For this harmless film about a horse, director John Gatins originally engaged recent Oscar-winner Jan A.P. Kaczmarek to write the music.  Things didn't go to plan however, Kaczmarek was fired, and John Debney brought in.  It's tricky to think of two film composers with more different sensibilities, suggesting the director didn't really have a clue what he was doing.  Actually, another thing it suggests is that, just maybe, Kaczmarek wasn't quite keen enough to write a rehash of the temp-track.  (Ironically, the last major film about a horse, Seabiscuit, saw Randy Newman walk off in disgust because he refused to just rewrite the temp-track, so William Ross had to be brought in to change just enough notes to keep it legal; most of that score remained Newman's own, though.)

So, the temp-track.  If you enjoyed Seabiscuit, The Horse Whisperer, Legends of the Fall, Avalon, The Natural - come along for the ride, they're all here!  I won't dwell - I've dwelled on temp-tracks often enough, God knows! - so suffice it to say that if you're offended by the practice then I would steer this one a very wide berth indeed.  If it doesn't bother you then you'll find a very pleasant album.  Actually, I'm being a bit unkind: in fairness to Debney, it's not quite as bad as some scores in terms of being derivative and the opening cue (and main theme) actually seems to be an entirely original composition.  (After writing this review, someone wrote in to tell me that actually, the opening cue is Alan Silvestri's theme from Castaway; I checked, and what do you know - it is!)  On the album cover, and in all of Sony Classical's promotion for it, you will find the name of popular violinist Joshua Bell featuring extremely heavily.  Indeed, they would almost have you believe that the film was made purely to allow Bell to bring a new album out.  Indeed, he features strongly in that opening cue (though it isn't heard in the film), playing an undemanding but nice melody.  After those two minutes and nineteen seconds, however, his appearances are fleeting indeed.  I hope there aren't too many Bell fans buying the album just because of him, because they're likely to be sorely disappointed!

Debney does feature a number of other soloists; the most prominent, and infinitely more prominent than Bell's violin, is Mike Lang's piano.  Lang has been playing on high-profile film scores in LA since mediaeval times; of course, his name's never appeared on an album cover.  The other most prominent element is the guitar (of varying descriptions), which again are expertly played, by Debney himself, George Doering and Dean Parks.  Debney has in fact come up with some very pleasant original material to go alongside what I've already mentioned, with the most notable constituent being the exciting music for the races, including the delightful "Runaway Horse" and the splendid "Last Race".  The album as a whole is overarchingly nice and highly entertaining - if thoroughly undemanding - and I'm sure fans of pleasant, easy scores (not to mention fans of Randy Newman's scores) will find a whole lot to enjoy.