October
SeptemberIt's a mouthful
Newcomers to racing watching on free-to-air might expect to see hordes of horses with strong traditional names, including royal, celestial and gender-based monikers: Kings, Queens, Moons and Stars, a Miss or a Mister here and there.
They would likely to be disappointed that the trend is toward names that are meaningless to anyone but their owners, confounding commentators searching for any meaning at all and requiring race callers to plead for pronunciation guides.
Some may be clever, but clever comes at a cost because online, on paper, on bookies’ boards and in form guides many of these names are completely obtuse and certainly unattractive to racing rookies and their sympathisers.
I don’t mean to offend the Dabernig-Hayes outfit, or their clients, but frankly I don’t give a hoot if Madhmoonah, Manaajim, Tanaawool, Albukhturi, Baaqyah, Mishe Mokwa, Jeehaan and Jawwaal represent something mystical, purposeful or significant.
At least that stable, for the most part, hasn’t ventured down the path of squeezing the maximum 18 characters allowed for horse names these days to create monstrosities like Hoochiecoochiemama, Shakespear’sgalley (yes, one word, and a missing “e”), Zou Zou Kacanarkis, Ridonabigjetplane and Morethannumberone.
Sorry folks, they’ve gone a furlong before callers could spit all that out!
Fair dinkum, I can write sentences that are shorter than some names. Like this one.
Black Range (Vic)