Secretariat - Film Story Vs Facts

We just saw the film Secretariat tonight. Yes, I know it’s been out for a while but we finally got around to watching it. It is the incredible story of the champion race horse of the same name, who won the Triple Crown in 1973. It’s also a great example of how to make a fact based event into a great story that evokes strong emotions.

It tells the story of how a housewife, Penny Chenery, took over a failing Virginia race horse stable and nursed it through very difficult financial straits while raising a young colt who would become the famous Secretariat. It shows how she stepped into the racing world as an outsider who had to win the Triple Crown of horse racing to save the farm and her star horse. It is a story of perseverance in the face of constant negativity and of the outsider who fights to win. It also features a trainer who was seen as a loser who comes back to become one of the biggest winners in history.

It has all the steps in the story formula: An attention grabber, a strong character who wants something badly, opposition, attempts to overcome the opposition, an eventual victory, climax and lesson for us all.

This story takes on much of its power by leaving out a number of important facts which would have diluted it if they had been left in.

For instance, the biggest bit of information left out of the film is that in 1972, when Secretariat was establishing himself as the greatest race horse of all time, Penny Chenery and her staff were running another race horse, Riva Ridge, who won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and almost won the Belmont, the third leg of the triple crown.

Another bit of information left out was that Roger Laurin, son of trainer Lucien Laurin, worked for the stable and that when he left, the stable brought in Lucien to train Riva Ridge and Secretariat. Since Riva Ridge is never mentioned, it is also never mentioned that Lucien had trained a near Triple Crown winner the year before Secretariat made his race.

A third bit is that Penny Chenery’s father Christopher, portrayed as being at the Virginia stables in 1970 to 1972, was in reality in a hospital in New Rochelle, New York the whole time. Penny took over the stables in 1968 and bred Secretariat’s mother twice, also not mentioned in the film.

If these items had been included in the film it would have more truthful but it also would not have been as dramatic a story. The presence of Riva Ridge in the story would have diluted the drama of Secretariat’s rise to stardom and would also have softened the story of Penny Chenery’s outsider status in the horse racing world. The movie portrayed Lucien Laurin as a stranger to Penny Chenery when in fact Lucien’s son had worked for them and he was well known to them.

A key lesson in this story of the Secretariat movie is that when you are telling a story, whether it is about yourself or about someone else, put in only the important facts, not all the facts. If you strive for complete accuracy you will dilute the story. Stories are streamlined versions of reality built for dramatic and emotional effect and should be treated as such.

Secretariat’s story was an incredible event in the horse racing world and was a dramatic experience for everyone involved. However, telling it with all the facts does not create a compelling story. When we strip out the extraneous facts, it becomes even more dramatic and includes an emotional depth not otherwise attainable.

And when we tell stories, we are aiming for that emotional depth above all. Remember that the next time you write your own story.