I might be the only one here who didn't know that but I didn't.

Very cool!

* * *

Meet Miz Ida and yeah I know not a celebrity per se but something so much more well... see for yourself.

http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...TS08/309010096

I can see it now, August Belmont fighting in the trenches at the Battle of Verden!!


But wait, WW1 was practically over by the time MOW made his debut.

That, and Sam Riddle owned him, though Belmont was the breeder.

Kind of funny, thinking of a 68 or so year old man fighting in the trenches while doting a gas mask and bayonet.

He sure wasn't a celebrity in the north, but Nathan Bedford Forrest had a horse named after him, N B Forrest... decent turf runner in the early 1990's. How the Jockey Club let that name by, I'll never know.

Easily enough explained.

A profound lack of knowledge of history, and no such thing as Google.

True dat, but still... how blewdy iggerant could they be? I bet someone could've slipped "I V Dzhugashvili" by them as well.

I know Cunning Stunt got by well back in the day, and Caesar Kimmel had a bunch of horses -- and good ones, too-- with eyebrow-raising names (Cold As A Witch's, Bodacious Tatas, among others). But of course these are slightly different stories.

I may not know anything about the Belmonts (except for what Sightie, Cowgirl and Deb have taught me :D ) but I do know about WWI (don't ask) and we weren't in the war yet (Battle of Verdun). :p

That was my point!!

By the time the US entered the war, most of the really gruesome stuff was done, and Germany was teetering on collapse. To say Belmont was fighting in the war was pretty silly really. I mean, really, a 65ish year old fart, 'fighting'??

The Belmonts named MOW before they knew they'd be selling him at auction. Originally they were going to keep him out but were afraid everybody would assume they were keeping the best and selling the lesser yearlings, diminishing what the entire group would bring. They were already up against it with their yearlings suffering distemper and looking pretty ragged for a sale. Dunno if he was named as a weanling or yearling but it was either 1917 or 1918. He was sold at Saratoga in 1918 as Man O' War.

Well, at least that makes some sense.

I always figured he was named after a jellyfish or type of ship.

I want to name a horse Willie Nelson. Especially if he was bred to better on grass.

there was a jersey bred a few yrs ago named belichek

Winnah.

http://www1.drf.com/drfPDFChartRaces...=20120908&RN=8

edit - Not a redboard, I didn't play the race. Just saying she won!