How Do Racehorses Get Their Name? The Rules and Regulations Behind Naming A Horse

There are thousands of racehorses in training in the UK, with hundreds running each week – but have you ever wondered just how these racehorses get their names?

We take a deeper look into the world of naming a racehorse – the most common practices, what the rules and regulations are and how these racehorse names get verified before they set foot onto the track.

Owning A Racehorse Is An Expensive Business

Being a horse racing owner is an expensive business.

Not only is there the initial outlay to get your hands on what many owners dream of being the next Derby winner, but there are also ongoing training, travel, vets and jockey bills to fork out – to list just a few.

These training costs will vary between trainers and will also be dependent on the amount of horses an owner will have with a single stable – with deals to be done.

However, to give you a rough idea, top jumps trainer advertises on his site of £60 a day, while over a year you can expect to pay between £12,000 and £14,000 per horse.

It’s then down to the horse to try and win back some prize money, but even all of that doesn’t go to the owner – with the jockey and trainer also getting a small cut each.

Racehorses Are Named By Their Owners….Most Of The Time

Then, once a horse has been acquired by a new owner it’s down to them to name it.

Of, course, this can just be like naming the family dog or even your first born – and if the name isn’t already taken you’ve got a chance of it being approved by the British Horse Racing Authority.

Yes, some owners will buy horses that have already raced – but unfortunately here they are stuck with the original names their first owner gave them.

Owners May Pick Personal Names or Favourite Places To Name Their Racehorses

So, when it comes to naming a racehorse a lot of the time owners will lean towards a personal reason – like a family name or favourite place they’ve been to.

For example, the 2014 Epsom Derby winner was named Australia (watch below), while former owner Dr Marwan Koukash often named a lot of his horses after his son Gabrial – he had horses called ‘Our Gabrial’, ‘Prince Gabrial’ and ‘Angel Gabrial’ – to name just a few.

Racehorses Are Often Named After Their Breeding

In addition to plucking any name out of the air – horse racing owners also often like to keep names running in the horse’s family.

What I mean by this, is they look at the horse’s breeding and try and pick a new name that relates to this.

See below, this horse is called ‘Clear Aim’ and if you look at its sire ‘Aclaim’ and Dam ‘Clearing’ you can see how the owners have taken bits from this horse’s mum and dad’s name to come up with Clear Aim.

There are many examples of this and if you look at most races in the UK and delve deeper into each horse’s pedigree, you’ll most likely find an example in most races.

In addition to the obvious family links, there are also some clever owners out there that still name their horses this way – but think harder about a connection.

For example – and excuse the rudeness (and poor pun) here – but the naming of this horse called ‘Geespot’ got me ‘excited’.

See how it’s sire (dad) is called ‘Pursuit Of Love’ and its dam (mum) is called ‘My Discovery’ – based on these two names I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how clever the naming of this mare was.

Racehorse Names In The UK Are Limited To 18 Characters

The other thing for horse racing owners to note when it comes to naming their equine star is the length.

This is because the Jockey Clubs around the world limit horse racing names to 18 characters – this is mainly to stop them getting out of hand and could you imagine a horse racing commentator having to call home a runner called – Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Despite this 18 character limit this doesn’t stop owners finding a way around squeezing what they want in – with many leaving out a space to take maximum advantage.

For example – there was a US-trained horse that raced between 2006 and 2009 that was called ‘Imawildandcrazyguy‘ – bang on the 18 character limit.

What Are The Rules For Naming A Racehorse?

Can You Change A Racehorse’s Name?

The short answer is no.

However, if the horse you have is yet to race, then you may be able to change it’s name.

Horses often change owners through their careers, but once they’ve raced the new owners have to stick with these names.

Just like the legendary 25-time winning hurdler – Istabraq (below) – who started out racing on the flat for owner Hamdan Al Maktoum, but was bought by top Irish jumping man JP McManus, who had to keep his name.

Horse Racing Names In The UK Must Be Approved By The BHA

If you are a new (or existing) horse racing owner in the UK, or just fancy having a play around to see if any names are available – you can here on the BHA website.

You can check to see if a possible horse name is taken and if not, this will start your journey on getting it approved by the BHA – as long as it then also fits all the criteria mentioned above – like being 18 (or less) characters.

Some Funny Horse Racing Names Have Slipped Through The Net

Despite all these horse racing naming rules in place, there have been many owners over the years that have tried to get a ‘funny’ or ‘rude’ name through the system.

Most fail – like Ben Timover, Neil Anblowmee and Oil Beef Hooked – however, some clever owners have managed to get some through.

You can see a full list of our top 10 funniest racehorse names here, but just to give you an idea we’ve had the likes of Two In The Pink, Weigh Anchor and Passing Wind all slip through the net.

While in the US, there was the well-documented ‘Hoof Hearted’ who raced back in the 1980’s which led to many classic commentary calls when the horse ran (watch below).