BLACKWOOD is to host the Wales film premiere of the unlikely rags-to-riches story of a Valleys racehorse ahead of its nationwide release later this month.

The award-winning documentary film, Dark Horse: The Incredible Story of Dream Alliance, will be launching in cinemas across Wales with a special live satellite premiere event from Blackwood – where the film is set and was primarily shot – on April 14. It will then go on general release from April 17.

Dark Horse won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival this year and follows the life-affirming true story of Cefn Fforest stallion Dream Alliance.

His owner Jan Vokes - a barmaid who kept pigeons and whippets on her allotment in the area but had no experience of horseracing - decided to invest in a stallion past his best for £300.

She convinced nine people who met in the local working men’s club where Mrs Vokes worked – including a plasterer, a garage owner, a taxi driver and an accountant – to pay £10 a week as part of a syndicate to pay for his upkeep.

Contrary to expectations, the horse ran well at several races.

Then in a race at Aintree, a near-fatal fall severed one of Dream Alliance’s tendons and vets predicted that he would never race again.

But pioneering £20,000 stem cell surgery was paid for by the syndicate and he comfortably won the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow as a 20-1 outsider in 2009.

Dream Alliance, who is now 13 years old and has retired from competitive racing, was used to portray himself in the film.

It is directed by Louise Osmond and is her fifth theatrical documentary with her first being the award-winning Deep Water in 2006.

After the premiere, to be held at Blackwood's Maxime Cinema, key characters from the film will be joined on stage by director Louise Osmond and producer Judith Dawson, to answer questions from the audience and panel host Lisa Rogers.

Other special guests expected on the night include Welsh rugby greats JPR Williams and Martyn Williams, singer and actress Sophie Evans, and Dirty Sanchez’s Matthew Pritchard.

To watch the trailer, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnibszmmPeI.