The Reason Behind Every 2025 Kentucky Derby Horse's Name
You get 18 characters to work with when officially naming a horse. There are rules of course, all governed by the Jockey Club, but there's also plenty of freedom to dip into an owner's or stable's creativity when coming up with the next winning name.
The Jockey Club oversees the naming of every horse. And with roughly 45,000 active names, no two can be the same (horse names do get reused after a horse has been inactive for a period of time, so long as it didn't meet certain thresholds that basically retire the name). As the Kentucky Derby points out, names can't be just initials or numbers, a direct name of a living person without written permission, vulgar, on the permanent list, have won a grade one stakes race in the last quarter century, and they can't simply be a direct reuse the names of horses by the same sire or dam within the first five generations. But what they can be is basically anything else. Explore the backstory behind each of this year's Kentucky Derby names:
SF Racing's racing manager Tom Ryan likes his Citizen Bullhead watches, but thought changing bullhead to bull was a better fit for a horse, according to the Linda Blackford of the Lexington Herald Leader.
As common in horse naming, a direct play off sire Neolithic.
Juddmonte Farm opened naming to employees and Final Gambit was the winner, a play off a move in Pokemon, according to the Courier Journal.
A decade-old film documentary 'Searching for Sugar Man' told the story of the American musician Sixto Rodriguez, the Rodriguez this horse is named after.
Grande runs on the track during the morning training for the 151th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs ... More on April 30, 2025 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by)
Brian Coelho and Jonn Bellinger, owners of BC Stables (you can see how they mustered that name) got their start with a horse named Summer Promise and their love of America led them to American Promise.
MORE: Inside Churchill Downs, From Millionaire's Row To The Paddock Club
This Japanese horse comes from a stable where Admire is used in horse names, this time coupled with the Florida city known for a different kind of racing.
Café is attached to each name from the horse's home stable and with a sire from famed American Pharoah, an Egyptian reference was apropos.
Owner Aron Wellman made a lot of newspaper folks proud by taking his history of being the sports editor of his high school newspaper into horse racing. With the dam's name Nepotism, he was also looking for a name that ended in 'ism,' according to the Lexington Herald Leader.
The daughter-in-law of owner Janis Witham uses this quilting block pattern.
Owner Mike Repole loves Italian names and since grande means big in Italian (and in Starbucks speak), he's expecting big things from Grande.
This horse was sired by Karakontie, a Mohawk word that roughly translates to flying sun burning across the sky.
Kentucky Derby hopeful Final Gambit runs at Churchill Downs on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, in ... More Louisville, Kentucky. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Breeding operation Godolphin opened naming to employees and East Avenue is where the firm's Saratoga, New York, training facility is located.
Owner Gus King just liked it. Simple enough.
Sired by Tiz the Law.
This one is a play off the sire Blame.
Coal Battle is a play off the sire's name of Coal Front.
Yeah, Metallica is involved. Owner Jonathan Green, though, didn't choose it as a straight take off of the Metallica song 'Enter Sandman,' instead because he's a fan of legendary Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who walked onto the mound in Yankee Stadium as the Metallica song blared over the public address system.
Godolphin let the employee naming program take a swing at this one. So, Sovereignty was an employee idea, based off the dam Crown.
This one is confusing, but straightforward at the same time. The dam is Play for Gold and her dam was Gold N Shaft. We've got a sire in there of Mineshaft and an older dam named Gold N Delicious. The gold theme just fit.
Travis Boersma, owner of Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing and CEO of Dutch Bros Coffee, named this one after his son, Owen.
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