Hidalgo (2004)

Storyline Hidalgo (2004)

In 1890, Frank T. Hopkins and his trusty horse Hidalgo are part of the Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, touted as "the world's greatest horse and rider testing endurance." A well-known long-distance racer, cowboy, and dispatcher for the United States government, Hopkins suffers from guilt for delivering a message to the 7th Cavalry Regiment authorizing the massacre of the wounded in the Lakota Sioux. He translates the futile request of another performer, Chief Eagle Horn, for Bill to help eradicate his country's mustangs, which have been brought down by the government.

Wealthy Riyadh sends its attache Aziz, accompanied by Rau Rasmussen, to challenge Hopkins and Hidalgo to enter the "Ocean of Fire": an annual 3,000-mile race across the desert region of Najd for a prize of $100,000. The Sheikh is the keeper of the Al-Hamsa line, which is considered the winner of the greatest distance in the world, and has traditionally been limited to thoroughbred Arab horses and Bedouin riders. His fellow Hopkins performers raise his entry fee, and he is confronted by unscrupulous English horse breeder Lady Ann Davenport. He meets Riyadh, a Wild West fan who has promised his daughter Jazira as a fifth wife to the prince if he wins.