Posts Tagged ‘lost in the fog’

John Corey wrote the following piece about how he came to meet the late Harry Aleo and produce a documentary film about Lost in the Fog, Aleo’s champion sprinter of 2005 who had a glorious racing career before he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in August 2006. He died the following month

The documentary, appropriately called "Lost in the Fog," debuted in Las Vegas earlier this year to rave reviews and is playing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., this weekend as part of the Saratoga Film Forum.

Corey is a former television reporter in San Francisco, where Aleo lived and Lost in the Fog was based in the barn of trainer Greg Gilchrist. — Ray Paulick

By John Corey

The Horse of a Lifetime. The Story of a Lifetime.

At first glance, Harry Aleo, and I didn’t seem to have much in common. Sure, we grew up in the same neighborhood in San Francisco but that’s where the similarities ended. Harry was fifty years older than me, had weathered the great depression and World War II, and his grouchy politics were foreign to me. Despite the differences, though, I knew from the first moment I walked into his dusty real estate office that we were going to be friends and that my life wasn’t ever going to be the same again.

Making a documentary is not unlike buying a racehorse. It’s very expensive, wildly speculative, and you have little control over how it’s all going to turn out. It’s risky but every now and then, if you’re lucky, you catch lightning in a bottle. For Harry and his longtime trainer, Greg Gilchrist, the bolt from the blue was a brilliant colt named Lost in the Fog. For me, it was a couple of salt of the earth guys who gave me a story for the ages but, more importantly, taught me some life lessons that will inform the rest of my days.

Harry and Greg were and are the real deal. Sure enough of themselves to be candid and brave enough to be sentimental, these guys are a filmmaker’s dream. You couldn’t write better characters if you tried. Aside from being ideal subjects for a film, however, they were even better ambassadors for horse racing.

In an era of racing beset by cynicism, Harry and Greg were paragons of honesty and integrity. In the case of Lost in the Fog, they did everything right. They avoided all the pitfalls and temptations of owning a brilliant horse yet they were tragically repaid for their generosity with his improbable demise. But instead of cursing the gods or wallowing in self-pity, they dusted themselves off and got back to the track ever grateful for their time with their legacy horse.

Before the film premiered in Las Vegas in June, I had the chance to show it for family and friends in San Francisco. After the screening, a friend who has two young boys came up to me and said, "I want my sons to grow up to be like just Harry and Greg. They just don’t make ‘em like that anymore." Truer words were never spoken.

Sign up for our Email Flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick.