"Luck"

[Edgorman]

Personally, as a horseplayer, I like my friends and family to respect my passion.  I know they don\'t get it.  The portrayal of the pick 6 group was embarrassing.  I don\'t think TGJB has has pick 6 success with cartoon clowns as depicted in \"Luck\".

[Boscar Obarra]

I didn\'t read it that way at all.

 Back in the day, when I actually attended racetracks daily, there were plenty of guys like that around.

 And how dumb could they be, they singled a goodthing, and they cashed.

 I\'m sure Jerry knows at least 100 players over the years that make that crowd look like Harvard grads.

[plasticman]

I wasn\'t too excited of them portraying horseplayers as broken down degenerates who don\'t have two nickels to rub together. When you explain to non-racing people that youre \'seriously involved\' in horse racing, you dont want them lumping you into that stereotype. Why can\'t they have great looking young men and great looking young women as the horseplayers? I know that wouldnt be \'believable\' but who really believes that someone who looks like ED O\'Neill is dating Sofia Vergara (in a tv show, not in real life)? That\'s LESS believable than a pretty horseplayer and yet, THEY get away with it and the show is a hit.

As far as continuity errors, we\'re not asking for the world, but the errors they made are simple things....did they think we werent going to \'add\' up that ticket and see that it cost a few grand? That was the first thing i did when i saw the ticket on the napkin, i hit pause on my DVR and added it up.

To me, when you have \'fixable\' things like that, it says to me that they think horseplayers are idiots and nobody will notice or nobody will care.

This is why the show jockeys went \'out of business\' you had \'fake\' racecalls from Denman when you could have just had the real racecall instead.

[richiebee]

plasticman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know that wouldnt be \'believable\' but who really believes
> that someone who looks like ED O\'Neill is dating
> Sofia Vergara (in a tv show, not in real life)?
> That\'s LESS believable than a pretty horseplayer
> and yet, THEY get away with it and the show is a
> hit.

Its a great point and reminds me of the story of Buddy Ryan when he was an
assistant coach with the NY Jets. You can look at Ryan\'s sons and tell that
Buddy was not cut out for Hollywood, yet he always was seen around beautiful
women, which lead another NYJ assistant to comment:

\"He\'s either got an 9 inch ---- or a wart on his tongue\"

> To me, when you have \'fixable\' things like that,
> it says to me that they think horseplayers are
> idiots and nobody will notice or nobody will
> care.

Not idiots, but always willing to settle for an inferior product, such as
(in my opinion) the Racing this past weekend. I was hoping that my wife had some
plans for me Saturday and was thanking God for the NFL on Sunday.
 
> This is why the show jockeys went \'out of
> business\' you had \'fake\' racecalls from Denman
> when you could have just had the real racecall
> instead.

Jockeys went \"out of business\" because jockeys and horseplayers while
essential to the game, do not represent the true beauty of the sport,
which of course comes from the competitive spirit of the animals,the
beauty of some of the venues (tracks and farms), and the craft of some of
master trainers.

I have always said that a fun reality concept would be to take 20 runners from
Rick Dutrow and give them to Pat Kelly or Gary Sciacca, perennial 10% (at best)
trainers and take some of their runners and give them to Tricky.

Lets see how smart the people who market Racing are (they are not). On Christmas
Day, Steven Spielberg will bring us \"War Horse\", which does not involve a
racehorse but a horse taken from his young owner and put into cavalry service
in WWI. War Horse, based on a children\'s book, was taken to Broadway, where it
has won multiple Tony Awards including Best Play (using robotic equines).

A Dream Works/Spielberg movie, released on Christmas Day, will either be a huge
success or a huge flop, but one would think that those attempting (feebly) to
market thoroughbred racing would take the opportunity for some cross promotion.
Will not be holding my breath.

[moosepalm]

We are going to be incapable of watching this show as \"outsiders.\"  I have already had a half-dozen close friends, none of them racing fans, contact me about the show with very favorable reactions.  They are reasonably discerning TV and movie viewers.  The factual or technical discrepancies will completely elude them.  To me, this is a very good thing for the sport.  There is some kind of advertising jargon which describes a halo factor in which a product gets a bump from positive association.  Having Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte and David Milch associated with your \"product\" has to add some luster to the sport.  God knows it can use it.

[Lost Cause]

Haven\'t seen this yet but I know the errors are going to drive me crazy.

I\'m so nitpicky I hate the movie portrayal when they run the race and the hero horse is in an all out drive while the one that is supposed to lose is under a stranglehold to lose.  I\'m thinking ...couldn\'t they run the bad horse for a mile before the race shoot to tire him out a little and make it look more believable.  It made the Seabiscuit races and the Secretariat races in the movie look like stiff jobs.

[BB]

\"I\'d love to get Milch\'s take on some of the complaints here, but we\'d probably have to clear the room of women and children.\"

I\'m thinking he\'d be using that 10-letter job that was sprinkled liberally throughout \"Deadwood\", even though it didn\'t really come into vogue until the days of Frances Farmer.

[Edgorman]

Despite your eloquence, I doubt that your friends and family will look highly on you missing a Saturday family BBQ to go to the track to chase a Pick 6 carry over based on the \"Luck\" lowlifes you will be hanging with

[MO]

Denman\'s call\'s on Jockeys were scripted and embarrassing.....I\'m sure he pukes at the thought of what they made him do.

[Rich Curtis]

Plasticman wrote:

   \"I wasn\'t too excited of them portraying horseplayers as broken down degenerates who don\'t have two nickels to rub together.\"

   That was actually pretty generous of them. If they wanted to be realistic, they\'d film the show in a cemetery.

[moosepalm]

Edgorman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Despite your eloquence, I doubt that your friends
> and family will look highly on you missing a
> Saturday family BBQ to go to the track to chase a
> Pick 6 carry over based on the \"Luck\" lowlifes you
> will be hanging with

Humorous take, but....

1) wasn\'t exactly my point
2) the \"Runyon-esque\" nature of the denizens of the sport have actually been part of its allure for quite some time
3) do people think all lawyers are William Shatner and James Spader?  Okay, lawyers may be a bad example, but viewers are not necessarily literalists in transferring what they see on the flat screen to the real world.
4) if they did take it literally, and if I did hit that Pick 6, they\'d be thinking very highly of me at the next Spago-catered BBQ.

My point, by the advertising analogy, is that specific content isn\'t always what really sells.  Sometimes, the spokesperson is key.  Sometimes it\'s the set and setting.  All that old \"medium is the message\" kind of hooey.  Horse racing is now on HBO with serious movie stars.  Look what it did for the mob.