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Milch, Michael Mann working on racetrack drama series

Posted: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 11:19 AM

David Milch, who raced champion Gilded Time and Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) winner Val Royal (Fr), is collaborating with major Hollywood producer and director Michael Mann on an HBO series named “Luck” that would focus on the culture of the racetrack.

Milch wrote the pilot, and the shoot is scheduled for April, most likely at Santa Anita Park.

According to Variety, Mann is close to a deal to direct. He and Milch have been friends since the 1980s, when Milch was executive producer of “Hill Street Blues” and Mann was executive producer of “Miami Vice.” Milch won an Emmy Award as a writer for "Hill Street Blues" and later was a co-creator of the Emmy Award-winning drama “NYPD Blue.”

Milch joked that if he could make $25-million on “Luck,” he would even out his “research expenses” in Thoroughbred racing.

“It's a subject which has engaged and some might say has compelled me for 50 years,” Milch told Daily Variety. “I find it as complicated and engaging a special world as any I've ever encountered, not only in what happens in the clubhouse and the grandstand, but also on the backside of the track, where the training is done and where they house the horses.”

Milch described the lead character, Ace Bernstein, as “a guy versed in all the permutations of finance, illicit and otherwise. When he is released from jail for securities violations, he resumes his place at the racetrack, where he is a figure of long-standing repute.”

The role has not yet been cast.

Milch, 64, was a co-owner of Gilded Time, who won the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), Arlington-Washington Futurity (G2), and Sapling Stakes (G2) in an undefeated season that earned him the Eclipse Award as champion two-year-old male. He was the sole owner of Val Royal and also scored major wins with 1987 Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes (G1) winner Joe’s Tammie and 1999 Ramona Handicap (G1) winner Tuzla (Fr). He dispersed some of his racing stock in 2002.

Milch has worked with HBO in recent years as co-creator and writer of “Deadwood” and “John From Cincinnati.”

According to the Internet Movie Database, Mann’s most recent project on the big screen was “Public Enemies” as a producer, writer, and director. His directing credits also include “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Heat,” “The Insider,” and “Ali.”