“TRACK” Copyright WGA - © 2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C

A saga for television set against the glamorous world of international thoroughbred horse racing

Created by K.C. Schulberg / © Stellar Group

Tentative French Series Casting

 The Strathmore family:

Ambrose de Strathmore Jean Rochefort

Xavier de Strathmore Thierry Lhermite

Etienne de Strathmore Gaspard Ulliel

 The Gioria Barko team:

Gioria Barko Josiane Bolasko (Already contacted/interest expressed) Emmanuel “Manny” Running Bear George Aguilar (Already contacted/interest expressed) Horace Crooked Tail Lorenzo Roman Nose (Already contacted/interest expressed)

 The Sheikh Khalifa bin Sultan Al Sowel team :

Belle Halliday Jeane Manson (Already contacted/interest expressed) Arthus Pivoine Dominique Pinon (Already contacted/interest expressed) Sheikh Al Sowel Omar Sharif

 The Journalist:

Sabrina Rochefoucauld Claire Keim

A saga for television set against the glamorous world of international thoroughbred horse racing

Three powerful dynasties: Two run by strong-willed, independent women and the third by the feared patriarch of one of France’s oldest family fortunes – all vie for influence and domination in the competitive and dangerous world of professional horse racing in France. Into this mix, we add a young woman journalist on a mission - An expert on the racing industry, but more than that…A woman who will not tire until she reveals certain painful truths about not only racing’s past….but her own….

1) The family of Ambrose de Strathmore – Legendary French industrialists of British ancestry. The family business conglomerate includes a supermarket chain, a line of luxury goods, controlling shares in private banking institutions and the only significant remaining private investment in Suez Environment, dating from the family’s charter investment in La Compagnie Financière de Suez in 1856.

Their love of horses dates from the early 19th century when the family was instrumental in bringing modern racing from the British Isles to France. Ambrose is the great-grandson of Wilfred de Strathmore, the first president of the Societe d'Encouragement pour l'Amelioration des Races de Chevaux en France, which evolved to become today’s famed Jockey Club. The de Strathmore’s have one of the leading stables in Chantilly and their stud farm In Normandy boasts horses whose bloodlines trace back 20 generations to the original Darley Arabian (1704) and Godolphin Arabian (1729).

The de Strathmore’s are fiercely competitive, have connections throughout the upper echelons of society and government and customarily pay top dollar to employ the finest trainers and jockeys in the world.

Ambrose de Strathmore (80 years old) - white haired, aristocratic (Jean Rochefort), known for his arched sense of humor, his iron discipline, his demand for total obedience and his penchant for cognac, dice and flirting with young girls.

Xavier de Strathmore (50’s) – son of Ambrose and scion of the de Strathmore family dynasty. (Thierry Lhermite) A modern business man, whose skills in the board room helped turn a one-man family dynasty into a modern multi-national powerhouse, the rival of any in the world.

Etienne de Strathmore (20) – grandson of Ambrose, son of Xavier, wild, unwilling to respect family traditions, a flamboyant playboy, sometime DJ and inveterate club-hound (Gaspard Ulliel). With his movie-star good looks and nonchalant charm, this heir to the rich and famous de Strathmore family is indisputably the most eligible bachelor on the Chantilly scene.

There is a deep and terrible secret buried in the de Strathmore family history - one that will gradually come to light during the course of the saga, with horrific consequences for this all-powerful dynasty.

2) Gioria Barko (50’s) – Gioria’s father, Gyozaly Barkozian, was an Armenian Jew of modest origins who arrived in France just after the Second World War with nothing more than a sewing machine and a tradition of fine Armenian tailoring. He died in 1959, before he could transfer his passion for sewing to his nine-year-old

“TRACK” Copyright WGA - ©2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C. Schulberg / Stellar Group S.a.r.l. Contact: [email protected] - mobile: + 33 6 08 49 25 57 daughter, the “wild child”, Gioria (Josiane Bolasko). As a rebellious girl of the 60’s, Gioria only wanted to smoke pot, make group love and take hallucinogenic drugs. But, she found herself increasingly creating costumes for all her friends’ rock bands while developing her own distinctive personal clothing style. At the age of 22, while the jean craze was in full swing, she hit on an idea. She began buying bolts of blue jean fabric that had been “rejected” by the three leading jean manufacturers because of blemishes in the weave. These bolts could be bought for pennies on the dollar as the wholesalers did not want to transport them back to Taiwan, where they were manufactured. Gioria devised a way to “distress” the fabric and thus single-handedly invented the “stone- washed” jean industry in the mid-70’s, marketing her trendy jeans worldwide under the fast-growing Barko brand. Now a smart and innovative business woman, her signature trademark is bright red-orange hair that she wears in bangs and large red-framed glasses that keep her looking eternally young. In 2008, just before the worldwide economic meltdown, she sold the Barko Jean brand for 1.2 billion Euros to an American multi- national. Now she does whatever she pleases. She bought the famous Khashoggi yacht. She is an international celebrity, whose fire-red bangs and glasses are known around the world and whose reputation for unorthodox dress and unpredictable behavior are well earned. At the same time, she has always been socially concerned. Every Friday night for the past ten years, she’s spent the evening doling out supper at one of the soup kitchens founded by her friend, the actor, comedian and activist, Coluche. And she once created a scandal by buying a block of high-priced seats in the stands for one of Chantilly’s leading races and filling them with her homeless friends from the soup kitchen. And further scandal by inviting these friends to join her after the race under the luxury sponsor’s tent.

Waiting to conclude her deal with the Americans, she spent three weeks on a horse ranch in Utah where she met members of the Apache Indian tribe, who took her horseback riding through the Rocky Mountains. Now smitten with horses, she returned to France and, on a dare, paid 22 million Euros for one of the leading stables in Chantilly.

As soon as the stable purchase was sealed, she brought over two of her Apache friends to train the horses and manage her stable. These “horse-whispering” Indians turn Chantilly on its ear refusing to submit to the centuries old (largely unspoken) traditions by which everyone abides. The employees at the stable, who are now under the orders of the unorthodox owner and her two Indians, bridle at the unconventional training methods. Still, they must respect these methods as the horses are healthier, more alert and active and perform better than at any time in the venerable stable’s 50 year history. Much to the envy of the jaundiced Chantilly racing community and the utter delight of Gioria, the Barko horses, whose training blankets are bright pink and red, are performing better than ever in the racing time trials. Her prize horse, Salvador Darling (who sometimes races with a large curled mustache painted on his grey face), is now favored to win the upcoming pivotal race, LE PRIX DE JACQUARD, with the 2nd largest purse in France – just over 1m Euros. When Gioria takes her seat in the festooned Barko box trackside to watch her horses run, the spectacle of her, in colorful attire escorted by two American Indians in full native regalia, always creates a sensation.

Emmanuel (“Manny”) Running Bear (50’s) – Gioria’s chief trainer, Manny (George Aguilar) lived all his life on the reservation in Utah until meeting Gioria. Largely through sign language at first, she told him of life in Europe. And he regaled her with stories of his forefathers who, as famous and powerful chiefs, had at one time been responsible for vast expanses of land across the American planes. Though his family name is legend among the Apaches, Manny is now forced to live in a simple trailer in one of the reservation communities. His only consolation has been his horses. He lives, eats and sleeps horses and has an almost other-worldly connection with his equine friends.

“TRACK” Copyright WGA - ©2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C. Schulberg / Stellar Group S.a.r.l. Contact: [email protected] - mobile: + 33 6 08 49 25 57 Horace Crooked Tail (30’s) – Horace or “horse” as the French invariably pronounce it, is Manny’s nephew and also a superb horseman and trick rider (Lorenzo Roman Nose). He spent his teens as a champion rodeo rider and his 20’s doing Disney horse shows all over the US. An ancestor on his mother’s side was a pretty young Apache woman and trick rider who accompanied Buffalo Bill on his triumphant tour to Paris in 1889. When she returned to the US in 1890, she was pregnant. And so, French blood courses through Horace’s veins.

3) The family of Sheikh Khalifa bin Sultan Al Sowel (70’s) – Sheikh Al Sowel (Omar Sharif), the colossally wealthy ruler of one of the Emirates leading families remembers his earliest days, when his father selected him, at age 12, to rule the family over the protests of nearly 50 half-brothers and sisters. Still his father’s word was law and all acquiesced. What made the young Khalifa so noteworthy? First, he was born to the father’s favorite wife - A young woman of Saudi birth who, though not the most beautiful of his wives, was so spirited and such a skilled horsewoman that she ran circles around the other concubines and most of the men in the Sheikh’s extended family and entourage. When she died, giving birth to Khalifa, the Sheikh retired from public life and refused to gaze upon his son for five years. But, when he did, there was an immediate connection. The boy had the same fire in his eyes – the same lively intelligence. The aging Sheikh took young Khalifa falcon hunting and riding in the desert. The boy proved himself an apt and tireless student. He became renowned, by the age of 10, as one of the best horsemen in all the Emirates. After Khalifa became Sheikh, taking his father’s place, he grew to become one of the most progressive of all the family leaders in the Gulf region. He pioneered the diversity of the family’s interests from oil into finance, real estate, import and export. He travelled widely, learned to speak 7 languages and founded several notable charities to encourage higher learning. It was on one of his international trips, while he was in his 40’s, that he met his future wife, the American beauty, Belle Halliday, who would become the mother of two of his daughters and go on to run all the family’s horse breeding and racing interests in France, the US and the Gulf.

Belle Halliday (50’s) – Belle (Jeane Manson) was born on a small horse ranch in Oklahoma and lived there with her rugged handsome rancher father, Brace Halliday. Her mother had run off, leaving Brace to raise Belle by himself. He wasted no time putting her on a horse and for her fourth birthday, bought her a fine young paint named Osceola from Enoch at the Oklahoma Seminole Reservation in Wewoka. Belle and Osceola were inseparable. She rode him everywhere. She’d use the least excuse to take him out, offering to get the mail in town, go get supplies, to race the livestock train or round up the horses from the lower pasture – anything to let Osceola “stretch his legs” and race the wind. Brace found all that amusing as long as she also did the chores around the ranch and recited her prayers every night before bed. By 12, Belle and Osceola were winning horse shows all over the state and she was being recognized for her winning smile, athletic abilities and natural good looks. One day, after she won yet another First Place Blue Ribbon at the horse show in Yuma, Arizona, she was approached by a talent scout from Nevada who told her she had a future in modeling and offered to pay all her expenses for a professional photo shoot in Reno. This provoked the fiercest argument she’d ever had with her father. He was categorically against any girl of his running off and preening in front of the cameras in a city as wild as Reno. Several years went by and Belle was about to turn into a rebellious, headstrong girl of 16. She’d been exchanging letters with the talent scout that she hid from her father and she and the scout had concocted a plan. For her 16th birthday, instead of going to the livestock show in Santa Fe where she was to scout for some new breeding mares for the ranch, instead, she’d hop a train and head straight to Las Vegas, the show capital of the west…two times bigger than Reno. The scout, armed with the dime store photos Belle had been sending him every six months, was able to set up a shoot with a big-time photographer, scouting talent for a film studio in Los Angeles. Who knows, he told her, next stop might be a future in the movies…Hollywood! …Pretty heady stuff for a 16-year-old girl from a small horse ranch in Oklahoma.

“TRACK” Copyright WGA - ©2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C. Schulberg / Stellar Group S.a.r.l. Contact: [email protected] - mobile: + 33 6 08 49 25 57 After a tearful midnight goodbye to Osceola, Belle fled, simply leaving a note for her father, saying she’d be OK and in touch soon….not to worry.

Things in Las Vegas did not go well. The scout turned out to be less than reputable and the Hollywood photographer a front for a porn operation. Their plan was to take compromising photos and then sell her into prostitution (as they had innumerable naïve mid-western girls before Belle), but she was too much trouble. She fought them like a wildcat. They beat her savagely, drugged and raped her, and left her in a heap in front of her motel. Just another 16-year-old runaway….

Belle was too horribly ashamed to face her stern Lutheran dad, so she decided to spend the winter in Vegas, doing odd jobs to at least earn back the bank roll her father had fronted her to buy the horses. One day, while tending bar, she overhead two Oklahoma Seminoles from the Wewoka reservation. Her blood ran cold when she heard one of them say….”Old man Halliday fell of his tractor last winter and died all alone in the snow….and most all his livestock starved to death with nobody tending them… Anyway, he never really was the same since that pretty girl of his ran off last autumn….”

Belle’s downward spiral started that night in the bar and continued for years with drugs and whatever. She didn’t care. She banged around Vegas, doing whatever she could to survive. Even during the worst of her drinking, she was still one of the finest looking girls in the region. That was her salvation and her curse. She hit rock bottom and woke up in a stable with a horse staring her straight in the face - As if to say, get off your ass and feed and brush me. And that’s exactly what she did. In fact, she did anything and everything around the horse barn, cleaning the horses, shoveling manure, fetching water. Her responsibilities grew from that one horse to 4, then to the entire stable – the 15 dressage horses featured in a popular show at one of Vegas’ leading hotels. She’d exercise all 15 horses every day. After a while, the promoter noticed her ability with horses and gave her a small vignette in the show. It was an immediate success. This led to a larger sequence and finally, after 6 months, her own show two nights a week. It quickly became the hottest ticket in Vegas as everyone came to see this pretty young woman perform her stunts, shooting and trick-riding across 15 horses with seeming effortless joy.

It was precisely because the show was sold out every night that Belle was so shocked - as she charged out that night, full gallop, doing her signature 360 while astride matching white Spanish Colonials - to find the house totally empty. She brought the horses to rest and heard a strongly accented voice, saying “Don’t stop, please continue…..” In the semi-shadows, she caught a glimpse of someone seated alone, dead center, in the “king’s box.” Imbued with an Annie Oakley, “the show must go on” ethic, Belle did the whole show for the lone spectator. In fact, treating it as a rehearsal more than a performance, she added a few tricks she’d been working on that she hadn’t yet performed in public. The show ended with the horse going down on one foreleg, allowing the rider and horse to both bow deeply before the lone spectator.

At this, the man stood, clasped his hands prayer style, and then brought them to his chest, then to his forehead. Then he loudly clapped his hands. An attendant brought a brilliant black Arabian stallion into the ring. The spectator strode down the bleachers, mounted the stallion and Belle and the mysterious rider proceeded to do an impromptu “pas de deux” on horseback. Belle was astonished at the rider’s talent. In perfect unison, rider and horse performed the most complicated and sophisticated feats of horsemanship with elegant flourishes. Belle and the mystery rider fell in love that night riding their horses round and round all alone in the dimly lit, sandy ring.

“TRACK” Copyright WGA - ©2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C. Schulberg / Stellar Group S.a.r.l. Contact: [email protected] - mobile: + 33 6 08 49 25 57 That’s how Belle and Sheikh Khalifa bin Sultan Al Sowel met. She adopted his Muslim faith, which suited her just fine and now, more than twenty years later, though they don’t see each other that often - the Sheikh travels almost constantly for his business - they are still very much in love. Belle manages all their horse operations, which are vast, stretching from the Gulf States, to Argentina, to the US and to their international equestrian headquarters, in Chantilly, France. Their stable is well known and well respected - reputed to be the only stable that refuses to give performance-enhancing drugs to their horses.

Belle and the Sheikh have two daughters, dark-haired Shira (22) and the fiery rebellious blond, Alexia (16). They, along with the horses, are Belle’s pride and joy.

During her drugged-out Vegas years, Belle posed later for a trashy men’s magazine and filmed some porn videos under an alias. She’s been able to keep her past a secret from the Sheikh and her girls for 25 years. But now, an unscrupulous book-maker has gotten hold of the photos and tapes and is black mailing Belle, getting her to “throw” races to buy his silence. The bookie is turning up the heat, becoming more and more brazen and threatening to destroy all that Belle’s created.

But an even greater secret from Belle’s past will be revealed later in the saga – one that shakes the community to its core and alters life in Chantilly forever….

Arthus Pivoine (mid-40’s) - Belle Halliday’s trainer (Dominique Pinon). In 1988, the then twenty-year-old Arthus Pivoine was the most promising jockey in France. Owners competed to have him carry their colors. Trainers knew Arthus to be a brilliant, tenacious and disciplined athlete, who stuck to his austere regimen – training 7 days a week, starting like clockwork at 4 AM each morning rain, shine or snow. He’d won 20 races that year and was odds on favorite to win the largest purse in France – the legendary Arc de Triomphe (2 million Euros). Trainers also knew him as a devoted single father. His three-year-old daughter, Edith, was a beguiling little girl with large sad eyes, who was always toddling around after her father in the stable…when she wasn’t hooked up to her dialysis machine. Edith had been born with defective kidneys that had kept her in and out of hospitals all her life. Though the French health system was good, it was never enough. All Arthus’ winnings went into treatments to keep his little girl alive.

The two weeks before the Arc were the most trying of his life. He was riding the de Strathmore’s champion, Montezuma, born out of Pompadour, one of a handful of fillies to have ever won the Arc. The de Strathmore’s were known to be the most demanding of all horse breeders, driving their jockeys and their horses mercilessly. That is also why their clubhouse was decorated with more trophies than any other stable in France. The training was more intense than ever, with the stakes this high.

On the Tuesday before the race, Arthus received an emergency call from the hospital and rushed to his daughter’s bedside. Edith was in complete kidney failure – even dialysis wasn’t working. The donor waiting list in France was six months minimum. She’d never survive. The only way to save her would be an immediate private kidney transplant in Switzerland, with a price tag of 350k. And Arthus had only 40k put aside. He knew he’d win the Arc. He’d trained night and day for 7 years to prepare for this moment. But even with his share of the purse (10%) he still wouldn’t have enough to foot the Swiss hospital bill. Desperate, he went to his all- powerful employer, Ambrose de Strathmore, to ask for an advance against his winnings. Ambrose, sensing an opportunity, concluded a deal with Arthus. Arthus would travel to an abandoned rail yard, near St. Denis. There he would meet a man, who would “anonymously” take and place a 40k bet on Arthus’ behalf. Betting by jockeys was strictly forbidden. And Ambrose would supplement those winnings with an additional deal. If Arthus won,

“TRACK” Copyright WGA - ©2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C. Schulberg / Stellar Group S.a.r.l. Contact: [email protected] - mobile: + 33 6 08 49 25 57 he promised to give the jockey 15% instead of the industry standard, 10%. But if he placed second or third, he’d win nothing at all. Ambrose would retain all his earnings. Arthus made the calculation and agreed to the pact.

The morning of the race, Arthus went to the hospital and, kneeling beside his daughter’s bed, he promised the sleeping Edith that everything would work out. The de Strathmore vet was just leaving as Arthus arrived at the stable. They exchanged a few terse words. Arthus never liked the man. When he got up close to Montezuma, he sensed something was wrong. Though the horse was high strung, today he was more agitated than ever, twitching at the least sound. Arthus wrote it off to nerves. Horses are extremely sensitive creatures, especially thoroughbreds of this caliber.

The bell sounded and Montezuma leapt out of the blocks. He travelled well around the first three turns. Arthus knew the horse and the track. The race was his. On the fourth turn, Montezuma’s breathing suddenly went heavy. Specks of foam and blood flew from his nostrils, hitting Arthus in the face. The horse was still pushing and overtaking the leader. 40 yards from the finish line, as Montezuma overtook the lead, he suddenly faltered and half fell across the finish line, literally dropping to 2nd place. Arthus just had time to hit the ground and roll out of the way of the thundering crowd of horses rushing up behind. Montezuma lay inert on the ground. Arthus rushed over and could feel no pulse on the horse’s neck. Pandemonium broke out as trainers and vets rushed onto the turf.

Arthus went mad, rushing into the clubhouse to find the vet. He threw the much larger man against the wall and screamed the horse had been given something. Arthus then barged into the private dining club of the owners, to find Ambrose calmly sipping tea laced with cognac. He threw a tantrum in front of all the owners, accusing Ambrose of over-doping his horses. But Ambrose demurely apologized for the disruption and unleashed his own accusations. First, Arthus, himself, doped the horse. The syringe was found in his belongings. Second, Arthus had bet on a competing horse to win. And he introduced an association inspector (the man Arthus had met in the rail yard) who testified to having taken Arthus’ bet, ordered to place it not on Montezuma, but on the winning horse, Altemont. And so, it was clear that Arthus had purposely sacrificed the horse in order to “throw” the race and rake in illicit winnings. No one insults Ambrose de Strathmore and no one accuses him in his own clubhouse. Ambrose would sue for damages and see Arthus thrown out of racing forever. Rumor had it that Ambrose had bet heavily on Altemont. His winnings that day, including the entire sum for a second place finish, far exceeded the prize money he’d have made on Montezuma. And there was always next year for the glory of the prize.

A week later, before disappearing forever and before the authorities could catch up to him, Arthus could be seen cradling his dead daughter’s head in his lap and crying like a baby while sitting on the cold floor of the near empty hospital.

Belle could have instructed Assan the captain of their private Gulfstream V to fly directly from their home in Abu Dhabi to Kyoto, Japan, where she was to look at a couple of one-year-olds bred by the Hideki family. But, as she had two days to spare, she decided to accept the invitation of the Cambodian cultural attaché and touch down for a private visit of the Angkor Wat temples of Cambodia. The trip from the private airstrip, by land-rover, over rutted roads was long and dusty, leading through a series of small villages. In one of these lost villages, Belle instructed the driver to stop at a roadside café, curiously called La Cravache (“The Whip”). Swinging doors, reminiscent of an old western saloon and mud floors were an odd contrast to the bottles of Pernod and Pastis and the Gauloise unfiltered cigarettes that littered the grimy counter. The pretty young Cambodian girl tending

“TRACK” Copyright WGA - ©2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C. Schulberg / Stellar Group S.a.r.l. Contact: [email protected] - mobile: + 33 6 08 49 25 57 bar spoke no English, but some words of French. Belle asked for a beer. A drunken accented groan from the other side of the room, insulted her as another American beer-guzzling tourist, just before the voice fell off a chair onto a heap on the ground. Belle walked over and stood looking down at the curious fellow who owned that husky drink-curdled voice. He was wearing threadbare racing silks and riding boots that had been taped at the toe and heel to keep them from coming apart. He was small, with a pushed in grizzled face and sandy grey- brown hair.

Belle never got to Angkor Wat and cancelled her trip to see Mr. Hideki , who was customarily courteous and apologized for the fact she’d been detained. Belle spent the next four days drinking (not beer) and getting to know the odd fellow who owned La Cravache in the town of Khouk Thmei in rural Cambodia. Belle knew a thing or two about drunks and about redemption. She found she had much in common with the man…..and that was before they began discussing horse racing.

That is how Belle Halliday met Arthus Pivoine, now the trusted lead trainer of Sheikh Khalifa bin Sultan Al Sowel‘s famous thoroughbred racing stable in Chantilly.

4) The Journalist – Sabrina Rochefoucauld (late 20’s) - Every industry has its secrets - most of them are not pretty. Horse racing is no exception. And one person, an unlikely young woman in her late-twenties (Claire Keim), with no ostensible connection to the racing profession, has made it her job to reveal all racing’s truths, no matter how brutal, no matter how dangerous, no matter what the consequences or where the victims may fall. This half-French / half-Canadian former journalism student from Quebec has a way of getting on the inside of every story. She has limited time to suffer fools – she’s all business - as though on a mission. Known for her trademark sexy tailored suits and short skirts, Sabrina is the object of near universal desire and the butt of bawdy boardroom remarks, yet no one knows if she’s into men or women. In fact, her personal life is an utter mystery. She knows nothing of her parents, except that they put her up for adoption shortly after she was born. In and out of half-way houses, probably abused as a child, she has a chip on her shoulder that blocks any sign of sentimentality or emotion from getting to her core. Still, people respect her.

She is the perennial thorn in the side of the breeders, trainers, and the racing authorities, but her column in the leading racing journal is widely respected and read throughout the industry and her opinions are courted by racing enthusiasts the world over. Sabrina is at the core of many of our stories, showing up at inopportune times, asking the tough questions and making herself a controversial cornerstone of the Chantilly racing scene.

Although she doesn’t know it, she is at the center of one of the secrets revealed during the course of the saga. Some people need to be near the water. Some spend their lives in universities or libraries. Sabrina has always been drawn to the world of horses. She doesn’t know why.