My sister had an OTTB whose JC name was “Anchovy Pest”! Not using THAT name. He showed as “Standing Ovation” and his barn name was Magic.
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I’ve changed a few registered/show names, but never a barn name.
Apricot Mist (barn name Angel, which she wasn’t) became Hellzapoppin’ (a musical review from a bygone era).
The OTTB name “Know Jive” (by Mr Jive out of Know This – such original naming) got turned into After Hours for showing, but I kept the barn name of Jive.
I’ve bought the last three horses from their breeders and kept the two that had registered names. The third had a name that was intended to be more of a barn name, which I did keep as a barn name, though he never made it to a recognized show to use said name.
At this point I’ve known enough breeders that it makes me want to keep the names, though I suppose with microchipping you’ll be able to track anything that stays USEF registered.
have you seen the dance routine from Hellzapoppin? It is fabulous!
the dancing starts about 2:40. It is worth a watch!
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At this point I think all the dancers from it have died but Frankie Manning lived a surprisingly long time. I met him at LindyFest in 2009; he had a hard time getting around by then (I think he hurt his hip earlier in the year) but he was still bopping around to the bands they brought it at night. Dawn Hampton was there the year or two later, and was even more mobile. I suppose they are an argument for why movement into your senior years is important!
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That dance scene is so amazing (and the name is just cool) I call my little bulldog mix Hellzapoppin Junior!
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Thank you. That was fun! My mom had the vinyl record of either the show or the movie, but I had never seen any clips from either.
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My girlfriend has a really nice old style heavy TB whose JC name is “Alimony Cobra”. He’s one of the chillest horses I’ve ever met despite having 33 starts on his resume, so I’m sure there’s an inside joke and/or acrimonious divorce responsible, lol.
My old man’s JC name is “Comatoast”, and his track career matches it perfectly. I wish I could access the video of his singular start, it was almost Monty Python-esque 
. He’s exactly as weird as his name, and listening to announcers chuckle over it gives me great joy, lol
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My previous heart horse was named Onlyfoolfallnluv as an OTTB! Yeah I called her Presley. Current gelding’s registered name was Henry. Literally that’s it, so heck yeah I changed it, even reached out to his breeder to ask if they wanted me to keep the name as a previous and they said nope, but they also couldn’t find his birth date so not sure they really cared.
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You can on equibase for the small fee of $6.99 (ish). This is where we got the classic video of my friends horse trying to stop as he passes the barns on the backside during this third and last race.
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Growing up there was a school pony named Ugly my friend use to show. “Friend riding Ugly” or “In first place, Ugly” was always hilarious to hear. She kept trying to rename him Popcorn but it never took. He was a saint though!
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The most outrageous tale in my horse show world happened many decades ago. Unfortunately, I still can’t tell it, because one side of the story is still alive, as far as I know. The other side is dead.
Must know this story, though, that is too intriguing … can you disguise identities? Just give us the tale of what happened, no names, dates or places? Please … 
Just smut. Common smut. Trust no one.
