Whats in a name?

One of the great joys of Photo Finish is that, unlike some and better than most other SIM horse racing games out on the ol' WWW, you get a chance to breed your own racing stock and, unlike the real thing, you actually get an Ability Report (AR) to go with it (think of it like a basic instruction manual although sometimes not quite as helpful!). Another little twist in the game is that you dont get to choose the sex of the foal, its all done on a random basis.

This then throws the question up - what do I call the new foals?! For some its very simple - take part of each parents name and hey presto. Others may use their native language (as we have players from across the globe) whilst others get creative. Me? Yup I am of the "creative" bracket, much to the chagrin sometimes of our ever patient Steward.

My first season in the game was pretty dire. I didnt win much money but I was determined to breed at least one foal. Luckily (and I can still cant remember how!) I got together enough money to breed two foals and as there were no "PF bred" horses around, I was able to choose from RL horses, which was fortunate as at that time I wasnt very familiar with US breeding. I decided to stick with what I knew - ie turf horses. My first pairing was (I thought) a no-brainer - take one proven world sire (Danehill) and match him with a multi G1 winning 10f mare (Indian Skimmer) and boy was I lucky. The resultant foal was Skim The Hill (see info to right) and the rest was history for him. As for the name - yeah, creativity wasnt high on my list then just something catchy. My second foal was another European match - the Derby Winner High Chaparral for a sire with Bosra Sham, a stunning multi G1 winning mare. Again, I hit the jackpot by getting a filly foal (first season - one of each!). She ended up with the moniker - Chap's Gal. She got sold quickly due to both her excellent pedigree and the lack of funds!

Anyhow, I digress. As I have admitted, my first season was more about keeping in the black rather than creating a racing dynasty and names. Come the 2nd season however and I was starting to hit my stride. Money was more forthcoming and this time around I bred 4 foals - and decided that to help me remember when each foal was born, I would create a theme. After checking with our glorious Steward and the Rules, I decided that Welsh names would work. So foals of 2005 breeding season were called Ab-Daledigaeth, Annibynnol Meth, Arglwyddes Clegr and Cariad Plentyn (three fillies and one colt). I still have Ab-D and Clegy but the other two were sold off to make room for the following seasons foals.

Now, if you pardon the pun, with the bit between my teeth, I became more daring so the 2006 foals were all given names of films that had won Best Picture Oscars but I still wanted to keep tis with their parents so I ended up with DrivingMissDaisy (barely linked to her dam Spectacular Wiggle - the film has a scene of Miss Daisy driving wiggly!), Danceswithwolves (bit better being by Sadlers Wells out of Russian Rhythm - sire being the name of a ballet company and russia having wolves.....), Gonewiththewind (not sure why but I think its the dam - Dressed to Thrill a la Scarlett O'Hara!), Rain Man (dam called Urban Sea ie water...) and finally The Godfather which doesnt really have a lot do with his sire Giant's Causeway or the dam Soviet Song but dang it - I love the film! Again, I have all bar one of that seasons foals still with me - Daisy being well managed by FDL.

Bet you cant wait to see what I did for 2007 eh! Five foals were born and this time I really threw the boat out - references to Monty Python! Looking through the Stud Book you will find Knight of Ni, Norwegian Blue, SpanishInquisition, Two Scheckles and Wooden Rabbit. OK - none of the names bear much relevance to their parentage but hey - fun names! (Still upset I couldnt call one Bigus Dickus - and for fans out there I can hear you chuckling!). I am pleased to say that all are still running for the Bally Doyle Stable (although some better than others!)

Roll on 2008 I said - I was really flowing with creativeness. Nine foals born and rather than try to find 18 names to submit (as we have to submit the pairing with both male and female names) I decided to cheat a little and find names that fitted both. Being a lifelong Duran Duran fan it actually was quite simple - find my CD of Greatest Hits and bingo the poor foals ended up with the names of A View to A Kill, ElectricBarbarella, Hold Back The Rain, Hungrylikethewolf, New Moon on Monday, Ordinary World, Planet Earth and The Reflex. These foals are this racing seasons 2yr olds and whilst most have had at least one run (in some cases more) so far they havent been exactly "No 1 hits". I have to remember though that the breeding policy here at Bally Doyle is not for precosious 2yr olds but for solid Derby Time 3yr olds and upwards. (Its hard but I do try!). And no, its not a typing mistake for Hungrylikethewolf - because we are limited (like RL names) to 18 letters including spaces etc, sometimes names are "squidged".

2009 saw more expansion in breeding with 10 foals and this years theme was a nod to Mr Bally Doyle who loves his Sherlock Holmes. You would think that it would be easy to do that - ie name them after books but in his infinite wisdom, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put "The" in front of nearly all the titles! So I decided to include characters as well as places and books and we decided on Baskerville Hall, Final Problem, Moriarty, Reichenbach Falls, Sign of Four, Silver Blaze, The Irregular (sold to Woodbury Stables), Twisted Lip, Two Twenty One Bee and finally Valley of Fear. These are all due to debut next season and we are quietly confident that we have made better matches this time around than at any other time in the past.

Last year wasnt great for names - I had a bit of a writers block and also lack of inspiration. Then I watched "300" and my mind was in overflow! The poor foals are now all named after Greek/Spartan mythology or worse, lines from the movie! So come 2012 racing season you will be seeing Achilles Heel, Bellerophon, ClashOfTheTitans, Elysium Fields (thanks Chrystal!), Medusa's Blood, Mount Olympus, Queen Gorgo, The Cyprian, The Fates, The Three Hundred, This is Sparta and Triton. We also bred a freebie for a good friend in the game (Stonerside Stables) and she named it Flirt With Fame (sigh no inspiration some players!).

There you have it - a walk through my stable and the unfortunate nags with the dogdy names. Next time you look at the racecard and think - what a name - I thank you because I would hate to think that you ever thought of this stable as being boring!

Bet you cant wait now to see the 2011 pairs eh! Neither can I! Only 26 racing weeks left ;)