Thoroughbred owners often look to major news stories of the day for inspiration when devising names for their horses and the fallout from the November 7 presidential election has apparently provided them with all sorts of new material.The Jockey Club's Registry in Lexington, Kentucky has issued foal certificates or reserved names for these Thoroughbreds in the past two months: All Four Chads, Chad, Chadsanddimples, Count The Chads, Dangling Chad, Don't Countess Out, Electoral College, Florida Recount, No More Chads, Palm Beach Ballot, Tooclosetocall and Win for Chad.Since some of them just turned two years old -- all Thoroughbreds celebrate their "birthday" on January 1 -- they will be eligible to race this year. The immediate influx of election-related names comes as no surprise to employees in The Jockey Club's Registration department.
"Anytime you have something new or trendy or well-covered in the mass media, you'll see names based on that," explained Janice Towles, The Jockey Club's manager of registration services. "It happens with news, sports, politics, television and movies and the names often reflect pop culture. In fact, sometimes the prospective names help you keep up with what's going on."The Jockey Club approved names for more than 36,000 Thoroughbreds last year. More than half were completed through the Internet-based Jockey Club Interactive service. With access to an online names book, owners can now find out what names are available and more than 70 per cent of registered foals are assigned the first name choice submitted.How many foals have been given election-related names? Says Towles: "We're still counting them!"
