Movies like The Big Race (1934)
The best movies like The Big Race (1934) are Secretariat (2010), Ride Like a Girl (2019) and Seabiscuit (2003). If The Big Race hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBlack Beauty (2020)8.0/10 from 364 votes
- NewestOmaha (2025)Released 2025
Secretariat (2010)
Housewife and mother Penny Chenery agrees to take over her ailing father's Virginia-based Meadow Stables, despite her lack of horse-racing knowledge. Against all odds, Chenery - with the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin - manages to navigate the male-dominated business, ultimately fostering the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRide Like a Girl (2019)
The story of Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeabiscuit (2003)
True story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Beauty (2020)
Born free in the American West, Black Beauty is a horse rounded up and brought to Birtwick Stables, where she meets spirited teenager Jo Green. The two forge a bond that carries Beauty through the different chapters, challenges and adventures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDreamer: Inspired By a True Story (2005)
Ben Crane believes that a severely injured racehorse deserves another chance. He and his daughter Cale adopt the mare and save it from being sacrificed by the owner.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrue Grit (1969)
The murder of her father sends a teenage tomboy on a mission of 'justice', which involves avenging her father's death. She recruits a tough old marshal, 'Rooster' Cogburn because he has 'true grit', and a reputation of getting the job done.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Beauty (1994)
The fates of horses, and the people who own and command them, are revealed as Black Beauty narrates the circle of his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeggars of Life (1928)
After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl tries to escape the country with a young vagabond. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, and steal a car in their attempt to escape the police, and reach Canada.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWild Hearts Can't Be Broken (1991)
A runaway orphan, young Sonora, persists in a menial job mucking stables in Doc Carver's travelling stunt show. Her great wish is to become a death-defying "diving girl," but Doc refuses her pleas. Undaunted, Sonora's gutsy resolve finally convinces him to give her a break. On the brink of stardom, however, a cruel twist of fate threatens to destroy her dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Set-Up (1949)
Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlicka: Country Pride (2012)
Flicka and Toby help out a struggling stable owner and her teenage daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlicka (2006)
Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Sunday Horse (2016)
After a near-fatal accident, on a horse the experts thought was nothing special, a determined rider from the wrong side of the tracks defies all the odds to pursue her dreams of winning a national jumping championship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man from Colorado (1948)
Two friends return home after their discharge from the army after the Civil War. However, one of them has had deep-rooted psychological damage due to his experiences during the war, and as his behavior becomes more erratic--and violent--his friend desperately tries to find a way to help him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWonderstruck (2017)
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnion Pacific (1939)
One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOmaha (2025)
A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Star Is Born (1954)
A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Stolen Night (1929)
When his ne'er-do-well brother embezzles the commissary funds of their cavalry unit stationed in the Sudan, a British soldier takes the blame for him. He winds up deserting his post and joining up with a traveling vaudeville troupe. He falls in love with a pretty young woman in one of the show's acts but finds that a local Arab sheik has his own plans for the young girl.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Fortune Hunter (1921)
Historical drama which features Gösta Ekman as the dashing rogue who steals the heart of the ethereal Mary Johnson.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Scarlet Angel (1922)
The criminal couple Louise Kent and Charles Zukor stages a coup in the luxury restaurant Oriental. In the midst of a dance number goes suddenly all the lights out. In the confusion that arises one of the elegant guests is deprived of her jewelry.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Theater of Life: Youth Version (1936)
During the 20s in Japan, a romantic student at Tokyo's Waseda University is filled with noble sentiments absorbed from literature but his naive illusions will be shattered by the ruthless realities of money and power.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Poet from the Sea (1927)
Hou Yao wrote, directed and starred in A Poet from the Sea (1927). It was shot in Stanley, Hong Kong. The surviving copy was only 23-minute long, but Hou Yao's romantic side was obvious through the scenic location and beautiful set-up. The love story between Poet (Hou Yao) and his lover (Lee Dan-dan) was pure and lyrical, a gem from China Sun Motion Picture Company (Shanghai) in the 1920s.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sonka the Golden Hand (1914)
A popular silent action-adventure film in 8 episodes released from 1914-1916. Directed by Aleksandr Chargonin et al., the series is only partially preserved.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The New Moon (1919)
When anarchist bombs disrupt the engagement ball of Princess Marie Pavlovna, her fiancé, Prince Michail Koloyar, helps her to escape in a carriage. Then Theo Kameneff, secretly in the pay of a foreign government, becomes dictator and, desiring the princess, issues an edict that all women between the ages of seventeen and thirty-two must register and become state property.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dark Horse (2015)
The larger than life true story of how a barmaid in a poor Welsh mining village convinces some of her fellow residents to pool their resources to compete in the "sport of kings" with a racehorse they would breed and raise.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Lady Gambles (1949)
When Joan Boothe accompanies husband-reporter David to Las Vegas, she begins gambling to pass the time while he is doing a story. Encouraged by the casino manager, she gets hooked on gambling, to the point where she "borrows" David's expense money to pursue her addiction. This finally breaks up their marriage, but David continues trying to help her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Big Race and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Big Race?
The closest matches to The Big Race are Secretariat (2010), Ride Like a Girl (2019) and Seabiscuit (2003). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Big Race?
Start with Secretariat (2010), the closest match to The Big Race.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Big Race?
Black Beauty (2020), rated 8.0/10 by 364 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Big Race?
Omaha (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Big Race?
Yes: Secretariat (2010), Ride Like a Girl (2019) and Seabiscuit (2003).
How are movies similar to The Big Race chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Big Race, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.