Laura Sheehy and Chris Ghelfi's Chasing The Win is a horseracing-driven documentary that peels back the layers on the machinations of a sport in which even the most passionate and driven owners and trainers must assume the role of the proverbial long shot in their pursuit of the statistically improbable.
The family that owns the horse Kinsale King came from limited means before their passions irrevocably drew them to this high stakes niche. Trainer Carl O'Callaghan spent weeks under the Brooklyn Bridge as he emigrated from Ireland to pursue horseracing as his form of the America Dream. And Kinsale King himself is an improbably ascending equine hero...a fast and charismatic gelding purchased for very little in a breeding game often requiring an investment of millions.
The storytelling here is excellent. While Sheehy and Ghelfi ultimately reveal to the layman all they never knew about the science, financial burdens, and the business model that drives horse racing, we're ultimately left with a bigger story about family: that of the owners and that of the trainer, with each having identified their passions in early childhood before then pursuing it relentlessly. A wonderfully scored doc too, Chasing The Win will prove particularly compelling for family-driven sports fans with a preference for betting the underdog.
The family that owns the horse Kinsale King came from limited means before their passions irrevocably drew them to this high stakes niche. Trainer Carl O'Callaghan spent weeks under the Brooklyn Bridge as he emigrated from Ireland to pursue horseracing as his form of the America Dream. And Kinsale King himself is an improbably ascending equine hero...a fast and charismatic gelding purchased for very little in a breeding game often requiring an investment of millions.
The storytelling here is excellent. While Sheehy and Ghelfi ultimately reveal to the layman all they never knew about the science, financial burdens, and the business model that drives horse racing, we're ultimately left with a bigger story about family: that of the owners and that of the trainer, with each having identified their passions in early childhood before then pursuing it relentlessly. A wonderfully scored doc too, Chasing The Win will prove particularly compelling for family-driven sports fans with a preference for betting the underdog.