A documentary about a remarkable Cefn Fforest racehorse syndicate has gone global after winning a prize at the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival in America.
Dark Horse made its world premiere at the States’ biggest independent film festival in Utah last month, and scooped the audience award for Best World Cinema Documentary.
The docudrama, directed by Louise Osmond, tells the story of Dream Alliance, a racehorse bought by regulars at the Top Club in Cefn Fforest, that went on to became Welsh Grand National champion and ran the Grand National.
It all started when a bar worker at the workingmen’s club encouraged drinkers to help her buy and train a racehorse.
Dream Alliance was born in 2001 after regulars parted with £10 a week and was trained on Janet Vokes’ allotment – where she had previously bred whippets and birds.
The chestnut foal was born to a £300 mare and, with the working-class syndicate, grew to break through class barriers and take on the racing elite.
The dream looked doomed when the horse severed a tendon at Aintree in 2008, suffering life threatening injuries.
But revolutionary stem cell treatment and hard work got Dream back to fitness and sensationally in 2009 it won the Welsh National at Chepstow.
A few months later it took to the biggest stage of all and ran the Grand National, tragically pulling up on fence 24.
Now retired in the West Country, Dream and the alliance have much to celebrate, including winning the Perth Cup, and of course a Hollywood film about how a working class community filled their village with pride.
Director Louise Osmond told the BBC the film “gives people who live thousands of miles away a taste of what life is like in the Valleys”.
She said: “This isn’t some miraculous rags-to-riches tale. All the syndicate are still doing the same jobs.
“They’re not exactly materially richer because of their involvement in the world of horseracing. But richer in every other way? I think so.”
Dark Horse: The Incredible True Story of Dream Alliance is out on UK release on April 17.