The Long Shot (TV 2004)

A woman moves with her husband and seven-year-old daughter from Colorado to California and then her husband abandons them. While trying to rebuild her life, she finds solace while working at a horse farm and decides to enter her beloved horse in a high-stakes riding competition.

Director:

Georg Stanford Brown

Writer:

David Alexander

Stars:

Julie Benz, Marsha Mason, Paul Le Mat

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Julie Benz	...	Annie Garrett
Marsha Mason	...	Mary Lou O'Brian
Paul Le Mat	...	Guido Levits
Gage Golightly	...	Taylor Garrett
David Alexander	...	Monte Shelton
Christopher Cousins	...	John Oaks
John Livingston	...	Ross Garrett
Robert Pine	...	Douglas McCloud
Laura Johnson	...	Bonnie McCloud
Juliette Goglia	...	Colleen O'Brian
Cliff Bemis	...	Robert Tillman
Patrick Day	...	Motel Manager
Andrea Piedimonte	...	Police Officer
Jill Jaress	...	Lisa's Mother
Joshua Grenrock	...	Announcer

Storyline

Annie Garriet is a young woman who moves with her irresponsible husband Ross and their seven-year-old daughter Taylor from Colorado to a ranch in northern California where Ross abandons them after he fails to land a job. With no money and no friends, and Taylor and Annie's prized racehorse, Tolo, to look after, Annie lands a job at a ranch hand and stable person at a stud farm owned by the stern Mary Lou O'Brien who is hiding some person demons of her own. Despite Annie's own setbacks in life, she decides to find an outing by entering her horse in a high-stakes riding competition. But when her horse goes blind from a race illness, Annie must struggle with her hardships to put the impossible to the test.

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Plot Keywords:

horse | colorado | ranch | divorce | flashback | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Hallmark Entertainment

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 April 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dear Mr. God

Filming Locations:

Ventura Farms - 235 W. Potrero Road, Thousand Oaks, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alpine Medien Productions, Hallmark Entertainment, Larry Levinson Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In a scene at the final horse show, the judge's table has a banner on it for an actual organization, the Liberty Horse Exerciser with their phone number of [phone].

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Goofs

in the scene where Annie is first riding Red, when Mary Lou walks up and Guido says "Look at that half-pass", the horse is in fact doing shoulder-in.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Annie Garrett: [Tolo whinnies] Alright, I hear ya. I'm comin'. Hey, hey boy, hey. Got a cookie for ya. Yeah. I know you hate travelin' but, we gotta get goin'. Alright? Let's go.
[Tolo stands there]
Annie Garrett: Alright, if you wanna stay here, fine!
[Tolo walks out and follows Annie]

User Reviews

this is based on me

The Movie turned out pretty good. It was really fun to make. Hallmark brought me out as a consultant, being that my Dad wrote the screen play based on me. There is a lot of truth in it and a lot that was started on truth and then hollywoodized. The actors and actresses where great. A lot nicer then I would have guessed. Julie Benz is such a fun and caring person. She had to overcome her fear of horses before filming and she did just that. The horse used as Tolo in the movie really liked her and they started to form a bond during filming. Marsha Mason was wonderful too. When we filmed parts of the movie about tolo going blind, it was tough on me. It brought back a lot of sad memories. I often found myself crying. Marsha was always there with a tissue for me and comforted me. Thank you Marsha. Thank you Julie for becoming a good friend to know. I really did have a horse that went blind and I competed on after overcoming some medical problems of my own. Sad to say my horse Tolo has since passed on, so this is very special to me to have a movie made about him. I hope everyone enjoys it.

Amy