Riverbank Family Cinema Presents: Racing Stripes

Dir: Frederick Du Chau, USA 2005; 102 mins; Cert: PG.

Starring Frankie Muniz, Bruce Greenwood, Mandy Moore and M. Emmet Walsh

Racing Stripes is the story of a baby zebra who is accidentally abandoned by a travelling circus during a thunderstorm and rescued and raised by widowed horse farmer Nolan Walsh and his winsome daughter Channing in Kentucky.

The zebra, dubbed Stripes by the girl (and voiced by Freddie Muniz), grows up thinking he is a horse and determines to become a racehorse, longing to train with real horses on the nearby estate of dastardly millionaire breeder Clara Dalrymple (Malick).

But while he enjoys warmth and friendship from the animals on the farm like grumpy old Shetland pony Tucker (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) and wise old goat Franny, he is scorned by the horses who taunt him about his appearance and lack of breeding. All, that is, except the sexy filly Sandy who takes a shine to him.

Channing also longs to be a jockey, like her mother who died in a riding accident, but her over-protective father forbids her. When Stripes engineers it that she ride him to work at the track one day, she starts to realize his potential and sets about persuading Nolan to let her ride him in the Kentucky Open. 

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