planning Tips, you will find him counting down the days to his next Disney Vacation.
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