Plot

Wilbur Hoolihan accidentally kills a hack horse owned by King O'Hara (Cecil Kellaway

Cecil Kellaway

Cecil Lauriston Kellaway was a South African-born character actor.Cecil Kellaway spent many years as an actor, author, and director in the Australian film industry until he tried his luck in Hollywood in the 1930s. Finding he could get only gangster bit parts, he got discouraged and returned to...

) and his daughter, Princess (Patsy O'Connor) by feeding it candy. In the hopes of raising enough money to replace it, he and his friend Grover Mockridge (Bud Abbott

Bud Abbott

William Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.-Early life:...

) visit a gambling establishment. They are successful in raising the money, but before they can purchase a new horse, a con man swindles them out of it.

They are informed by some unsavory fellows that a horse is available at one of the tracks. They visit the track and mistakenly take the wrong horse, a champion by the name of Tea Biscuit. They take the horse to O'Hara and present it to him as a replacement for his deceased horse.

The horse's real owner, Colonel Brainard (Samuel Hinds

Samuel S. Hinds

Samuel Southey Hinds was an American actor who is perhaps best remembered for playing Peter Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life and for his part in You Can't Take It With You , both films by Frank Capra...

) offers a reward for Tea Biscuit. By this time O'Hara has taken a fare up to Saratoga and Wilbur and Grover, realizing that they took the wrong horse, follow him there. Three gangsters trail them hoping to capture the horse and collect the reward. Wilbur and Grover manage to recover the horse and hide him for a while in their hotel room. Once discovered, they head to the race track in time for a big race. Wilbur, riding Tea Biscuit winds up winning the race. They try to return the horse for the reward, but the Colonel decides that he never really was missing and skips out on paying them. In the end it doesn't matter because Grover was the only winning ticket holder and they use their winnings to buy O'Hara a real replacement horse.

Production

It Ain't Hay is based upon the Damon Runyon

Damon Runyon

Alfred Damon Runyon was an American newspaperman and writer.He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the...

 story, Princess O'Hara, which Universal first made into a film in 1935

1935 in film

-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...

 with Chester Morris

Chester Morris

Chester Morris was an American actor, who starred in the Boston Blackie detective series of the 1940s.-Career:...

.

Filming of this picture began on September 28, 1942, and lasted until November 11. Lou's brother Pat was used as his stunt-double in the 'headless horseman' sequence.

It was during production, on November 6, that Lou's wife, Anne, gave birth to their son, Lou 'Butch' Costello, Jr.

DVD release

It Ain't Hay was released on DVD on October 28, 2008 as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection. The film's studio-authorized DVD release had been delayed for many years due to legal issues with the estate of Damon Runyon.