Pride of the Blue Grass

Jim Nolan is a tough, ambitious horse trainer who hopes to work for a large stable of prize winning horses. John "Pop" Wilson, a former trainer who has fallen on bad luck, works for Jim as a groom, as does Pop's young son Danny, who hopes to become a jockey. One day, a young woman, Linda Mason, arrives at the stables at Jackson Downs with her horse, Gypsy Prince, and asks for trainer John Wilson, explaining that her late father had recommended him. After Pop tells Linda that he is no longer a trainer, he arranges to board Gypsy Prince temporarily in one of Jim's stalls. Jim, who wants to handle only potential winners, thinks Gypsy Prince is a loser and tells Pop that the horse cannot stay. After a steed trained by Jim wins a race unexpectedly at 25-1, Pop persuades Jim that Gypsy Prince has brought them luck and Jim then agrees to allow the horse to stay for the remainder of the meet. To pay for her horse's keep, Linda takes a job as a waitress at the track restaurant. Even though Pop and Danny are helping Linda to train Gypsy Prince, Jim tries to persuade her that the horse has little chance of becoming a winner. Helen Hunter, the daughter of William C. Hunter, a wealthy businessman who owns a string of prize racehorses, has been pursuing Jim romantically and senses that Linda is a rival. After the Jackson Downs racing season ends, everyone heads for Lawton Park where the sparring between Linda and Helen continues as Helen reminds Linda that she is in a position to help Jim financially, but Linda is not. Linda replies that, as in horse racing, one should never underestimate one's competition. Gypsy Prince continues to show good form in training and Jim, though skeptical about the horse's chances, arranges for him to run at the meet with Danny as his jockey. On the day of the race, Pop notices a small scratch on Gypsy Prince's foreleg and bandages it. He fails to fasten the bandage properly, however, and during the race, just as Gypsy Prince is about to win, the bandage comes undone, causing the horse to fall and injure Danny. When a vet examines the horse, he discovers a clean break above a knee and says that he will have to destroy the animal. A distraught Linda insists that the broken leg be set and the vet agrees to do so, but warns her that he can promise no cure and that much will depend upon the horse's courage. Danny, recovering in a hospital, feels that the accident was his fault, but his father takes full responsibility. When Helen persuades her father to offer Jim a lucrative job as his new trainer, Jim asks to bring Pop, Danny, Linda and Gypsy Prince with him, but Hunter says he wants nothing to do with the crippled horse. When Jim suggests that Linda stable Gypsy Prince at his father's old farm, he offends her by describing the horse as a crippled refugee from a dog-meat factory. Linda, who is dedicated to the philosophy that all horses are important, declines to join him. After Danny returns from the hospital complaining that he lacks strength in his grip, Pop tells Jim that he has decided not to join him at Hunter's stables but will continue to look after horses belonging to Jim's former clients, as well as Gypsy Prince. Later, at the Brookfield Park meet, after Danny experiences difficulty with his hands in training runs, he is advised to strengthen them by squeezing sponges. Some time later, after Jim has trained a potential winner of the Gold Cup, he discovers that Hunter wants to sell the horse for a considerable profit before the race. Hunter, who is interested only in the money he can earn from trading star horses, voices his displeasure with Jim's training program, after which Jim finds himself using Linda's argument that all horses are important. Over the next four months, Gypsy Prince fully recovers and Danny regains the use of his hands, prompting Linda to enter them in the Lawton Park meet. Jim is there with the Hunters and is thrilled to discover that Gypsy Prince and Danny have fully recovered. Jim surprises Linda and Pop and apologizes to Linda for his insensitivity. After Gypsy Prince wins his race by a nose, Jim informs Hunter that he is quitting, causing Helen to tell her father that they have both lost a good man. Later, after deciding to retire Gypsy Prince to stud, Linda and Jim embrace.