Kentucky Derby Horse Names 2023

This Saturday, a bunch of young animals will run a mile and a quarter in such a way that causes people to don funny hats, get wasted, and wager large sums of money. It may sound like madness, or even a novel form of witchcraft, but no. It is the Kentucky Derby.

The Kentucky Derby is an old thing, predating toilet paper and the seismograph (which were somehow invented in the same year). I don’t know what people did before toilet paper made the scene, but they had eight years’ worth of mail-order catalogs by the time it did, which may be a hint.

I’m not sure what point I’m trying to make here, partly because I’ve expressed my opinions about this stupid race many times in my previous Kentucky Derby articles, and partly because I just bonked my head pretty hard while playing with my cat. But I’m pretty sure the gist of it is that the Derby is one of the stupidest pissing contests wealthy people engage in, and that an actual contest to see whose horse could piss the most would be more entertaining. I’d watch the shit out of that (or the piss, as it were).

Anyway, here’s our mascot, Darby the Derby ‘Dactyl, to start off the Mountain Time Kentucky Derby Horse Names Review—2023 edition.

Two Phil’s

This should be a horse that is somehow two people named Phil. It could be a couple guys in a horse suit, or it could be horse with multiple personalities, each named Phil. Unfortunately, that apostrophe means that Two Phil’s belongs to a guy named Two Phil, who got his nickname for having two of several body parts.   B

Continuar

Continuar is simply the Spanish for to continue, and I can kinda get behind that. You know, perseverance, willpower, going forward, all that crap. I just can’t shake the feeling that I’m supposed to insert quarters into this horse.   C+

 

Rocket Can

Rocket Can sounds like a nice children’s book about a gas can named Rocky that dreams of being the fastest can in the world. Everybody tells him he can’t do it, but he still has one fan when he signs up for the track meet. She’s a nice can of Diet Pepsi, and she believes in him! Unfortunately, it turns out that cans are inanimate objects, and Rocky learns that he can’t achieve greater things on account of being a one.

This teaches Rocky that upward mobility is a myth, and he spends the rest of his life fighting for the working class.   A

 

 

Forte

This moniker just screws the owner, because literally everybody else in the world gets to say, “That’s not my Forte,” and lazy quips like that fuel about 80% of chit-chat at parties.   D

 

Cyclone Mischief

It seems to me that we, as a society, have arrived at a point in which the word cyclone exclusively signifies carnival rides. If you’re using it to mean anything else, you might as well be having a gay old time with the Flintstones.

You know what we don’t need around our hastily-constructed and probably-never-actually inspected carnival rides? Hijinks. Tomfoolery. Rascality. You know, mischief.

Damn kids messing around near the machinery. You’re gonna get your hair caught in the cyclone and be stuck buying wigs for the rest of your life.   C

Reincarnate

I don’t know how to.   D+

 

Major Dude

I’m guessing this was a proposed title for a Major Dad spinoff in which the titular dad gives up the army life to pursue his dream of running a dude ranch. Gotta say, I’d watch it every bit as much as I watched Major Dad.   B+

 

Verifying

Waiting for your debit card to be accepted: The horse!

New rule: No gerunds. Seriously, it isn’t even Verified; it’s a fucking ongoing process. And yeah, we’re all “an ongoing process” in the new-agey sense, but this animal is going to be shot, butchered, and served at Outback Steakhouse within the next three years.   F

 

Mage

Come on. It’s 2023. We’ve identified so many types of mage at this point! To wit: A flame mage shoots fireballs at you and you die. A frost mage makes a living snowman, the snowman tells you what a disappointment you are, and you’re sad. A cyclone mage throws a carnival ride at you, and you’re suing a business that couldn’t ever possibly pay out.

If you’re just sticking with Mage, I have to mark your assignment incomplete.

 

Tapit Trice

If you really feel compelled to drill a hole in your head, make sure to do it after naming your animals.   F-

 

Jace’s Road

First off, Jace, along with his sister Jan, their monkey Blip, and oh, I don’t know, friggin’ SPACE GHOST traveled in the Phantom Cruiser through SPACE. If you didn’t know, space is a lot like actress of screen and stage Natalie Portman, in that there are no roads in it.

Secondly, it sounds like Jace is supposed to drive a car over this horse.   B-

 

Practical Move

So you’ve started to realize you don’t take advantage of the nightlife in your hip neighborhood. You might as well move to a cheaper part of town where you’ll get twice the space for the same rent. That’s a practical move and a normal part of progressing through life. It’s like when you stop snorting your heartburn meds, or when you decide to only let licensed professionals work on your teeth. But, somehow, nobody’s burdening animals with those names.   C-

 

Disarm

There are over 81,000 registered guns in Kentucky. This equine is going to be assassinated, which, I’ll admit, will make for a very entertaining Derby.   B-

 

Mandarin Hero

At first, I figured this big pony was named after some famed Chinese warrior. Then I found out it’s Japanese-owned and -bred, so probably not.

Naturally, my mind moved to picturing a courageous little orange that won the hearts of the people through heroic actions. I was ready to stop there until I remembered that some people call a sub sandwich a hero. “That’s a funny idea,” I thought, “a sandwich filled with mandarin orange slices.”

But then, because I never trust my brain to tell me the truth, I looked up whether anyone actually calls a sub a hero. Sure enough, they do, primarily in New York. As the story goes, the term was coined in a 1936 New York Herald Tribune column, the idea being that the sandwich was so big “you had to be a hero to eat it.”

Dear reader, the author of that column was a woman named Clementine Paddleworth. Clementine! A clementine is just the smallest kind of mandarin orange!

Score for a brave orange: A

Score for a sandwich filled with oranges: A

Score for this horse’s name being an homage to the person came up with the name hero for a sandwich, which it indisputably is: A+

Score for Clementine Paddleworth: 4.0 for the entire semester’s courseload.

 

Derma Sotogake

I don’t know what Sotogake means, but with the Derma in front of it, I assume it’s a skin condition. “I can’t come in today, Sheila. I’ve got the derma sotogake real bad. …Um, there’s bumps? And, uh… stripes? Yeah, I’m a goddam sandpaper zebra right now, Sheila. …Yeah, that cheetah’s teeth were worn-down to nubs.”

Score for Derma Sotogake: C?

Score for Sandpaper Zebra: A+

Confidence Game

It’s refreshing that, in a scene as wholesome as the horseracing world, there’s someone willing to tell you they’re conning you. Everybody and their “I’m holding these pills for my friend” uncle expects Confidence Game to take a dive. Will it be as fun as the dive in Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken? You'll just have to tune in and see.   C-

 

Raise Cain

Who am I, Adam?  No, I have a belly button. I’m not raising that deadbeat’s kid.   C-

 

Skinner

If our society is as advanced as we want to believe, you either name it Steamed Hams or you don’t name it at all.   F

 

 

Hit Show

At the time of this writing, the three most popular TV shows (according to Rotten Tomatoes) are:

1.       The Diplomat (a very expected, and thus C-, horse name)

2.       Beef (an A horse name at minimum)

3.       Florida Man (a meme far past its prime, and thus a D horse name)

Whoever picked the name Hit Show thought they could pass the selection of the specific show off to me. Well guess what, dickwad; I’m not here to make you look good. I’m choosing 2001’s Dead Last as the name of your horse. Sure, it only lasted one season, but 97% of Google users liked it. That’s a hit to me.   F

 

Angel of Empire

This is how you play the mental game in the Kentucky Derby: Make all your competitors think your horse is a shitty mobile game. While they’re assuming they’d have to watch ads every couple of minutes to make any modicum of progress, you’re taking the lead.  

Score for the name: D-

Score for the strategy: D- (unless it works)

 

Sun Thunder

I don’t know if this is a racing video game from the ‘80s, a racing movie from the ‘80s, the band that did the soundtrack for a racing movie in the ‘80s, or the band from the ‘00s that was mocking the band from the ‘80s that did the soundtrack for the racing movie, but I do know this: Someone knows how to name a fucking horse.   A

 

Lord Miles

Diogenes, the man who has been remembered for 2300 years for not giving a shit, would still spend more time coming up with a name for his horse than whoever the hell named Lord Miles.   F

 

Kingsbarns

My research (of which I did very little) tells me that Kingsbarns is just some place in Ireland. Also, this horse is from Ireland. My conclusion: They just named this horse after where it’s from, which is like naming Robocop Detroit. “Detroit is really cleaning up Detroit,” the news anchor says. Detroit “The Tool Man” Detroit and his wife Detroit watch in confusion.   F