Perhaps because of the many influential film industry stars on and off the screen that have strong ties to the sport, for example Bing Crosby was one of the actual founders of Del Mar racetrack, horse racing has spawned a few great and quite a few not so great movies.

The Internet site The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) lists 205 movies with racing themes. Neither I, nor probably anyone else has seen them all. Quite a few of the movies have only a passing reference to horse racing, (I.E.) John Wayne's "The Quiet Man" or the James Bond thriller "A View to a Kill," but I will embark on trying to list the five best horse racing movies in this column.

Without further ado, here's my top five all with a final popcorn rating.

* No. 5 (dead heat): "A Day at the Races" (1937) Yes, this movie is very old, but I'm not sure the Marx Brothers ever get old themselves. Typical Marx Brothers mayhem with Groucho as a disreputable veterinarian, Chico as a racetrack tout and Harpo as a befuddling jockey. If you can sit through the long and rather boring musical numbers, this is immensely funny. 3.5 popcorns.

* No. 5 (dead heat): "Casey's Shadow" (1978) Certainly, the Citizen Kane of movies about training quarter horses. "Casey's Shadow" portrays what life is like in the rough-and-tumble Cajun quarter horse bush tracks of Louisiana. Walter Matthau is absolutely great as Lloyd Bordreau. This movie is actually based on the racing Romero family of Louisiana. 3.5 popcorns.

* No. 4: "Bite The Bullet" (1975) What I like to refer to as the ultimate rout race, probably about 500 miles. Thought of more as a western than a movie about horse racing, I like to view this as a movie about people who really care for their horses so it counts as a horse racing movie. Gene Hackman was never better than in this movie as the loner Sam Clayton. Clayton is best described in the film as a defender of lost causes and defenseless women and animals. 4 popcorns.

* No. 3: "Phar Lap: (1983) A movie as much about social stratification as it is about a great racehorse. This Australian movie is the true story of the great horse Phar Lap. Tom Burlinson is particularly good as Phar Lap's young assistant trainer Tommy Woodcock. At times inspirational and other times heartbreaking, this is the movie that Seabiscuit (2003) would have liked to have been. 4.5 popcorns.

* No. 2: "Let It Ride" (1989) A comedic look at the gambling aspect of racing. Probably the most thoroughly quoted movie about the sport. The story of one day in the gambling life of Jay Trotter and his rather crazy cohorts at the racetrack. Richard Dreyfuss as Trotter is outstanding, with great comedic performances by David Johanssen and Jennifer Tilly. Memorable for the line, "I'm having a VERY good day," and variations said throughout by Trotter. 5 popcorns.

* No. 1: "Boots Malone" (1952) The least known movie of the bunch and an absolute Triple Crown winner. This is a great story of life on the backstretch with the great William Holden playing the title character Malone, a one-time major player as a jockey agent. Malone stumbles across a young rider who is a natural in the saddle. Although the relationship between the agent and rider a father-son storyline is a little melodramatic for my taste, this movie really delivers in it's portrayal of the actual hard work done around the racetrack. Highly recommended. 5 popcorns.

Randy Monk covers horse racing for the Grand Island Independent.