Horse Racing: Namesmanship

Naming a thoroughbred race horse is a delicate and demanding task. Rules of the Jockey Club—racing's all-purpose arbiter—require that the monicker contain no more than 18 letters, and that it not duplicate one of the 150,000 names now in use, or, for that matter, one used at any time during the past 15 years. With few exceptions, it cannot be the name of a commercial product or of an illustrious (or notorious) person living or dead. It cannot be a copyrighted name—say of a book, play, movie, song or magazine. It cannot be a famous racing name (Man o' War,...