Sam Lilly (Bill Owen) is a disgraced ex-jockey who was warned off by the Jockey Club five years previously for pulling a horse in a race for personal gain. He bumps into a 13 year old wannabe jockey called Georgie Crain (Fella Edmonds) at Lingfield races and senses that the boy has a natuarl gift with horses. Sam persuades Georgie's mum Barbara (Kay Walsh) that the boy could make it as a top jockey and then helps him land a job with a small Newmarket trainer called Geoff Tyler (Edward Underdown). Georgie is soon given a chance to prove himself at the races and his career starts to take off. Meanwhile Barabara steals money to gamble on one of her son's mounts so that she can help Sam pay off his gambling debts. When the gamble goes awry Sam enlists Georgie to throw a race to repay the stolen money - Georgie gets away with it with just a broken arm for his troubles and when recovered continues his winning ways. Sam is eventually exonerated by the Jockey Club and resumes his riding career and the pair of them end up lining up in the St Ledger at Doncaster. However Sam has been got at again and has a choice to make between winning the race on the favourite or saving Sam from being warned off a final time.

This movie features a stellar cast; Bill Owen is brilliant as the warned off jockey Sam Lilly and he cuts a rather dashing figure compared to his role as Compo in Last of the Summer Wine - hard to believe he actually died in 1999. Young Fella Edmonds is very authentic in his role as the apprentice jockey and for some reason his acting career only spanned four years. His mum is nicely portrayed by Kay Walsh and I also like Edward Underdown and the gorgeous Honor Blackman in their roles as the racehorse trainer Tyler and his wife. Robert Morley is well cast as the belligerent racehorse owner Logan and it always nice to see Sid James in these films, this time as mobile cafe owner Harry. There are also several scenes featuring 26 time champion flat jockey Sir Gordon Richards which adds extra authenticity to the movie.

The film offers us the luxury of seeing five racecourses in glorious technicolor all introduced with their own caption; Lingfield, Sandown, Newmarket, Epsom and Doncaster, and each one appears to be packed to the rafters suggesting the 1950s were a heyday for British racing. We get a great insight into life behind the scenes with footage shot in the weighing room, stewards room, photo finish room, bookmaker ring and parade ring and proper horse racing terminology is used throughout the film which makes the whole thing very realistic.  The same can't be said for the horse racing action though unfortunately - there are the usual issues of syncing close up footage with real race footage, but it's the close up footage that I have a real issue with and I now know where Harry Enfield got his inspiration from for the Jockey sketches. It is really plain to see that the close up shots are filmed on model horses and in fact even several non-racing scenes in the film are shot with a green screen showing live action behind which is a big negative in my opinion. Back on a positive note the film expertly touches on the subjects of gambling addiction (Sam and Barbara both risking money to pay off debts) and corruption (young jockeys being offered financial rewards to manipulate races), two topics just as relevant today as in the mid 1950s. 

All in all a really good movie with an excellent storyline providing a useful insight into the life of an apprentice jockey as he starts out on his road to glory and the associated pitfalls but the poor close up racing action stops this from being a maximum ten for me. (Rating 8/10)