Braveheart writer Randall Wallace has agreed to direct Secretariat for Disney, reports Variety.

The film will be based on the life story of Penny Chenery, whose racehorse Secretariat won the 1973 Triple Crown and set two track records in the Series.

Chenery, dubbed the "first lady of racing", was thrust into the sport when she was forced to take over her sick father's Virginia horse farm. She was hit with a multimillion-dollar inheritance tax after the death of her dad but was able to save the farm and see Secretariat take the Triple Crown.

Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray will produce the film from a script by Mike Rich.

Wallace has previously directed The Man In The Iron Mask and We Were Soldiers. He also penned the script for 2001's Pearl Harbour.