What's In a Name | Horse Racing Free Tips

What’s In A Name? Seize the Night, Someday Is Today, Caravel, Que Sera Sir Ralph, Heresy

As for intriguing names of winning horses, that was the week that was.

Let's start with the seminal power of those two immortal little words Carpe Diem ('Seize The Day'} from Ancient Rome prince of poets Horace (65-8 BC)–also responsible for Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori ('It is sweet and fitting to die for the homeland'), written only a few years after having run away, throwing the shield on the ground, at the battle of Philippi (42 BC).

Two horses creatively honored the WinStar stallion Carpe Diem (by Giant's Causeway out of Rebridled Dreams by Unbridled's Song): Churchill Downs 5-14 2yo winner SEIZE THE NIGHT (by Carpe Diem out of Candle Maker by Tapit) cleverly switched day with night with some help from his dam's name, while Charles Town 5-13 3yo winning filly SOMEDAY IS TODAY (by Carpe Diem out of Any Day Now by Smart Strike) sounds like an eloquent exhortation based on both father's and mother's names.

Then we have the nautical congruity of the name of Pimlico's The Very One S. triumphant speed merchant CARAVEL (by Mizzen Mast out of Zeezee Zoomzoom by Congrats). Caravels, Portuguese-developed ships that were “agile and easy to navigate” (according to Wikipedia), ventured across the oceans in the 13th century with notorious epoch-making results. The mizzen mast is the aft-most (or last) mast of many sailing ships, lower in height and well suited to carry a relatively small lateen (triangular) sail in those adventurous caravels.

The name of Golden Gate 3-year-old winner QUE SERA SIR RALPH (by Haynesfield out of Norah's Kitten by Kitten's Joy) is a phonetical little masterpiece of wordplay–Doris Day would approve of it and maybe smile her famous smile.

Down Under winner HERESY (AUS) {by Street Boss out of Montsegur {Aus} by New Approach {Ire}) carries a cunning name. The Chateau de Montsegur is a former fortress in the Ariege department in southern France. Its ruins are the site of a razed stronghold of the Cathars, unorthodox Christians that were persecuted as heretics by the Catholic Church between the 12th and the 14th centuries. Godolphin namers, do not make me work this hard–this was a tough one, I almost missed it.

And, last but absolutely not least, we have our brilliant Preakness winner. A few people have noticed a possible link with a precious Napa Valley Chardonnay–and this number includes the national daily newspaper USA TODAY, who ran a story before the race about the 10 Preakness participants, ranking their names for “originality, prestige and more” (Concert Tour was first, the winner fourth). The ultimate origin of the very name ROMBAUER is not clear and may be never known, but, in any case, the name has a great sound to it: it evokes 'roar' and 'rumble' and 'blast'. It is greatly suited to a sporting spectacle: not for nothing, “Rombo Di Tuono” ('Roar of Thunder') was the nickname of Italian soccer legendary goal scorer Gigi Riva. Never ask for whom the crowd roars: it roars for the winner, dark horse or not.

5th-Churchill Downs, $99,058, Msw, 5-14, 2yo, 5f, :58.81, ft, head.
SEIZE THE NIGHT (c, 2, Carpe Diem–Candle Maker, by Tapit) Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $57,488. O-Willis Horton Racing LLC; B-Cove Springs Farm LLC (KY); T-Dallas Stewart.

Someday Is Today, f, 3, Carpe Diem–Any Day Now, by Smart Strike. Charles Town, 5-13, (S), 6 1/2f, 1:19.94. Lifetime
Record: 2-1-1-0, $26,145. B-Schiano Racing Inc. & Carpe Diem Syndicate (WV). *$50,000 Ylg '19 FTKFEB; $30,000 Ylg '19 FTKOCT

THE VERY ONE S., $100,000, Pimlico, 5-14, 3yo/up, f/m, 5fT, :56.21, fm.
1–CARAVEL, 122, f, 4, Mizzen Mast–Zeezee Zoomzoom, by Congrats. ($330,000 RNA 3yo '20 WANOCT). O/B/T-Elizabeth M Merryman (PA); J-Florent Geroux. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 7-5-0-2, $212,872.

Que Sera Sir Ralph, g, 3, Haynesfield–Norah's Kitten, by Kitten's Joy. Golden Gate Fields, 5-14, 1 1/16mT, 1:47.03. Lifetime Record: 8-1-0-2, $31,154. B-Richard James & Roberto Gonzalez (CA).

Heresy (Aus), f, 2, Street Boss–Montsegur (Aus) (GSW-Aus, $267,703), by New Approach (Ire). Morphettville, 5-15, David Coles AM S.-G3 ($99k), 1200mT, 1:10.78. B-Godolphin Australia (NSW). *1ST STAKES WIN. 1ST GROUP WIN.

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What’s In a Name: Hester Prynne (GB)

Congratulations to whoever named the very first winner by the Galileo (Ire) stallion Mondialiste (Ire). The 2-year-old filly won a novice at Beverley on May 3 for trainer David O'Meara and is out of Dame Hester (Ire) (Diktat {GB}). The Geoff and Sandra Turnbull-owned filly is named after the most famous Hester of all: Hester Prynne (GB), the complex and dignified heroine of the American classic The Scarlet Letter–the 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The narrative takes place in a Puritan community in Massachusetts in the 1640s; the protagonist of the book has a child out of wedlock and is sentenced to have the letter “A” stitched to the front of her dress for the rest of her life. The abominable nature of this cruel public humiliation has resonated for decades, and the novel has drawn the attention and the praise of other great writers (George Eliot, DH Lawrence, etc), not to speak of the eternal interest from songwriters, playwrights, and film directors. Good luck to the equine Hester Prynne, hopefully as independent and hard-headed as her namesake–and a bit more fortunate.

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What’s In A Name: Joan of Arc

Racing success makes the name of a horse just right in most cases, and this is likely to happen with very promising 3-year-old filly JOAN OF ARC, a winner at The Curragh Mar. 21, the first day of spring. Still, this beautiful name seems so appropriate even now, because of the underlying historical connection between the French heroine Joan of Arc and the great scientist Galileo Galilei. In fact, both Joan of Arc and Galileo got in trouble with the Inquisition–to put it mildly. It was, and it was not, the very same Catholic Inquisition. There is a time difference of almost exactly two centuries. Joan, prisoner of the English, had to face the Church court of the Bishop of Beauvais (1431), while Galileo was summoned and tried by an inquisitory tribunal in Rome, with the Pope almost looking on (1633). Both were accused of heresy and of contradicting the Scriptures. Joan was charged because of her testimony of hearing the voices of Saints and wearing men soldiers' clothes, while Galileo's crime was to have declared that the earth moves around the sun, and not the other way around. Both had moments of weakness in the face of unfair clerical persecution, and retreated for a while, but not for long. They were found guilty. Joan, at 19 years of age, faced the harsher fate and was burned at the stake, while Galileo was put to house arrests until his death. They were colossal figures. Joan practically won the 100 Years' War for the French and liberated her country. Galileo is the father of modern physics and astronomy. The very last words of “Saint Joan,” George Bernard Shaw's play about Joan of Arc, seem a fitting tribute to both: “O God that made this beautiful earth, when will it be ready to accept thy saints? How long, O lord, how long?”

3rd-Curragh, €12,000, Mdn, 3-21, 3yo/up, f, 7fT, 1:33.26, s/h. JOAN OF ARC (IRE) (f, 3, Galileo {Ire}–You'resothrilling {GSW-Eng, GSW-Ire, $219,415}, by Storm Cat) Lifetime Record: 2-1-1-0, $11,747. O-Derrick Smith, Mrs John Magnier & Michael Tabor; B-Coolmore (IRE); T-Aidan O'Brien.

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What’s In a Name: Tenebrism

Young filly Tenebrism (f, 2, Caravaggio–Immortal Verse {Ire}, by Pivotal {GB}), the dramatically fast winner of the first race at Naas on Mar. 28, carries a brilliant and astute name.

“'Tenebrism', from Italian tenebroso (dark, gloomy, mysterious), also occasionally called 'dramatic illumination', is a style of painting using especially pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image,” states Wikipedia.

And who is generally credited with the invention of this technique? None other than Michelangelo Merisi, also known as Caravaggio, the great and tormented artist on the cusp of the 16th and 17th centuries. Caravaggio preceded and surpassed Byron in being thought as Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know: he was constantly involved in brawls and is reputed to have killed at least two men, one in a scuffle, and another one in a gruesome duel. Caravaggio died under suspicious circumstances at 38 years of age, but by then he had mastered the play of light and darkness on a canvas like no other and had produced masterpiece after masterpiece in his short and tortured existence.

The equine Tenebrism has the look of a masterpiece herself and let us hope that she is in for a long and happy career.

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