Yes I plead guilty. I did watch the Disney movie “Secretariat (2010)” over a hundred times and I find I am not able to switch on my laptop without watching it at least in parts again and again and again.

At first I thought it was my way of remembering my late friend Zulu who always spoke of the stallion with great awe. But logic said that however fond I was of my friend I would not normally not be seen dead watching movies with such equine flavours. The other horse film “Sea Biscuit” I had watched 5 or 6 times but that was it.

Considering that I was the chap who launched and produced “Kingfisher presents Horsepower” for the UB Group and became by virtue of that the editor of Asia’s first ever thoroughbred racing video magazine and I didn’t quite manage to see my own films more than twice, the watching of “Secretariat” so many times was an aberration alright.

So what was it about a stallion that created horse racing immortality in 1973 that fascinated me? I didn’t know, at first. Till I saw the three races for the umpteenth time – the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.

For 25 years before that no horse had won the fabled triple crown. The movie wove a fascinating story of a woman, a housewife who had gambled her everything to save her family farm and so on.

The first race was the Derby and Secretariat is shown to be running last in the field for almost forever. Only in the last quarter mile does the horse accelerate and go on to win the Derby.

The second race is the Preakness which also begins with Secretariat holding his place at the back of the pack. Again in the last part of the race the horse magically accelerates and manages a spectacular win.

However in the third race, the Belmont Stakes, the horse takes off from the word go. As the starting gates open Secretariat takes the lead and keeps it that way throughout the one and a half mile that the track runs. In the second half of the race the horse shows off his power and accelerates to give him a 31 length victory over Sham the closest contender. This is a record that has yet to be broken even 38 years after the event.

So what was it that drew me again and again to the film. The acting was pleasant enough. Nothing spectacular. The race sequences were slick but nothing extraordinary. It was a typical Disney production full of the feel good stuff that tears and popcorn always manage to generate.

Only after a lot of brooding and contemplating I thought of something which might explain the attraction.

Twice before in my life I had had to come from the back of the field and managed to pip the others to the post. I was now gearing up for a third chapter, a third chance if you will.

Perhaps I knew that this time I could not depend on last minute bursts of speeds or last minute miracles. I would have to, like the horse, take the lead from the start. And maintain the lead through to the winning post.

The win this time had to be emphatic. The victory had to be exemplary.

The way Secretariat finished off the Belmont Stakes left no room for doubt as to whether the Horse of the Year award the horse had been given was well deserved or not.

My performance too this time has to be nothing less exemplary, nothing less emphatic.