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Reviews
The Great Dan Patch (1949)
Not much of a biopic
The film is really only a little about Dan Patch. It's more about the relationship of the great horse's owners, and that is largely fictionalized.
David Palmer (Dennis O'Keefe) comes home to find that his father, Dan Palmer (Henry Hull), has purchased another trotting horse, named Zelica. She has great potential, but is injured in her first race and retired to being a brood mare. Her first foal is named Dan Patch, after her owner and after his sire, Joe Patchen. Ben Lathrop (John Hoyt) and his tomboy daughter Cissy (Gail Russell), who has a huge crush on David, are hired as trainers. David's wife, Ruth (Ruth Warwick), is a social climber who has no interest in his horses, only in improving her status among the elite of Indianapolis. After Dan Palmer dies, David takes over running the farm as a hobby and turns it into a training stable with Ben and Cissy in charge. A financial setback causes Dave to sell Dan Patch to M. W. Savage (in August 1902, according to the telegram in the film). The greater history of Dan Patch's popularity is covered in the final six minutes of the film. There are some good trotting scenes in the process, but the melodramatic story contradicts the title.
In reality, Dan Patch was owned by Dan Messner and trained by Johnny Wattles. Manley Sturgis bought Dan Patch in 1900, and sold him to Marion Willis Savage of Minnesota in 1902. Savage was the man who toured Dan Patch throughout the country in a private rail car, capitalizing on the horse's fame by branding everyday products with the Dan Patch name.