So, as I’ve made vague allusion to in some of my past posts, I’m currently working on the first draft of the screenplay for Proud Flesh, an elegaic horror film (to give you some idea of what I mean by this, I recently rewatched Picnic at Hanging Rock and L’Avventura, neither of which could be termed a traditional horror film but have elements of the genre nonetheless) about a pair of young women - a veterinarian and a gardener - on the edges of western Kentucky’s horse industry, and the sad, scary truths they uncover while preparing the former’s family estate for auction. I’ve done quite a bit of research to these ends, including readings on horse breeding, horse racing, real estate sales, fungi, epidemiology, and the curious/terrifying scientific phenomena known as HeLa cells. And so far the writing of this script has been very rewarding - slower, perhaps, than I’d like, but I’m relatively close to keeping pace with my expected completion date of a first draft.

Today was a good day for me to do a bit of research on the subject of horse racing - I intently studied today’s broadcast of the Kentucky Derby, which gave me a keen insight into the ins and outs of Kentucky horse culture as it plays right now - which is, to say, in a perpetual state of nostalgia. Watching all the women in their lovely hats (which gave me a great idea for a scene I had been having some trouble with), all the mint juleps in custom Churchill Downs glasses, and all the pomp and ceremony - it’s very beautiful and very earnest in a way that I hope will help temper the somber tone the script has taken so far.

And it was a great race - with few exceptions, the horses which emerged in the first half of the race almost completely petered out in the second half, and the horses who were trailing around the first corner pulled out great positions. Street Sense, the favorite, did win, and the other favorite, Curlin, pulled third place, but my favorite horse of the bunch was Hard Spun, who started out strong and stayed strong the entire race, only giving way to Street Sense in the last few furlongs of the race. That is an endurance horse - tough, with incredible long-race stamina, and with a fighting spirit. Don’t be surprised if Hard Spun ends up winning this year’s Belmont, which I think will reward his athleticism.

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