A WinnerBy John DeSando, WCBE's It's Movie Time
"You have to do it with confidence." Michael Matz, Barbaro trainer
Out of the gate, the documentary First Saturday in May is a winner, whose neophyte directors, brothers Brad and John Hennegan, capture mostly the glamour of the kingly sport before and at Churchill Downs once a year. Although the editing is choppy, the camera angles uninspired, and the lighting weak?no doubt due to the fact that I saw it from projected DVD before prints were cast?it gently carries a romantic aura of the race to qualify and the big race.
This is the famous 2006 race with the incomparable, tragic winner, Barbaro. That the brothers had enough sense to spotlight this undefeated, favored thoroughbred is much in their favor; that the doc must end in the horse's eventual put down from a Preakness Stakes leg injury is a dramatic counterpoint to the upbeat scenario that went before it, a gift so to speak from the Fates to a film that could have been judged sugarcoated without the dark ending.
Prior to the big race the doc traces several stables and their trainers as they prepare to qualify for it or for the race itself. Notably from good ol' slow Kentucky boy Dale Romans looking for his first win to chatty New York assistant trainer Frank Amonte, whose kids take after him in accent and attitude but not in casual expletives from their dad every time he has a setback.
The usual goofballs are present on the day of the derby such as the rube with the spinning horses on top of his beanie and the chubby preadolescent kid who pulls a wad of money from his pocket while mom proudly exclaims, "Horses and poker, that's his thing right now." The doc doesn't need fancy photography to catch the regal nature of this all American event (notwithstanding an owner sheikh from Dubai). It's a winner.
John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, which can be heard streaming at www.wcbe.org Fridays at 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm and on demand anytime. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com