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Potoooooooo

en.wikipedia.org

128 points by willemmerson 4 years ago · 33 comments

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Apocryphon 4 years ago

And here I thought this type of rebus wasn't invented until 20th century advertising campaigns. This horse witnessed the American Revolution.

Igelau 4 years ago

I'm thinking something along the lines of the taters scene in LotR.

"Stable boy! The horse's name is Potatoes!"

"Potatoes? Mi'lord?"

"Yah! POT-AYT-OES!"

writes Potoooooooo

willio58 4 years ago

This horse gets posted at least once a year, every time I chuckle at the name

aprao 4 years ago

Why is it that race horses have such unusual names?

  • relyks 4 years ago

    When an owner registers their horse to complete in major races, they need to satisfy a bunch of requirements. Some of which: the name can’t be the same as another horse, it can’t use a copyrighted term, there is a length limit, the name can’t be the same as a real person’s name, and it can’t be profane. Also, a lot of people choose names because they think those specific names will bring them luck or just because they are fun. Sometimes, people also try to include names in the horse’s name that are related to its lineage

    • Apocryphon 4 years ago

      So a little like private boat names?

      • CRConrad 4 years ago

        Except I'm fairly sure there's nothing to stop you from giving your boat the same name as another. How many "Anna II"'s have we seen...?

      • relyks 4 years ago

        I don’t know much about boat names, but I’d say so based on what I’ve seen lol

  • munificent 4 years ago

    I think it's basically a limited namespace issue. Racehorse names are required to be relatively short, and must also be unique, so over time they get weirder.

    • motohagiography 4 years ago

      Curiously, this namespace issue is solved in other sporthorses with microchips and horse passport numbers. I suppose it's the betting that causes them to have to make rules.

      The convention in European sport horses is typically the registered name uses the first initial of the sire (so a horse named Donnerhall's decendents all have D names, and if you have the name and breed, it's like designer advertising for what line they're from) with the exception of the Lusitanos and Spanish PRE's, which use names where the first letter is assigned to the year of their birth.

      So a Portuguese or Spanish horse named "A"ndro would have been born in 2004, and a horse named "E"duardo would have been in 2009, and it's a useful convention you can know a horses age from its name. Their studbooks are relatively narrow with fewer foundation stallions and breeders.

      • jessaustin 4 years ago

        Thoroughbreds also have microchips in their necks now, but those solve a different problem. Microchips, and lip tattoos in previous years, ensure that the horse being examined is a particular horse registered at the Jockey Club. However, no one wants to root for or bet on a horse identified by a long random number. So, printable and pronounceable names are still used.

  • throwthere 4 years ago

    Maybe 18th century Potoooooooo would think "aprao" and "ycombinator" are unusual names.

smoldesu 4 years ago

I prefer Orb[0]. Orb is horse.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orb_(horse)

ranza 4 years ago

Reminds me of my friends who own a motion graphic company called https://ccccccc.tv

robertwt7 4 years ago

good read

pot8o is pronounced pot-eight-o = potato.

Usually "potato" term is considered as weak / bad as far as I know, but then here "potato" is a champ.

jszymborski 4 years ago

Further proof that naming things is hard.

peanut_worm 4 years ago

also the name of a freakish bird

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potoo

prpl 4 years ago

Better in spanish than english

wly_cdgr 4 years ago

*Poto6o

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