To ask why race horses gave such weird names?

[sundaybest]

Genuinely interested. Does anyone know if there is a reason behind it?

There are particular rules for registering racehorses, and all the names have to be unique. I expect they ran out of conventional sounding ones a while ago as they are all given names (like pedigree names) when they are young.

And you usually find that in their stables, they're all called Bobby and Flash, really simple things

Depends on your definition of " weird", I guess! :)

As FutureNannyOgg says, there are rules. A racehorse name can be no more than 18 characters and must not be exactly the same as another horse in training ( in rare cases that can happen if two horses are born and named in different countries then end up in training in the same country, but it's unusual). There are time limits as to when a name can be reused and a name mustn't be identical phonetically to another to avoid confusion in commentary. There are also rules about not using swear words or offensive words.

After that, it's down to the owners! Some have a theme, some like to incorporate the foal's parents names, some completely make it up. There are a lot of Arab Sheikhs in horse racing so they tend to give their horses Arabic names. Also, in jump racing a lot of horses are bought in France so have French names, or bred in Ireland so are given Irish Gaelic names.

Hth!

It's no different to Mumsnet, is it? We all have made-up names. In fact there's some names on here that would sound brilliant for a horse..........AnyFucker anyone??!!!

As has been said, there are lots of rules involved in naming a racehorse. You can read them in full here

Yes - they all have to be individual etc.

You sometimes get an amalgamation of the sire and dams names too

My favourite names are those that have a bit of imagination. The Queen is very good at naming her horses, all of which she personally chooses.

A personal favourite is GEE SPOT, her sire (father) was Pursuit of Love and her dam (mother) was My Discovery

And Sundaybest comes out first, quickly overtaken by futurenannyogg, but jkkipu is hot on her heels. Look, look it is fireandashes making a break with oldgreywiffletest cleanly taking the first hurdle. Cavemum sprints down the right, but it is all catgirl1976 now who takes the race by a nostril.

Oh gawd, cocoachannel, I just wish I could take the first hurdle! More like looking at it and thinking, no bloody way will I get over that!!

oooh I won :)

Holds out hoof for a polo :)

Oooooh MN sydicate anyone? :)

Humph. Wanna polo.

:)

Cart horse

Thanks guys. I'm a little bit wiser :)

Explanation of the names of some of the horses in training at the stables Michael Owen is involved in here - a combination of bad puns, in jokes and quite often references to the sire/dam of the horse.

AHH I work in racing and its really strict with names. Most are a combo of their mum and dads names. Also alot of cunning ones are banned, like 'NOBLE LOCKS' hee hee. Most have stable names tho or are shortened by their grooms...