The rules of Racehorse naming

So Imma let you all on a little behind the scenes of what I’ve been working on for the blog (this is tied to the topic of the post, I swear).

Some of you might’ve noticed the blog is no longer daily. It was never meant to be daily, I just had so much to say pent up that it became daily for a couple of months.

I usually make posts in “batches”, I don’t necessarily write them all in batches but rather I get in the mood for one topic and I run it until it dries up and I move onto the next one. I usually read on a history or a topic, let it sink in for a while, craft the “story” of the post in my head, and like all other pieces of writing basically spint it harder and harder in my brain until it flies out of my head into words.

My current “batch” is as follows.

First I want to make posts about the rest of the Golden Generation (and what the hell a “Golden Generation” is) now that Special Week is out of the way.

After that I wanna make an interlude writing about Sakura Laurel and Nishino Flower to complete the batch that I started when the Sakura trees bloomed here.

After that… it depends. I want to finally write about Sunday Silence but for that plan I want to give you all the exact numbers of how many characters are related to him in some way, and before that I want to write about Norhtern Taste which is another number-crunching endeavor…

Basically if I finish playing with Spreadsheets by then I’ll write about that, if not I’ll dedicate a whole week to Daiwa Scarlet and Vodka… and if I DO finish the spreadsheets I’ll leave the Scarlet and Vodka post for afterwards.

Why is this relevant to the topic? Well, as I mentioned I want to write about Sakura Laurel, and you might notice that unlike the rest of the Victory Club members, she’s not “Sakura Laurel O”, and in thinking about how to explain it, I realized that it’d take too long for a post dedicated to her.

So instead let’s talk about it here!

Racehorse names have long history of being really colorful, and I mean as long as a pedigree registry has existed. There’s a racehorse born in 1773 named Potoooooooo. As the story goes Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon wanted to name the newborn “Potatoes” and told a stable boy to register the horse. And the poor boy heard “Pot, eight Os”.

You all know Bellno Light from Cinderella Gray? The theory goes that she’s based on a Kasamatsu racehorse named Twin Bee, like the Konami game. Her hair accesories sure make more sense now, huh. Also Twin Bee uses bells as power ups.

Racehorse naming isn’t a lawless thing, however, there’s rules to it. And like every set of rules you’ll soon see so many edge cases and contradictions you wonder why there’s rules to begin with.

The first requisite in the process of getting a racehorse name is to have a pedigree certificate, a process that takes about year and a half to complete, after which the horse can be registered.

In general, registering a horse is like picking an username for a website: No more than 18 alphabetic characters and 9 Katakana, and don’t pick an existing name… with some exceptions.

There’s many stipulations, but the general goal is to prevent confusion when you see a registry of names. There’s some funny cases like how there’s a Gold City that was born in 2014 that was allowed because even though there’s a Gold City with a history behind him, Gold City died without becoming a Breeding Stallion.

2014’s Gold City is descended from Tap Dance City, funnily enough.

Repeat names are also allowed so long as they’re prefaced by a Kanmei, that’s how you can have both Vega and Admire Vega, or Tokai Teio and Tagano Teio.

Kanmei is short of Kanmurimei (冠名), often translated as “Crown Name”, it’s a part of the name used to indicate that the horse is part of a bigger group. That’s the thing where you have Symboli Rudolf, and Symboli Kris S and Sirius Symboli.

The function of a Kanmei is twofold. It makes it clear that a horse should be paid attention to from the history of the rest of the collective, and it makes it easier for owners with high volumes of horses to come up with names (See: The Vega/Admire Vega difference).

Kanmei are also the only scenario where some form of “advertising” is allowed. A Horse’s name cannot be, for example, “Chevy Trailblazer”. But common words like “Trailblazer” can be used. Kanmei are the notable exception to this though, since technically they’re advertising but they’re not used in a way where the name is JUST advertising.

So in theory, if “Chevy” was a Kanmei, you COULD have a horse named “Chevy Trailblazer”, but unless you own the copyright of the word “Chevy” you’re not allowed to create a Kanmei with that word. Likewise, you cannot use names that contain a word from a Kanmei (Sakura, Narita, Hishi, etc) or use names that could be confused with existing horses and their Kanmei. Tagano Teio can coexist with Tokai Teio, but “Chokai Teio” might be rejected.

The Copyright part can be… played with, however. For starters celebrity names can be used so long as it’s not the full names and there’s plausible deniability. While Mejiro McQueen is named after Steve McQueen, the fact that you can make so many jokes about Lightning McQueen means it’s broad enough to be used.

Certain other copyrights can be played with if the origins can be argued otherwise. A horse named Nike might pass if it’s made clear the pronunciation is “Ni-keh” like the goddess instead of the one used by the shoe brand. This sort of loophole is how you can get horses like TM Precure.

Names can be argued for while making the application, given that the reason for the name has to be provided. Usually (and obviously) you cannot use names that go against public morals, specifically nothing that they wouldn’t be able to say on TV or that LOOKS like a vulgar word; that said, arguments can be made. There’s a horse called Cherry Kouman, normally “Kouman” would be an issue (高慢 means arrogant in a very insulting way), but it was accepted because the owner owned Kouma Co. Ltd.

The one thing they won’t accept is names that mislead on the horse’s gender, though. So no naming a mare Macho Man as a joke.

I wonder what “Ladykiller” would count as, though. Male? Female because of the lady part? rejected because it has the word killer?

They also cannot be named like terms used in the race (eg: “Hishi Furlong” would be a no-go), the same goes for using names of people involved in Horse Racing. This extends to sound-alikes, look-alikes, and (depending on the length of the name) anagrams.

Some names can actually be reused after certain amount of time has elapsed and depending on the accolades of the horse. It usually involves one of three conditions met: years after death, years after its last direct offspring’s death, or a set amount of years.

The exception to this rule are horses registered in the International List of Protected Names, effectively a hall of fame where the name cannot ever be reused.

Since we’re in the topic, let’s go through all the Kanmei in the game as of early May 2023.

• Agnes (Agnes Digital, Agnes Tachyon): Takao Watanabe (Involved in printing industries), named after UNICEF East Asia ambassador, singer, and essayist Agnes Chan.
• Admire (Admire Vega): Toshikazu Kondo (businessman), named for the word itself “Admire”.
• Air (Air Groove, Air Shakur): Lucky Field Co. Ltd., named after Michael Jordan’s Air Jordans.
• Eishin (Eishin Flash): Eishindo Co. Ltd. Named after the company.
• Cafe (Manhahttan Cafe): Kiyoshi Nishikawa (businessman), from “Caribbean Cafe”.
• Curren (Curren Chan): Takashi Suzuki (Ophtalmologist), named after his daughter Karen.
• Kawakami (Kawakami Princess): Mitsuishikawakami Farm, named after the farm which is named after its location.
• Kitasan (Kitasan Black): Kitajima Music Office, named after the owner, singer Saburo Kitajima.
• Grass (Grass Wonder): Kichishiro Hanzawa, named after Green Grass, another horse owned by Hanzawa which formed the TTG Power Trio with Tosho Boy and Tenpoint.
• Copa (Copano Rickey): Yoshiaki Kobayashi, AKA Feng Shui expert Dr. Copa. Named after his nickname which he got from how his last name was mispronounced.
• Sakura (Sakura Bakushin O, Sakura Chiyono O, Sakura Laurel): Sakura Commerce, named after the company.
• Satono (Satono Diamond, Satono Crown): Hajime Satomi, named after his last name.
• City (Gold City, Tap Dance City): Yushun Horse Club Co. Ltd., like Admire it’s just the word itself, “City”.
• Symboli (Symboli Rudolf, Symboli Kris S, Sirius Symboli): Symboli Ranch, named after its location at Shimbori, Chiba.
• Suzuka (Silence Suzuka): Nagai Trading Co. Ltd., Named after the Suzuka Mountain Range.
• Smart (Smart Falcon): Toru Ohkawa, named after the word smart… remember that it’s an english word in Japanese, the novelty is kinda lost when I write this in english.
• Zenno (Zenno Rob Roy): Shinobu Osako, named after his company Zenrin Co. Ltd.
• Taiki (Taiki Shuttle): Taiki Farm, named after Taiki-cho in Hokkaido.
• Tamamo (Tamamo Cross): Tamamo Co. Ltd., named after the company, which itself is named after an alternate name for the Takamatsu Castle.
• TM (T. M. Opera O): Masatsugu Takezono, named after Takanori Makes his initials.
• Toukai (Toukai Teio): Masanori Uchimura, named after the Toukai Packing Industry management company.
• Toushou (Sweep Toushou): Toushou Sangyo Co. Ltd., named after the company, which is named after owner Fujita (藤田) Masaaki (正明)’s name (藤正 = Toushou).
• Tosen (Tosen Jordan): Takaya Shimakawa, named after an alternate reading of his family name (島川).
• Nakayama (Nakayama Festa): Shinwa Shokai Co., Ltd., named after the Nakayama Horse Owner Association.
• Narita (Narita Brian, Narita Top Road, Narita Taishin): Ohsumi Co. Ltd., named after the Naritasan Osaka Betsuin Myoin Temple, “Naritasan” refers to the name of the mountain the temple is in.
• Nishino and Seiun (Nishino Flower and Seiun Sky): Nishiyama Ranch. Nishino comes from the ranch (and owner’s) name, while Seiun comes from the four character phrase “青雲の志”, “The Will of the Blue Cloud”, an idiom that expresses a desire to be great and get ahead in life.
• Hishi (Hishi Akebono, Hishi Amazon, Hishi Miracle): Masaichiro Abe, named after his company’s trade name (菱雅, Hishi Miyabi).
• Hokko (Hokko Tarumae): Koichi Yabe, named after the Hokkai Construction Industry.
• Mayano (Mayano Top Gun): Yu Tadakoro, named after Mayasan (Mount Maya) in Kobe.
• Meishou (Meishou Dotou): Yoshio Matumoto, Meishou (明松) is named after Akashi (明石) in Hyogo and Matsumoto (松本).
• Yamanin (Yamanin Zephyr): Hajime Doi, named after the Yamaninben Ranch that was absorbed into Nishikioka Ranch in 2001.

On top of that, the game also includes many that have fallen into disuse.

• Ines (Ines Fujin): Masaaki Kobayashi, name not explicit but there’s his company “Gaines” so it’s probably related to that.
• Ikuno (Ikuno Dictus): Noriaki Katsuno, name not clear but “ikuno” sounds like いくの or “to go”.
• Oguri (Oguri Cap): Kouichi Oguri, named after his last name.
• Katsuragi (Katsuragi Ace): Kazuzo Noide, name origin not clear.
• Inari (Inari One): Tadahiro Hotetama, named after the Anamori Inari Shrine.
• KS (KS Miracle): Yoshiyoshi Takada, origin not clear.
• CB (Mr CB): Chiaki Ranch, named after the initials of the ranch Chiaki Bokujou.
• Shinkou (Shinkou Windy): Osamu Yasuda, named after his company Shinkou Sangyou… not to be confused with the other Kanmei that goes by “Shinko” (Shinkou is in disuse so it’s more just confusing rather than a conflict).
• Daiichi (Daiichi Ruby): Haruo Tsujimoto, named after his company Daiichi Seiconcrete. “Daiichi” was also his title.
• Daitaku (Daitaku Helios): Taiyo Farm, “Daitaku” means “Big and open” and is the name of a company that Masakazu Nakamura (From Taiyo Farm) was running.
• Daiwa (Daiwa Scarlet): Daiwa Trading Co. Ltd., named after the company (大和).
• Tanino (Tanino Gimlet): Yuzo Tanimizu, based on his family name.
• Tsurumaru (Tsurumaru Tsuyoshi): Nobuo Tsuruta, based on his last name.
• Bamboo (Bamboo Memory): Shinichi Takeda, based on his last name (Take = Bamboo) and by extension his ranch Bamboo Ranch.
• Biko (Biko Pegasus): Legend… by which I mean the Kanmei is used by Legend Co. Ltd., the origin of “Biko” is unknown though.
• Marvelous (Marvelous Sunday): Sadao Sasahara, based on the word ☆☆☆☆MARVELOUS☆☆☆☆
• Machikane (Machikane Fukukitaru, Machikane Tannhauser): Masuo Hosokawa, based on Mt. Machikane in Osaka.
• Mihono (Mihono Bourbon): Mihono International Co. Ltd., based on the company’s name.
• Mejiro (The whole Mejiro household): Mejiro Ranch, named after its location in Tokyo.
• Yaeno (Yaeno Muteki): Similar to the Legend situation, owned by Fuji Co. Ltd., the origin of “Yaeno” are unknown though.
• Yukino (Yukino Bijin): Yukikatsu Arai, based on his last name.

Funnily enough there’s a “Memory” Kanmei, but Bamboo Memory is from the Bamboo Kanmei instead (Not to be confused with the Take Kanmei, or the Takeno Kanmei). Super Creek is also unrelated to the “Super” Kanmei, as is Neo Universe to the Neo Kanmei.

So having learned all that, why isn’t Sakura Laurel called “Sakura Laurel O”?

Well, because while “Sakura” indicates a horse owned by Sakura Commerce, the “O” (王, King) part indicates that it’s a male horse (See: The rule about names needing to be indicative of gender).

This is a common practice, the Symboli Ranch, for example, calls all its male horses “Symboli” but all its female horses “Sweet” (Rudolf’s mother was called Sweet Luna, for example). Likewise, Shinobu Osako (see: “Zenno”) uses the Kanmei “Biko” for his mares… but it’s completely unrelated to Biko Pegasus, the main difference is that the Biko Kanmei in the first is a suffix. Nishino/Seiun is shown earlier is another example.

And to tie it all together, you can now understand the name of Sakura Symboli. A Sakura Commerce horse that was produce by the Symboli Ranch.

There’s actually a Laurel Kanmei, which means that Sakura Laurel could be a joint effort between both in an alternate reality.

You can probably see why I chose to not go on this tangent in an unrelated post.