Dark Horse

Dark Horse (2015)

Tagline: "The incredible true story of Dream Alliance"

Starring: Jan Vokes, Howard Davies, Brian 'Daisy' Vokes

Featured Racecourses: Aintree, Cheltenham, Chepstow, Newbury, Perth

Director: Louise Ormond
Producer: Judith Dawson
Writer: Louise Ormond

Release Date: April 2015
Runtime: 85 mins

Official Website Synopsis: Set in a former mining village in Wales, DARK HORSE is the inspirational true story of a group of friends from a working men's club who decide to take on the elite 'sport of kings' and breed themselves a racehorse.

Where to Buy: Amazon
Film Links: IMDB, Wikipedia, Official Website

Personal Review


Dark Horse is the true story of how a group of friends from a small Welsh mining town bred a racehorse called Dream Alliance to win the Welsh Grand National. Jan Vokes, a supermarket cleaner and barmaid in the local working mens club one day overheard a customer (Howard Davies) talking about a racing syndicate that he had once run. Having been brought up by a father who bred budgies, pigeons and whippets, Jan's imagination was sparked and she decided to breed her own racehorse. With the help of her husband Brian 'Daisy' Vokes, she bought a brood mare called Rewbell for £300 - a horse with no racing form - and then approached Howard asking for advice on how to set up a racing syndicate. The pair of them managed to persuade 30 local people to part with £10 a week and the Alliance partneship was born. Once they had enough money they found a relatively cheap American stallion called Bien Bien and paid £3000 for Rewbell to be covered. The mare fell pregnant and on March 23rd 2001, a chestnut horse with a distinctive white blaize on it's nose and 4 white socks, was born - the syndicate later named him 'Dream Alliance'. After initially keeping the horse in the local allotments they eventually sent him off to Philip Hobbs to be trained for a career in racing and on the 10th November 2004 he made his debut in a bumper at Newbury, finishing a respectable 4th.

Dream Alliance finished placed in his next two races and then won his first ever race in Jan 2006 at Chepstow, followed up by another victory a few weeks later at Haydock. He then finished a creditable 6th in the 3 mile novice hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and after a couple of poor hurdle runs he was switched to fences where he dotted up at the first attempt in a 3 mile event at Exeter. His form then tapered off significantly before he won a £25000 class 2 handicap at Perth which then set him up for a tilt at the Hennessy Gold Cup where he finished an impressive second to Denman in December 2007. He was then entered for the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow but ran poorly and pulled up and then in his next two races he unseated rider and pulled up again.  His next target was a 3 mile handicap hurdle at Aintree and the night before the race his mother Rewbell died giving birth to a foal resulting in Jan and Brian having to miss their first meeting - more sad news was to come as Dream Alliance severed a tendon during the race and his life was in the balance.

The syndicate wanted to give the horse every chance of survival and agreed to spend £20000 on pioneering stem cell surgery to try and repair the injured tendon. The operation was a success and after 18 months of recuperation and a gradual training program back at Philip Hobbs yard, Dream Alliance was ready to return to the race track. He finished second in a hurdle at Chepstow and was then entered into the Welsh Grand National again in December 2009 but wasn't given much hope due to his previous injury and was sent off at 20/1. He comfortably obliged against all the odds and the horse along with the syndicate members became national heroes, the impossible dream had come true!  Unfortunately the horse was never the same again, pulling up in a Grand National trial at Haydock and then doing the same in the 2010 Aintree showpiece, and after a history of bursting blood vessels he was eventually retired in May 2012.

Dark Horse is a truly inspirational heart-warming documentary and the passion that Jan, Brian, Howard and the rest of the syndicate members have for their horse just radiates from the screen. Jan is the real star of the show as it was her initial dream and determination that were the driving force behind the purchase of a brood mare and the forming of the local syndicate. You get the sense that this was a life changing episode for all of the owners and also a much needed boost for the local community in an area beset by economic issues following the recent mine closures. I like the way the Director Louise Ormond uses the interview footage of the story's principle characters and mixes it with TV footage from Dream Alliance's races, re-enactments, slow motion shots and stills - the whole thing works really well and leaves you captivated. The interviews themselves are intriguing with plenty of humor and emotion and I love the owner's tales of mixing with racing's elite and laughing in the face of those people who thought the dream was impossible. The Dream Alliance story proves that anyone can breed and own a horse and with the right amount of luck and determination that horse might turn out to be something special.

This is a real rags-to-riches story and is every bit as intriguing as the Aldaniti and Bob Champion story featured in the film Champions. (Rating 8/10)

Dream Alliance Career Statistics:  Runs 30, Wins 5, Places 6, Prize Money, £138,646

Favourite Quotes
Jan Vokes: "One commentator said, she wouldn’t comment on him, she didn’t rate him, he wasn’t a thoroughbred – she's lucky I didn’t see her that day!"

Brian 'Daisy' Vokes: "If that horse only had three legs, we would have him, its an industry to them, to us he was like one of the family."


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