[showhorsegallery]

It's been a long time since I've read the books or watched the movie. I can't remember if the issue is addressed or if it's just glossed over but is the Black Stallion an Arabian or a Jockey Club Thoroughbred?

I always thought he was an Arabian but if he is, how is able to race in Thoroughbred races and how are his offspring also allowed to race?

Isn't one of his colts raced in harness? I thought that was just for Standardbreds.

Does the Black just have an all breed, all access pass?

[Big_Grey_hunter]

He's an arabian. It's a totally fictional story, which is how his offspring and himself and able to race against TB's

[Fred]

He's an arabian. It's a totally fictional story, which is how his offspring and himself and able to race against TB's

And it is a literary conceit -'willing suspension of disbelief'

which is how magic happens.

[danceronice]

It was also written in the 1940s, so the idea of allowing the Black's offspring into the stud book was a LITTLE less implausible than it would be now.

In any case, it is a minor issue in the film (more that the Black doesn't have ANY papers/identity than whether or not he's a TB), which is why they have to use Jim Neville for publicity to get him into the special match race against Cyclone and Sun Raider instead of entering him in a normal race. This is easier to follow in the book, which is a lot less...woo-woo, goofy, mystic crap than the movie.

ETA: And later on we find out the Black is REALLY not pure Arabian, but that was after Walter Farley started going off the deep end...

[kdow]

It was also written in the 1940s, so the idea of allowing the Black's offspring into the stud book was a LITTLE less implausible than it would be now.

In any case, it is a minor issue in the film (more that the Black doesn't have ANY papers/identity than whether or not he's a TB), which is why they have to use Jim Neville for publicity to get him into the special match race against Cyclone and Sun Raider instead of entering him in a normal race. This is easier to follow in the book, which is a lot less...woo-woo, goofy, mystic crap than the movie.

ETA: And later on we find out the Black is REALLY not pure Arabian, but that was after Walter Farley started going off the deep end...

At which point in the seventeen billion books in the series would you say he started going off the deep end?

[omare]

i also seem to remember it was a special match race and basically not run under jockey club/gaming rules (sorta like the laurel park special pony races that georgia hale 'wrote" last year --no betting but a lot of fun ;-)
(edited)

[Murphy's Mom]

At which point in the seventeen billion books in the series would you say he started going off the deep end?

I think that would be The Black Stallion and the Girl.

[laskiblue]

ETA: And later on we find out the Black is REALLY not pure Arabian, but that was after Walter Farley started going off the deep end...

I don't recall that at all. Do you remember which of the books it was in?

[OverandOnward]

I think that would be The Black Stallion and the Girl.

I think I read that one ... actually it was The Black Stallion's Ghost that made me think Farley was definitely off the deep end. I had read every single other book, but decided I didn't need to keep reading the new ones.

Yeah, part of the drama of the movie, as I remember it, was if TPTB were going to let The Unknown into the race to PROVE beyond all argument that one of the two stars was the VERY FASTEST in the WHOLE WORLD. The Black was the exotic Mystery Horse - so mysterious he didn't even have a name!

Loved the entire match race thing in the movie. Complete suspension of all reality! The best.


(I forget - did Sun Raider beat Cyclone, or did Cyclone beat Sun Raider? For 2nd & 3rd, of course.)

[mbm]

i cant believe folks are even asking these kinds of questions?

the Black Stallion was very special and magical to all of us kids who lived and breathed horses. i think i read every one of his books, plus every other horse book out back then... (altho i didn't read the one with the girl)

i wish i had kept them all... my all time fave was a book about a blue roan

anyway the black was special.... no reason to take the fun out of it

[RHdobes563]

I thought it said in the first book that the Black "was too big to be pure Arabian." Maybe that was a quote from a later book. Might have to check it out.

I thought at one time, if a "trotting" horse could trot a certain distance in a certain time, a standard, it was considered "Standard-bred" and eligible to race.

Whatever. I really enjoyed most of the Walter Farley books. There were some GREAT moments in some of them.

And I thought "The Island Stallion" would have made a wonderful movie. :-)

[furlong47]

I think I read that one ... actually it was The Black Stallion's Ghost that made me think Farley was definitely off the deep end. I had read every single other book, but decided I didn't need to keep reading the new ones.

Um, what about The Island Stallion Races, complete with aliens disguised as birds or some such nonsense? I loved Flame but that book just ruined it for me.

[carp]

If I recall correctly, the Standardbred book was still open at the time Farley was writing.

[nashfad]

http://www.tbheritage.com/HistoricSi...tionSires.html - Similarto Foundation Sires

Breed histories of the Thoroughbred often focus on the three foundation sires -- the Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian, and Godolphin Arabian -- who were brought to ...


I know The Black Stallion was a work of fiction but don't forget the info above;

I have an original edition of The Black Stallion printed in 1954 ------------ the book that led me on my journey---hhehehehe.

[Mara]

I think I read that one ... actually it was The Black Stallion's Ghost that made me think Farley was definitely off the deep end. I had read every single other book, but decided I didn't need to keep reading the new ones.

Yeah, part of the drama of the movie, as I remember it, was if TPTB were going to let The Unknown into the race to PROVE beyond all argument that one of the two stars was the VERY FASTEST in the WHOLE WORLD. The Black was the exotic Mystery Horse - so mysterious he didn't even have a name!

Loved the entire match race thing in the movie. Complete suspension of all reality! The best.


(I forget - did Sun Raider beat Cyclone, or did Cyclone beat Sun Raider? For 2nd & 3rd, of course.)

Cyclone and Sun Raider dead-heated for second.

[chicken_derby]

I can't believe I'm about to admit knowing all this... BUT:

The Black's, or Shetan's, dam was Jinah Al-Tayr a desert Arabian. The lore was that a mysterious "dark night sky stallion" bred with her. But in /The Black Stallion's Mystery/ it is revealed that his sire was Ziyadah, a chestnut imported Thoroughbred (or at least an Anglo-Arabian). Ziyadah then dies in a horrific accident.

So The Black is at the most 3/4 Arabian.

And I recited all of that from memory

[nashfad]

Whoa.......1954 is when I was born!! I meant in the 40's!! Brain death tonight due to horse show tomorrow!

[Frosty M]

3 cheers, Chicken_Derby. I am in awe!

[Hippolyta]

I think that would be The Black Stallion and the Girl.

Even at the age of 11, I remember thinking that one was little out there.

Or the one when the aliens come to help the Island Stallion race.

Anyway, I LOVED those books.

[chicken_derby]

I loved The Black Stallion as a kid. I read every one multiple times, even the weird ones. But you guys are missing the weirdest one! In /The Black Stallion Legend/ Alec and The Black meet up with a Native American tribe where they're all convinced the horse will fulfill a prophecy.

Anyway, long story short, he does fulfill the prophecy and then Alec and The Black pretty much gallop together into the end of the world with eathquakes and crazy storms and everything. I don't know if I really got it as a kid, but rereading it I pretty took away from the book that everybody died, the end!