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Horses at starting line ahead of race
There are more than a dozen rules you have to abide by when naming a horse that will be entered in races in America. The Jockey Club is responsible for determining which monikers get approved, and it has forced the owners of a colt named “Austrian Painter” due to a suspected reference to an infamous historical figure whose art was overshadowed by his reign of Nazi Germany.
There’s evidence that shows humans have been giving names to horses for thousands of years, and the practice is a central aspect of the sport of horse racing.
Anyone who wants to enter a thoroughbred in a sanctioned competition in America must register the horse with the Jockey Club, the governing body that’s tracked bloodlines in the United States since the end of the 19th century.
You have one year to register a horse, but you don’t have to give it a name until it turns two years old. Owners tend to get pretty creative, but they also have to abide by a list of 15 rules that limit the route you can go when it comes to picking one.
That includes a clause that gives the Jockey Club plenty of leeway when it comes to potentially offensive names, including the name of one horse that was subjected to some scrutiny after securing a win at a racetrack in Indianapolis earlier this week.
A horse called “Austrian Painter” has been renamed to “Merrylegs” over a possible reference to Adolf Hitler
I’m going to go out on a limb and assume most people reading this don’t need a refresher when it comes to the life of Adolf Hitler, who was born in Austria and repeatedly failed to gain admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna as a painter before pivoting to politics and orchestrating the Holocaust as the head of the Nazi Party.
It’s subsequently easy to understand why some heads were turned when a two-year-old colt named Austrian Painter secured its first win in the third race at Horseshoe Indianapolis on Monday, September 21st, a development that led to someone filing a formal complaint with the Jockey Club.
That institution reserves the right to reject names that are “likely to be offensive, or could be inflammatory or controversial,” and a potential reference to Hitler certainly fits the bill.
According to The Guardian, the horse is owned by breeder Scott Herbertson, who asserted the name was a reference to Gustav Klimt, another painter who hails from Austria.
The plot thickened when people realized he also owns a horse named New Order, the Joy Division spinoff he claims is his favorite band but was also the name Hitler and the Nazis used to refer to their master plan.
The Jockey Club ultimately determined it never should have approved the name before classifying it as ineligible due to the “likely to be offensive clause,” and the horse will be known as Merrylegs moving forward.