AustLit
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Source: www.qagoma.qld.gov.auSee full AustLit entryBobbie Moreton, daughter of 'Kangarooie' squatter Richard Moreton Snr, is a thorough sportswoman and her parents' pride and joy. Her brother on the other hand has been all but disowned due to his wild behaviour in the city and his refusal to take on the family's obligations. When Bobby asks him return home for her birthday he agrees, but does so in the company of Mrs Fane, a high society adventuress with a questionable past. Meanwhile, Dennis O'Hara, the Moretons' good-natured Irish neighbour, is in love with Bobbie, but clearly doesn't have a chance of winning her affection.
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John K. Wells's horse-racing film is available to watch in its entirety.
Watch Silks and Saddles courtesy of the Internet Archive below.
To see the Internet Archive's own page for Silks and Saddles, complete with thumbnail images of stills from the film, click here.
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This may be the most melodramatic film review we've ever read:
A sobbing exhortation to the lion-hearted horse broke from the girl's lips: "Go, Alert! Oh, go on—and win!" Alert seemed to fly over the intervening distance to the post; but relentlessly Satreen hung at his girth.
(From the Kadina and Wallaroo Times, 27 August 1921, p.4.)
You can read the rest of this breathless review here via Trove, but be warned: it does tell whether Alert or Satreen wins.
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The 'big chestnut' in Silks and Saddles was played by Kennaquhair, an Australian racehorse who retired in 1922, the year after the film was released.
This piece in the Sydney Evening News (available here, via Trove) offers a brief rundown of Kennquhair's career.
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The below image of Kennaquhair is taken from 'Kings of the Australian Turf', an illustrated spread of six racehorses from the Queenslander, 3 December 1921 (p.28).
To see the image in its entirety, visit the State Library of Queensland.
(Image reproduced with thanks to the State Library of Queensland.)
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