racehorse names.

​On another page of this website I provide a service in the form of an ever-extending list of possible names to owners experiencing difficulty naming young horses. The naming of racehorses is a long-running sore with me, especially when the names of famous horses from the past are re-used. When Coolmore, and I will never forgive them for it, named a horse Spanish Steps I frothed at the mouth in outrage for weeks rolling into months. I even wrote a letter to them before the horse ran begging them to rename the horse, to do the right thing in memory of one of the most popular steeplechasers of the seventies, a horse who rocked up at all the big races, won a Hennessey (enough, you would think, to have his name die with him) and was placed in two of the best Grand Nationals ever run. As you can imagine it still smarts that Coolmore should commit such a calumny. They never replied to my letter, by the way.
The powers-that-be would have us believe that it is no easy matter to name a racehorse. I laugh at their ignorance. The English language alone contains enough words and combination of words to fill an Olympic size swimming pool to overflowing, added to which there are all the other languages of the world, all eight-hundred or more. If it is difficult to name a racehorse it can only be that the powers-that-be make it difficult. Other than that reason, I can only assume it is the mind-bewildering choice on offer where the difficulty lies.
It is not only the re-using of famous names that pulls my chain, so does the profusion of French names presently in use over jumps, Arabic names on the flat and names that drive a carriage and four through the English language – Didtheyleaveuoutto, for example. I revere J.P.McManus and no man has honoured the sport with his presence more than he does but some of the names he gives his horses are as pleasant to my eye as a motorway pile-up.
I realise that the profusion of French names has little or nothing to do with the people who own them, and also realise that as long as French-breds remain popular with trainers there is nothing to be done about the seemingly lazy and apathetic manner in which French breeders name their horses. If they are breeding to sell to the English and Irish market why not use the English language when naming them, Apple’s Jade to give one example. At least they might have sympathy for race commentators, even if they have nothing but disdain for old Xenophobes like me.
I make no apologies for being a dyed-in-the-wool man of old England. I also admit that my failing memory does not allow me much rope when it comes to accepting this French language invasion of our sport. I can barely remember the English named big-race winners, so it is stretching my powers of recall to breaking point to remember winners with foreign names. I always, and I mean ‘always’, have to look up the spelling of Buveur d’Air, so I hope and pray that Fakir D’Oudairies does not win the Triumph and goes on to be a leading light for years to come as his name sits as easily in my vocabulary as one in Latin, Serbo-Croat or Klingon.
I don’t know how Des Obeaux translates but there is an increasing number of horses with Des Obeaux as part of their name, and of course in years to come Des Obeaux will get mingled with De Sceaux, du Seuil and des Dieux.
It is the same with Arabic named horses. When a Sheikh Hamdan stallion is advertised in the Racing Post I’m afraid I struggle to remember who trained it as I cannot disentangle its Arabic name from others, perhaps less distinguished, who carried a similar name. This will come across as xenophobic and a criticism of Sheikh Hamdam for naming his horses using his native language, which is his right, of course.
My concern is that in years to come people, perhaps old fogies like me, will be unable to recall the names of the horses that win our top races and will only recall instead the name of the owner, trainer and jockey. And that is not putting the horse before the cart. And the situation will only become ever-more complicated as the import of French horses is showing no signs of diminishing. Mind you, God-forbid for the welfare of flat racing if Sheikh Hamdam and his family remove themselves from the sport.
I just wish we could get back to solid English names like Cottage Rake, Knock Hard, Another Flash, Royal Tan. Life was so much simpler back then. Ben Stack, Saffron Tartan, Flying Wild. Herring Gull --- Back when I was a mere stripling.
Back when jockeys were horseman and the very idea of a female riding in a steeplechase was so laughable Max Miller might have used it as a punch-line to a joke. Mill House, Fortria, John O’Groats, Happy Spring, Red Rum. Spanish Steps. Team Spirit.
Memories easily recalled.