'Seabiscuit'

If ''Tick-Tock'' McGlaughlin (William H. Macy) were calling the Best Picture race, he might say, ''Talk about your dark horses, here's a real pip, folks, a quote thinking man's movie unquote about a thoroughbred that ran nearly 70 years ago. And it's going up against some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Kinda like dropping road apples in the cement outside Grauman's. You want some of that action, be my guest.''

Truth be told, it's hard to regard as a long shot an $86 million movie that had Universal, DreamWorks, and Spyglass as backers; Steven Spielberg collaborators Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy as producers; and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Gary Ross (''Big'' and ''Dave'') as director. But ''Seabiscuit'' the movie faces even greater odds than Seabiscuit the horse because of (1) the track record of sports movies, (2) the strong competition from more critically acclaimed movies, and (3) the haze left from its summer release.

What the film does have going for it is the prestige derived from Laura Hillenbrand's runaway best-seller and its compelling Three Men and a Horse story. If anything, Ross was a little too faithful to the source -- the horse doesn't appear until 44 minutes into the movie. Still, ''Seabiscuit'' is remarkably true to the period and the sport. With the help of two Hall of Fame jockeys, Chris McCarron (horse-and-race consultant) and Gary Stevens (who plays George Woolf in the film) -- and a first-rate cast featuring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and Macy -- Ross was able to capture the beauty, pageantry, power, and danger of thoroughbred racing.

And the timing couldn't have been better. Just before the movie's release, the unheralded Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness for his working-class owners. Alas, the gelding came up short in the Belmont in his quest for the Triple Crown. But he did succeed in reminding people that the long shot sometimes wins.