Man who penned ‘Forrest Gump’ writes his ticket as horseplayer

Las Vegas

It is not like Eric Roth is always looking for a great line for his next movie. Sometimes they just fall to him, especially when he is hanging out at the racetrack with his circle of horse-playing friends.

“All the time,” he said. “We’re just old men now. Nobody cares what I do. They’re happy I’m successful, but they’re more interested if their horses win or lose.”

What Roth, 76, does is write screenplays. Really good ones. He won an Oscar for “Forrest Gump.” He has been nominated for four more, most recently for the 2018 version of “A Star Is Born.” And he had a role in writing the soon-to-be-released “Dune: Part One” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

This week he is playing in the National Horseplayers Championship – his 10th. Just like his professional work is no flash in the pan, neither is his handicapping skill. Not that he would put them in the same class.

“I can’t say I’m a great handicapper,” said Roth, who stood 60th among 563 entries after the first day of the weekend competition. “I mean I’m pretty good. I’m a pretty good speed handicapper.”

He got into this year’s NHC with some dumb luck. Actually, he used a more florid phrase to describe how an online, Xpressbet money tournament last year was his conduit to this week at the Bally’s Event Center.

“I was way behind,” Roth said, “and I hit some trifecta that came back like $10,000. It was some crazy, crazy price. That’s how I’ve usually qualified in the money tournaments. We’ve won few over the years or come in second or third. I’ve been doing this since my grandfather would take me (to the track) when I was eight years old.”

Growing up in Brooklyn, Roth said those trips were to Aqueduct and Belmont Park. When he moved to the West Coast, he found his way to Southern California racetracks. Now living in Santa Monica, he is a seasonal regular at Santa Anita – pandemic permitting.

“I don’t mind betting pretty good,” said Roth, who finds the NHC’s mythical-wagering format a very different challenge. “I’m not good at this. I don’t have any computer algorithms or anything like that. I won’t play anything under 7-1. Until you’re close. Then you can start playing 7-2 shots and that kind of thing.”

But back to what Roth said about racetrack language creeping into his film work. He could not resist taking note of something he heard Wednesday from one of his horseplayer buddies.

“After we left here, we went to the Caesars Palace just to bet a couple of more races,” Roth said. “There’s an old, old friend of ours who is in his late 80s, and he used to be kind of a womanizer. We said, ‘So how are you doing with the women, John?’ And he says, ‘I still have a lot of lead my pencil, but I have nobody to write to.’ Right away I wrote that down, because that will appear in one of my movies.”

Remember where you heard it first.