Recipe For Naming Horses

Don’t use a name that has been used previously, particularly if it was a well performed animal, lightning seldom strikes twice in the same place.

The rules of racing are such that a name can be repeated again, after a span of 20 years, at the discretion of the registrar.

Melbourne Cup winners are usually protected, however, there was a time when one slipped through to the keeper, it was Patron, winner of the Cup in 1894, trained by Richard Bradfield.

Simmering, who raced at Mornington yesterday, now has five duck eggs alongside his name, a poor reflection on the original Simmering, she was a high class filly, the best of her age, by Hellespont in the stable of Lou Robertson, she had to be destroyed after breaking a leg in the Memsie Stakes at Caulfield.

Staviva Promising

Staviva, out of the Matt Laurie yard, looks a promising type after winner at Moe; he proved that was no fluke when he scored again at Mornington yesterday.

Laurie is on the fringe of a good season, he has a young team of horses with potential, among them Staviva, who could easily make it three in a row when next he appears.

He was not an expensive horse; $70,000 for a Encosta de Lago is not considered out of the way, his dam, Vivacious Spirit, when trained by Mick Price won to Group 3 level.

Staviva is a full brother to Costa Viva, she won the Group 1 New Zealand Guineas over 1600 metres, her brother should be capable of winning at the same distance.

An Era Closes

The curtain was drawn for the last time on the Nathan Tinkler racing and breeding enterprise, with the win of Hooked in the Cameron Handicap at Newcastle yesterday.

Ironically it all finished where it began, on that very same racetrack, one had to feel for trainer John Thompson, it has been a rough tough roller coaster ride, his only comment, ”that’s it, we’re done now.”

Did it really have to happen that way for Tinkler, his advises milked him, he was taken to the cleaners and was too gullible.