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I love the Arab names and trying to figure out what they might mean in English.
The Arab naming of two fillies a couple of years back caused some confusion when the fillies Habaayib and Hibaayeb were running, one trained by Ed Dunlop and the other by Clive Brittain.My only real gripe is with owners, obviously with more money than sense, giving beautiful thoroughbreds stupid names.
There can’t be a worse name for a filly than the 2yo as yet unraced trained by Richard Hannon (see Steve Taplin’s 2yo book) that has been named MANMANMANMAN now I’m looking forward to Richard Hoyles calling that one home.
Gaelic names are sometimes just as hard to prounonce such as
SAOIRSE ABU – Freedom Forever
FINSCEAL BEO – Living LegendTEOFILO (an Italian boy’s name meaning Friend of God)
HALICARNASSUS – An ancient Greek City
but they have all have meaning as do the Arab horses, the quirky names can seem fun at the time, but beautiful thoroughbreds deserve much better..Jac
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...They are running on UK courses, in UK races for UK racegoers, they should be named in English. If they are going to be campaigned at Meydan or Abu Dhabi then call them something in Arabic.
It’s a disgrace, these Arabs come over here and buy our horses and take our prize money and can’t even give them proper English names. Send ’em back to their own country if they want to choose names in their own language I say. Lets hope ‘Er Majesty, gawd bless her, wins the Derby with a good old English horse this year.
That good old English horse was gifted to ‘Er Maj’ by Sheik Mohammed who a few years back was ill advised and sold the Dam of Derby Winner Nashwan (Height of Fashion) to Sheik Hamdam for £1,000,000.
Now I think the Sheik (Mohammed), by way of a thank you, has gifted The Queen with a possible Derby winner who’s dam sire is none other than Bustino the Sire of Height of Fashion.Funny old world
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...Proving that there’s nothing new under the sun, I distinctly remember there being an "opposed to Arab names" sort of thread on TRF some five or six years ago.
I also remember that the OP of that thread was given particularly short shrift. Some of the cries of "racist!" were no better put than the post which ignited their ire in the first place, and I’m loathe to go down that route here either despite having negligible truck with either OP’s argument now as then.
Simpler to observe, perhaps, that what constitute apparently easier names than the Arab ones in this country pose their own problems elsewhere in the world, and not too far away from these shores, either. The "J" sound of "Julius Geezer", for example, poses an inordinate amount of trouble for a lot of German speakers, given there is no direct equivalent of it in that language.
I wouldn’t anticipate any local disquiet at that animal running around the likes of Baden-Baden or Hoppegarten, though.
Moreover, and in an era where the moving, selling, etc. of horses around the world to continue their careers elsewhere is no less prevalent than previously, would we be particularly well served by an edict that compels the renaming of horses wherever they go simply to aid pronunciation locally?
What renamed horses already exist pose the likes of the
Racing Post
‘s archive an insurmountable problem as it is. That’s absolutely not a dig at that service – as a relational database there’s not much of a way around the issue, as a horse’s name can’t assume two different values in the same line of the same RDBS table. And if it’s a problem for the
Post
, it’ll likely be a problem for any other comparable horse and race archive, to the benefit of no-one.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
- Total Posts 17716
Surely horses with Arab names have some arab, rather than just strait TB breeding? Might be wrong.
No Arab in them,well maybe a couple of hundred years back,just like the ‘painted’ horses they wouldn’t be able to mix it with TB’S.
I’m loathe to go down that route here either despite having negligible truck with either OP’s argument now as then.
I’m loath to criticise an otherwise consummate wordsmith GC but this is not the first time you’ve committed the cardinal error of substituting loath with loathe
I loathe it, I really do
Almost as unforgiveable as seperate and desparate
Mr Ashworth, my ruler-on-knuckles-and-forefinger-in-the-neck English teacher is the cause of my linguistic anal retention
Never did me any harm
I’m loath to criticise an otherwise consummate wordsmith GC but this is not the first time you’ve committed the cardinal error of substituting loath with loathe.
For "consummate" read "dangerously sleep-deprived", for reasons too boring to go into. I’ll be staggered if it is the only faux pas I’ve committed on here of late.
Per the original topic, to this tongue the likes of the aforementioned Lajooj are easier to render than, say, Cyflymder or Lean Ar Aghaidh, but I’m in no hurry whatsoever to suggest the last two named can only go by that name in Wales and Ireland respectively.
I understand that some sporting commentators make extensive use of an industry standard issue book of pronunciation – certainly the BBC used to maintain one, and may still. Can’t think who among the TRF faithful wouldn’t benefit from this being made available to all.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
It would seem that the BHA are not totally attuned to linguistic colloquialisms.
Gordon Elliot ran a horse called Moresambowsplease at Ballinrobe on 27-Apr and then the same horse ran at Perth but under a different name (Sargent Foaley), apparently because the word "Sambows" was not acceptable.
A Sambow is a term used in Ireland for a sandwich and in no way refers to a racial slur
Ballinrobe race in irish-racing.com –
http://www.irishracing.com/v5rhfinfo?pr … 1104272030Ballinrobe race at racing-post.com –
http://www.racingpost.com/horses/result … &popup=yesHorse’s next run at Perth at racing-post.com –
http://www.racingpost.com/horses/result … &popup=yesGood catch, David. And just to hammer home the point about relational databases not being able to cope adequately with such name changes, note that Sargent Foaley appears in the Ballinrobe result as Sargent Foaley and not Moresambowsplease.
The name change has been suffixed to the race-reading comments for the Ballinrobe race, though (however soon or long a time after the event), which is something at least.
Moresambowsplease consequently no longer returns any results when searched for with the
Post
‘s search engine.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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