Gabby Tabby
Queen Gabby Tabby
Laws and Claws
Bast Talker
How about WakiCat?
We Call Her – Aristocat!
French Letters.
Queen of Misrule.
“Millions or Dog Chow n’ glue”
Announcers will have a good time time with it.
Pictures? I don’t need no stinkin’ pictures!
Thanks Eve. I will have to look that song up. I make CD’s of all horseracing songs, to use at horse charity events and it sounds like that one should be on there.
Dinsdale, sorry, didn’t mean to imply Ghostzapper was one of “my” horses. He was just the first example I thought of to describe how all racehorses all have “barn names” that the people who work with them use. I went to see Ghostzapper at the farm he is at stud at, and thought it funny how everyone there called him Zappy. Horse of the Year, BC Classic winning Zappy. The beautiful Alphabet Soup is there also, he is called Soupy. http://www.adenastallions.com/stallions/stallion.aspx?id=2 Soupy is actually so bright, that in the sun it actually hurts to look at him with out sunglasses on, just amazing! If we bred him to our El Prado mare, who looks just like her daddy, we might have a horse that glows in the dark!http://www.adenastallions.com/stallions/stallion.aspx?id=5
The actual owner of Ghostzapper owns the farm he is at now, as well as about 5 racetracks, including Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park and a bunch of stuff before he even got into racing. He would definately be a SDMB celebrity. Unfortunately I am not… yet. The old saying goes, “No one ever committed suicide when they had an unraced two year old in the barn.” So for now I am counting on “Gabby” to bring a bit of celebrity to the SDMB when she becomes the fourth filly to win the Derby. 
Mariene, thanks so much for the mentioning that poem. I wasn’t familiar with it and loved reading it. A few other horse people did know the poem, and Grimalkin, as well as Queen of Cats is taken. I guess that is similar to Black Minnaloushe, who I am embarrassed to admit I had never heard of. We have used Black Minnaloushe twice as a sire. Our first with him was “Loushe on the Lead.” Our second, after reading the poem I was wanting to name “The Creeping Cat.” From the poem you mentioned, there are also some fun ideas, I think “Pupil of the Graces” would be a nice tribute if Grimalkin ever had kids. I may submit it anyway, as Storm Cat is in so many pedigrees and there are so many Cat horses out there, you have to be creative.
Yllaria, you will have me busy checking on those…the two that caught my eye first were taken, Thundercat and Feed the Kitty. But I will see about the others as you have some very good ones there.
USC Diver, Louis Catorze makes me want to breed a Storm Cat mare to Louis Quatorze just to use that name, (and hope for a colt). I am learning so much from all this. I just now looked up Louis Quatorze and found that name represents more than just a very nice racehorse, I had no idea!
Peter Morris, I think the reason they don’t allow any names ending with mare is because of the way many horses were named in the past. If you look into the early pedigrees, you might see the dam as “Peter Morris mare.” They kept good records of the stallions, but many times the mare’s name just didn’t get recorded. So Peter Morris mare could be a mare owned by the famous Peter Morris horseman, or the mare’s sire was named Peter Morris. Very confusing. So my guess is that when they decided to make official rules about naming horses, they did away with the mare, colt, filly etc to avoid confusion.
Here is an example: Hambletonian Standardbred
We could try Knightmare, but since it is so close to Nightmare, it probably wouldn’t be allowed. It would be seen as too confusing for the handicappers.
Chatters on and Chat a Box are both free, and would work for our chatty gal.
Shirley, I will look those up, and get back to you. I love Whinny, Lose or Draw, but we would have to take the spaces out to make it fit. I checked on Shirley Ujest, not taken, hmmmm. And I like the wine and champagne themes, we can pronounce those.
Tamarin, in the first draft, I had submitted Gabby Cat, like Tabby Cat, but had no takers. But they might like Gabby Tabby better.
Smart Aleq, Waki Cat is not taken, which is suprising since Miswaki is a leading broodmare sire and I thought I had seen most every version of Waki.
Gatopescado, your user name would make good horse name. I thought there was one named Iams, but don’t see it now. There is one named Glue, poor guy. One the announcers had fun with was Shh Hush Hush. When ever that was said, the crowd would obey, then laugh when remembering that was actually a horse in the race.
I will check on the others I haven’t checked on, and get back to you all. Thanks again for the help. I am sure we will have a winner out of this group!
How about, “It’s Raining Cats!”
We haven’t started the official voting yet, but from talk on the backside, two entries have jumped to the front. Neither were exactly what posters here mentioned, but these names only came about because of a name someone here suggested. So I think it fair that any name entered here that leads to the winning name will be credited to the original poster.
Not official yet, as we are still taking names, but the early front runners are:
No Sir Ender Cat. Snoopy is credited with his Sir Ender entry. I didn’t notice his location earlier, but it makes sense a Louisvillian might know a thing or two about naming a future Derby winner. Maybe he will be able to root No Sir Ender Cat on in person.
And right up there with No Sir Ender Cat is Viva La Cat. Credit goes to
Shirley UJest for her suggestion of Viva La Kitty. That doesn’t surprise me as Shirley has such a clever user name.
Again, official voting has not started yet, but thought I would update you on who the early morning line favorites are.
And I am going to use this an excuse to show more pictures. Thank you all for the compliments on “Gabby.” She left this week to “learn her manners.” After that she will be back here to play and frolic and beg carrots from us as we wait for her to physically and mentally mature.
This silly litle thing is Gabby’s half sister, the 2006 model. http://i13.tinypic.com/29f2r84.jpg
And just a few months later. http://i16.tinypic.com/4hx9amd.jpg
She is quite the head turner around the farm, and she knows it.
And here is a funny looking little guy. Just a few minutes old here: http://i14.tinypic.com/30bd8gy.jpg
Then after a couple of hours:
http://i13.tinypic.com/2mnesms.jpg
Then after a couple of months:
http://i12.tinypic.com/2wcmv86.jpg
Now, about to be a yearling:
http://i11.tinypic.com/4harpts.jpg
I think we will keep him! Even Secretariat would be jealous of his beautiful red color. He looks to me to be practicing his Winner’s Circle photo pose.
And this interesting girl is by the same sire as last year’s Derby favorite. I wonder if Rorsarch Inkblot is taken? We will have fun coming up with an appropiate name for her.
http://i10.tinypic.com/2wf5pnc.jpg
She is sweet as can be, a real favorite around here.
And this handsome boy is beginning to look like a racehorse. He will be three next month, and will likely be ready for his first start in March at Gulfstream Park. Here is his first time “running in company” making a nice outside passing move:http://i10.tinypic.com/2hzmz9c.jpg
If he doesn’t make it as a racehorse, I think he could play Barbaro in the movie:
Mutak: http://i11.tinypic.com/3ycyvqw.jpg
Barbaro: http://i16.tinypic.com/42iy3qt.jpg
Oh, I can’t seem to stop!
These last ones are of our retired horses. These first two raced for a couple of years, each winning once, placing and showing several times. We retired them before they had any serious problems. They were retrained, and now have successful careers as Eventing horses. They always loved the time in the paddock before the race when they could prance around and be admired. Now they get to do that all the time.
http://i14.tinypic.com/2s9uihg.jpg
http://i17.tinypic.com/348lxqe.jpg
http://i16.tinypic.com/2m6lcvl.jpg
And this one never made it to the track. We were trying to breed for soundness, and got it; he was just too big and too slow to race. But he was the perfect size for a very tall man who needed a sturdy trail riding horse. So now he enjoys being a very spoiled pleasure horse.
http://i16.tinypic.com/2q9wfwn.jpg
Thanks for indulging me with the pictures. I will use the excuse that since I don’t have kids, this is my only chance to show my “brag book.”
I will keep you updating on the voting once all the entries are final.
My vote: Sir Ender Lady
Thanks for posting the gorgeous pictures, Grits. I personally think *No Sir Ender Cat * sounds like a colt name. I also think *Viva La Chat * has a better ring that Viva La Cat. But that’s just me. I also love Chat-a-box. Keep us posted on her winnings!
Just a thought, would “Sir Ender” break this rule, as it is intended to mock the French?
QUOTE=Renee]Thanks for posting the gorgeous pictures, Grits. I personally think *No Sir Ender Cat * sounds like a colt name. I also think *Viva La Chat * has a better ring that Viva La Cat. But that’s just me. I also love Chat-a-box. Keep us posted on her winnings!
[/QUOTE]
Glad you enjoyed the pictures, but you shouldn’t encourage me, I have lots more!
If you can think of a way to get the Sir Ender in a name that sounds more filly-like, that would be great. The problem with Sir Ender Lady, or Sir Ender Gabby is that many thought that sounded too much like it was our horse who would do the surrendering. We need a name that sounds like the other horses will surrender to her. ( which in a stretch duel, that is often what happens. One horse convinces the other to give up. Horses that have a tendency to give up often can be helped with blinkers.)
I had played with Sir Ender totheCat, but so far the others preferred No Sir Ender Cat.
And I also prefer Viva La Chat. The problem here is that no one knew how to pronounce Chat. The only French words that are really being considered are the ones that are also common in English. This may stem from the fact that the road the leads to Keeneland, and a little town near Keeneland is called Versailles.* Here it is pronounced VER-sales. Out of town folks are always wanting to “educate” us poor hillbillies, and correct our pronunciation. This gets annoying after a while, so that may be the reluctance to go with an unfamiliar French word. If we were in Louisiana, the French words would not be a problem, but we have a very hard time with pronouncing even the names of the jockeys from there.
*In the first round of suggestions, I had wanted something along the lines of Cat of Versailles, just to annoy the Midwest track announcers. They would know that being a Kentucky-bred, we were most likely naming her for the Kentucky town, and would want to pronounce it the Kentucky way. But then the rest of the country wouldn’t know that, and would think the announcer just didn’t know better. And if he pronounced it the French way, those in Kentucky would think he didn’t know Kentucky horse country very well. But I got voted down.
It might be more of an issue if our sire wasn’t named Sir Cat. In deciding if the name was meant to be offensive, they will often look at where it came from. So finding a way to use Sir in the name would be expected of us. If the filly’s sire was something like The French Army, and we submitted Always Surrenders, then they would be more apt to think the name insulting.
We are curious if French Letters would get through, but not enough to have to live with the name if it was approved. Since French is in the dam’s name, they probably wouldn’t question it as much as they would if there was no apparent reason for it. The ones that there is no apparent reason for, are the ones they start asking around about.
Thanks again for the help!
And here is another picture of Gabby http://i16.tinypic.com/2cghb1s.jpg
And this is how we are greeted when they hear us walking down the gravel path. Our three yearling girls, lined up wanting carrots and their noses rubbed:
http://i12.tinypic.com/2uotppz.jpg
Never Sir Ender?
Sheez! Am I the only other person making the connection between Queen Catherine and a horse?
If “the others” liked No Sir Ender Cat, how about No Sir Ender Kitty? Kitty’s a good barn name and more feminine.
Queen Catherine is not taken. I had thought it was suggested as Cat being short for Catherine since Queen Cat is taken. I will add the explanation with that one. And she does carry herself as a Queen Catherine. Just got word from the good folks who are breaking her that they are impressed. “The Sir Cat filly has really filled out well and also looks excellent.”
Never Sir Enders is better. I might also try Mis NeverSirEnders. Or MissNeverSirEnders. The Mis prefix gives a nod to the Miswaki granddaddy. Miswaki is pronounced Mizwaki, so maybe Miz NeverSirEnders might work also. The Miz or Miss addition does make it more feminine. And adding Miss or Miz gives a Missy, Mizzie, or Miznev nickname. The nickname should just sort of evolve, but we need something that has some possibilites. Great ideas!! And No Sir Ender Kitty does fit, I had thought it would be too many letters.
Thanks again. These are getting better all the time!
Just some more ideas, if they’re not too late. I’ll start with building on what’s there, and move on to new things:
Sir Ender Toomey (Maybe not so filly-like, but does get the point across.)
Queen of Swords (Because the Queen taps the Knight-to-be with a sword.)
Queentoknightfour (Get the dam, the sire, and a chess reference, all in one.)
Queen’s Treat (Would probably get a lot of play from Woodbine, since a major Toronto thoroughfare is Queen Street.)
Bourbonandbranch (French ruling house: Bourbon, plus a Kentucky reference.)
And from the “I know it can’t be used, but I can’t resist” file:
Filly Mignon
Or here’s another couple of ideas:
Lady Dellacat
Miss Dellacat
That way, you get either the sex or you honor the grandsire, plus the French reference rendered in easy pronunciation for track announcers and players (the French de la, “of the”), plus the sire; and derivatives for barn names (Lady or Missy), all in one.
Thanks Spoons, still taking names, I will add the ones not already taken.
Queen of Swords was taken. Bourbon and…is quite popular, but currently no Bourbonandbranch.
There was a Winewomanandsong a while back. I thought a nice Kentucky version of that would be Bourbonbellesandbluegrass, but could find no way to make all that fit.
I like the Dellacat names, I was surprised there aren’t versions of that already playing off the cat name. And Della would also be an unusual barn name.
Filly Mignon is very clever. This is from Thursday, check out number 10 in the first race.
http://ntra.equibase.com/eqbRaceEntriesDisplay.cfm?TRK=TP%20&CY=USA&DATE=12/14/2006&STYLE=NTRA
We can’t believe they accepted that name. I cringe everytime I see him listed. I was at Churchill Downs once when he ran. As the race before his race ended, and the race-goers were turning the page in their programs to the next race, you could hear the groans all across the track as they noticed his name. Poor guy. Maybe will we use him as a “poster horse” for our horse retraining program.
( In case you are curious, as the morning line favorite, he came in third, beat by Lucky Louie and Northern Alliance.)
I like the Dellacat names too. They sound…lithe. How about Dellacat Reign?
As a player, I’m not surprised. I learned long ago (the hard way) that morning line odds are just that: morning line odds. Good for guidance when you arrive at the track, but they don’t mean much when the players get into the tote. Just out of interest, do you know what he went off at? But if I had Filet Mignon in a three-way boxed exactor… 
Look at the bright side: he’s not Zippy Chippy! (Though I do wonder how I’d fare if I put him on the bottom of my exactors!)
I seem to recall a Winewomanandsong in my DRFs. Where did he run, and when? I’ll look it up in my files. (The southern Ontario DRF edition was amazingly comprehensive; I wish the Alberta edition was like it. I’d subscribe to the southern Ontario edition if it could get me Woodbine PPs and results plus major US tracks plus news and comment every week.) Anyway, if it’s in the DRF I received, it’s my files, and I should be able to find it
Well, that was my thought with Sir Ender Lady–parse it “surrender, lady!” as in a command, assuming she’s mostly running against fillies.