Earlier this year we had the chance to chat with Laura Sheehy, the co-director/writer and producer of Chasing the Win, a documentary focusing on the world of horse racing.
Who?
Chasing the Win is a documentary feature film that follows Carl O’Callaghan, a rookie trainer, Patrick Sheehy, a physician and veteran race horse owner, and their beloved racehorse, Kinsale King. Myself (Laura Sheehy) and my co-collaborator, Chris Ghelfi made the film and Indie Rights released it.
What?
Chasing the Win follows the meteoric rise of a rookie trainer, a down on his luck owner, and their imperfect racehorse after an unprecedented victory thrusts them into the global spotlight of horse racing. Success and fame are followed by the hard-hitting reality of what it means to survive in the Sport of Kings.
Where?
It takes place at race tracks across America, Dubai and England.
When?
Beginning in 2010, we started filming, followed our characters for 1 year, culminating with a big event in the film. Then we edited for many years, all the while seeing if the story we were aiming for had changed or not. We struggled with our cuts and took a long time working on it. We then followed up with more filming 6 years later as we started to get into festivals. We felt there was some footage we needed to update. So we showed our film at 3 festivals, then shot some new footage and updated our ending for the remaining screenings we had. All of this was prior to it’s theatrical screening and release at the end of 2018.
Why?
I made this film because I’ve grown up around horse racing and found the world fascinating on so many levels. I had wanted to make a film within that world, but my father always said, “It’s not a good story unless you have a winning horse.” So when Kinsale King and Carl O’Callaghan came along, it was just something special and a friend of mine said, “We should film that.” (“That” being the unprecedented victory at the beginning of the film with Kinsale King in Dubai)
We started following the story after he won in Dubai. But really, at the end of the day my dad has not stopped pursuing his dream all his life and at the age of 71 years old, his dream came true when a beloved racehorse of his won a Grade 1 race in Dubai. This was a 2 million dollar purse. I found that incredibly inspiring. So I wanted to share this story to ultimately inspire others to pursue their dream- whatever it may be. One thing my co-director and I always hoped people got from this movie was that it was NOT about the win, but it is about the chase. Just like life. We really feel this story is a metaphor for life.
How?
Audiences can see this film on Amazon, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube Movie Rentals, Roku, iTunes, and Vudu.
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