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There is a name availability checker on the BHA website. Here is what it came up with I typed in Frankel:
The name you have chosen is unavailable.
Suggestions: FRANKEL AT ASCOT, FRANKEL’S MAGIC, FRANKENBEANS, FRANK FLASH, FRANKFOOT, FRANKFORD, FRANKFORD LEADER, FRANKFORD RUN
I wonder how it comes up with the suggestions? I presume they are similar existing names on the database that have become available again for one reason or another.
Totally agree on this. There is a list of “protected names” that can’t be used permanently, but it is woefully short. The argument that names need to be recycled or they will run out doesn’t make sense either seeing as the possibilities are practically infinite.
I certainly get a warm nostalgic glow watching the racing coverage of decades past, but think that is much more about remembering the races and the participants, and also times gone by more generally. The voices of people such as Julian Wilson and Peter O’Sullevan help evoke this feeling, but they weren’t any better than many of today’s presenters in my opinion.
I agree Clare Balding did become somewhat overexposed at one stage, but that came about as she was ambitious and good at her job rather than because she was being over-promoted. I also agree that the BBC have pursued a diversity agenda to some extent, but its declining audience share is much more likely a symptom of the massively widened range of entertainment options available nowadays. And is having some female faces presenting the racing coverage really such a bad thing?
I agree with you about Clare Balding Gingertipster. When she started out, I thought she was a real breath of fresh air for horseracing coverage, and very knowledgeable about the game too. She was certainly quite different in style from Julian Wilson, but not inferior. Sadly as her profile rose she seemed to lose her affinity with racing to some extent though.
Julian Wilson was competent and did bring a certain gravitas to his role, though he was clearly of a bygone era, and was already part of a dying breed in his own day let alone now.
Of the other old BBC pundits, I always quite liked Richard Pitman who was enthusiastic and a good communicator. However, I thought Willie Carson was very unsuited to the role, and his inarticulacy in front of the camera usually managed to hinder whoever he was presenting with too.
Totally agree about themed names. Most of them are very unimaginative, and it makes it sound like the horses are commodities that have come off of a production line. Sadly this may be how they are regarded in some cases.
This year we are at peak Minella with Minella Gold Cup winner and Minella Grand National winner.
Love these podcast ideas! Worryingly, I would definitely listen to all of them as well.
Not yet had the pleasure of listening to Vanilla Ice’s contribution, but it’s on the playlist…
I never knew Mill Reef had been so precocious Ian, interesting stuff.
I know the huge Derby fields seen in some of these videos from yesteryear contained plenty of optimistic entries and caused their share of traffic problems, but there’s something special about seeing a great Derby winner romp away from a big field.
Haha Tatling
MC Hammer had a very a good horse called Dance Floor back in the day, so who knows?!Good point Broadsword, though I doubt search engine optimisation will be the reason for many forum posters
It’s “The Derby” to me too, but I really can’t get worked up about anyone calling it the Epsom Derby or indeed the Cazoo Derby. Neither of these names are factually wrong, and this type of nitpicking is unlikely to make more people want to post on the forum.
RIP Earthly. Sadly things also didn’t look promising for Lambs Lane who fell at the second last in the same race, though I’ve not seen anything to confirm one way or another online as yet. Fingers crossed he was just winded, but he took an ugly fall.
The official rating of a race just indicates which horses it is intended to be for e.g. 0-90 would be for horses whose official rating falls in that range.
How good the race actually ends up being will depend on which horses are actually entered, and how well they perform on the day. Determining how good a race was after it has happened is a very subjective matter, and different people will place different weights on a huge number of different criteria such as official ratings, times, jockeys, the draw, the going etc.
Thanks for drawing attention to this Louise12. The IHRB’s penalty is incredibly weak given that it’s not even a first offence. Apparently he is appealing it too!
A warning in advance that the following description is quite graphic, but this is what the Racing Post has said about his previous conviction:
In 2008, he had his licence suspended for four months and was fined €1,000 after Pike Bridge was found to have been neglected to such an extent that she had eaten at her own legs, rendering her unable to stand and causing her to lie down for 12 weeks before being put down.So the previous sentence was pathetic too. There is simply no excuse here; this man should not be allowed to continue to work in the industry in any capacity.
That wonderful dual purpose performer Verdana Blue has been retired. She is off to be covered at Coolmore, the stallion is yet to be confirmed. She was a top class hurdler on her day and won 9 out of 31 races as well as £341k.
Her biggest win was when beating her stable companion Buveur D’Air in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton in 2018. That race will live long in my memory for the winning jockey Nico de Boinville looking somewhat less than overjoyed at their success. I always did think Verdana Blue was a little underrated, and it seems this included in her own stable.
Wishing her a long and happy retirement.
MC Hammer had a very a good horse called Dance Floor back in the day, so who knows?!