Trama

A heart problem forces the cop Pally to retire, and his wife Charlotte is separating him. Charlotte makes Pally's half-brother Ray visit, and he suggest buying a race horse will cheer him up. He does, but then a mob boss steals the horse.

Heart problems force Boston cop Pally LaMarr to retire; he's in a funk and his wife Charlotte sends him packing. At Charlotte's insistence, Pally's half-brother Ray pays Pally a visit and suggests he buy a race horse to cheer up. Ray's always playing the angles, and he's got his eye on a horse that's cheap because it's been misdiagnosed. Ray knows the horse is a champion. Before they can win some money, a local mob boss, Frank Finnigan, sees the horse and steals it as payment for the gambling debt of Tony, a local jockey and single parent. Can Pally and Ray get the horse back, get Tony out of hock, and win some moola? What about Charlotte: can Pally let his heart take the lead?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Pally LaMarr (Kiefer Sutherland) is a 35-year-old Boston cop who is forced into medical retirement due to a heart condition. Depressed and thinking of suicide, his on-again-off-again estranged wife Charlotte (Radha Mitchell) suggests he spend some quality time with his step-brother Ray (Anthony LaPaglia). Charlotte and Pally are at odds because she wants children and he doesn't.

Ray is a small time crook and hustler who has an eye on a racehorse with a medical condition that he thinks he can get on the cheap, and with some minor surgery, can be transformed into a winner. Pally reluctantly goes along with the idea and they buy the horse. With a little help from a philandering veterinarian (he's been cheating on his wife and is being blackmailed by Ray) the surgery is performed and the horse's running performance is greatly improved.

Ray enlists the help of his friend Tony (Lothaire Bluteau), a washed-up jockey who owes a large gambling debt to mobster Frank Finnegan (Daniel Benzali). After some training, they enter the horse in a race and it wins. Finnegan gets wind of the horse's potential and, seeing a money-making opportunity, tells Tony that he will forgive the gambling debt in exchange for the horse. Driven by desperation, Tony agrees and makes the trade.

When Pally and Ray find out what Tony has done, they confront him at his apartment and make threats only to be thwarted at gunpoint by Tony's precocious young daughter Sam (Kay Panabaker). The three men then hatch a plot to steal the horse back from Finnegan. They go to Finnegan's estate in the middle of the night and go to get the horse out of the barn. (They mistakenly steal the wrong horse at first which makes for a bit of comic relief). They make their escape with one of Finnegan's hoods in hot pursuit. Tony rides away on the horse while Pally and Ray create a distraction. The hood follows Pally and Ray into the woods where Pally is forced to shoot the hood in self-defense.

Now that the trio have their horse back, Finnegan again approaches weak-link Tony and offers him a new credit line in Finnegan's betting parlor. Tony accepts, leaves his daughter Sam on Pally's doorstep and heads to Finnegan's place where he again runs up a huge debt. Finnegan again offers to forgive the debt if Tony will intentionally lose the next race. Meanwhile, Pally finds Sam on his doorstep at two A.M., takes her up to his apartment to get her out of the cold, and puts her to bed in the hide-a-bed sofa. Charlotte shows up, discovers Sam, and thinks Pally has sunk to an all-time low even though Pally has done nothing inappropriate with Sam.

Charlotte befriends Sam and takes on the role of her stand-in mother; a role she has always wanted. At the next race, Tony is visibly nervous because Finnegan and his thugs are there. When the race begins, Tony holds the horse in last place until he comes around the last turn and sees Finnegan. Tony then decides he will no longer be intimidated and spurs the horse on to pass the whole pack and win by a nose. Pally, Ray, and Tony take off running when the see Finnegan; Finnegan and his thugs chase them into the stables.

All encounter each other in a paddock area; Pally opens a gate to let some horses loose as a distraction. There is a shootout in the paddock. Tony is shot by Finnegan but Finnegan gets his comeuppance when he gets stampeded to death. Ray is injured and is rescued by Pally. Pally returns to the middle of the stampede to rescue Tony and Sam (who has come to her father's aid). He gets them to safety but suffers a heart attack in the process. Tony later dies.

Pally and Charlotte finally reconcile in the hospital when he is recovering from his heart attack. They move back in together, taking Sam along, and live happily ever after.