Local jockeys go Hollywood

AUBURN — Most of his peers thought Gallyn Mitchell was crazy for agreeing to be pushed off a horse at full speed.

Here was a man, after all, in the prime of his racing career, with more wins than any jockey in Emerald Downs history, willing to risk injury and potential earnings for a small role in an offseason movie shoot.

But none of that seemed to matter.

"Gallyn, he just jumped up and volunteered for it," said jockey Ricky Frazier. "He got paid for it, but I told them they couldn't pay me enough to take a fall off a horse."

Mitchell took the spill three times, and said he gladly would have done it again had the director wanted.

The stunt work was all part of the price for having a role in the movie, "Seabiscuit," which opens tomorrow and includes appearances by several Washington jockeys, past and present.

The much-anticipated film, based on Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling book "Seabiscuit: An American Legend," presents the story of a Depression-era racehorse that rises from obscurity to become one of the most popular sporting figures of its time.

Nearly a dozen jockeys with local ties, including Mitchell and Frazier, worked on the movie, which stars Tobey Maguire as jockey Red Pollard, Chris Cooper as trainer Tom Smith and Jeff Bridges as owner Charles Howard.

The other riders: Corey Black, Robert Colton, Luis Jauregui, Kevin Mangold, David Nuesch, Joe Steiner, Gary Stevens and Danny Sorenson.

Stevens, a former Longacres riding champ, has the local contingent's most visible role. He plays jockey George Woolf, who replaces Seabiscuit's regular rider, Pollard, when the latter is injured.

Frazier, who rode at Emerald Downs last year, also figures prominently in the film as Maguire's stunt double. The 38-year-old appears in most race scenes and whenever Seabiscuit is training at full speed.

Frazier, who will begin riding again next month at Retama Park near San Antonio, so impressed stunt coordinator Dan Bradley that Bradley asked Frazier to work on the sequel to "Spider-man." The movie, which also stars Maguire, is slated for release next year.

"It was a ton of fun," said Frazier of his "Seabiscuit" experience. "I didn't know at all what to expect at the beginning. I actually thought about turning it down. That would have been a huge mistake."

Nuesch, who had never worked on a movie before heading to California for the shoot last winter, rode horses in several scenes. One of his most prominent roles comes during the scene depicting the 1937 Santa Anita Handicap in which he rides early pacesetter Special Agent.

"When I first started riding, I rode my first race at Belmont Park. It was sort of like jumping right into the big leagues," said Nuesch, 33, the leading rider at Emerald Downs in 1998. "This was kind of the same — to jump right in with the best in the (movie) business."

Mitchell, one of the few jockeys with prior screen experience (most recently as a stunt rider in "Planet of the Apes"), appears in several scenes. In what he said is the most memorable scene, filmed in Hemet, Calif., he was pushed off a horse while fighting with a fellow jockey.

In the film, the race is the first of Pollard's career.

"The rider that I portray was up front, and we were pushing and pulling and whipping each other," said Mitchell, 40. "Back then, I guess they would grab saddle towels and grab each other. So we were hitting each other and coming into the far turn, the guy pushes me off."

On the first two takes, Mitchell said the fall looked too rehearsed.

So he told his partner to push him without warning.

"So he just pushed me and before I knew it — boom!" Mitchell said. "They went berserk in the back of the truck. ... It was perfect, they said."

All three men said they hope the movie will give the sport a boost in popularity.

"We were talking about this almost daily while the movie was being made," Nuesch said. "Optimistically, everyone's hoping it's going to generate a lot of interest."

Added Frazier: "I think it's going to bring some younger people to the races, which is what we need. ... There's no way it can hurt."

Matt Peterson: 206-515-5536 or mpeterson@seattletimes.com