This week ESPN film series aired Charismatic by Steven Michaels.  Charismatic was the name of the horse who made a run for the triple crown in 1999.  While the story being told in this documentary is called Charismatic, it is just as much a story about the horse as it is the story of the jockey who rode it, Chris Antley.  Antley and Charismatic were both at similar cross roads in their lives.  Charismatic was thought of as an average horse who would never be a winner, but had begun to show potential just before the running of the Kentucky Derby.  Antley had been a previous winner but was in rehab from drug and alcohol abuse only a year before he rode Charismatic.  Chris had gone from being one of the best jockeys in the business to a sad story of substance abuse.  He knew that we wanted to keep riding when he was released from rehab, and so he returned to the sport and after his victories at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, Chris became the most popular figure in horse racing.  After losing the Belmont, and therefore the triple crown, Chris went to win a few more races but soon retired.  He walked away from horse racing, got married and tried to start a family, but after only a few months his drug problems resurfaced and on December 2, 2000 he died of a drug overdose at the age of 34. This is the saddest documentary the ESPN film series has aired so far.  Chris Antley’s story of redemption was truly inspiring but he was never able to stay clean.  Jockey’s have always been known for their substance abuse.  I honestly have no idea what it is about that job that leads so many to use drugs but it seems to be a regular occurrence throughout the sport.  Chris Antley was deeply affected by this, and had been to rehab but shortly after his return to horse racing his old habits resurfaced once again.  The man loved horse racing, and had been a jockey his entire life.  The amount of money he had earned throughout his career was an astounding 92 million but his personal demons that gave him his crippling drug addiction were never discussed.

I feel that the best part of this documentary had to be the interviews with Gary Stevens who was also a jockey and a very close friend of Chris Antley.  When Chris first left rehab, Stevens gave him a place to live and gave Chris a job riding the horses Steven’s normally rode while he was out of town.  Gary Stevens seemed to be more upset telling the stories of Chris than anyone else in the documentary including Chris’ parents and widow.  It’s hard to believe a man who had been at his rock bottom and climbed himself up to a point higher than he had ever been before would turn to drugs once again, but that’s exactly what Chris did.  The final scene of this documentary shows Charismatic, still alive and in Japan.  As happy as I was to see that the horse survived having it’s ankle sprained but at the same time it is incredibly depressing to think that the man who saved that horses life went on to destroy himself a year and a half later.