Sport and Cinema.com

In a sport that had its prime a long time ago, horse racing’s success in Hollywood, after producing about 200 titles, has yielded few winners. Yet there are a handful that have bucked the odds of being ranked in the “also-ran” category and have captured an essence of the sport and continue to attract filmmakers. Usually there are two reasons behind that interest. One is that, like boxing, horse racing has traditionally been associated with crooked characters who are driven by the temptation of sudden success but more often than not teeter on ruin. The second is that the camera loves these most photogenic of animals.

Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock leads a group of four football films as the leading-All-American winners at the box office. The star of “The Blind Side” who portrays NFL lineman Michael Oher’s adoptive mother, teams with the director of “The Rookie” John Lee Hancock to deliver a popular picture.