Footballers are known to be some of the most popular characters and sporting stars throughout the entire world. Through the popularity of the sport, football stars are known by everyone for their moments on and off the pitch! Horse racing comes with a tradition of unusual and fascinating names for the horses in these races, with football being the inspiration for plenty of different horse names throughout the sport, whether that be footballers, managers or even nicknames!
While horse racing is full of plenty of interesting factors, such as the action itself of bettors taking advantage of offers such as Cheltenham free bets, the naming of horses is another element that is incredibly fascinating. Here, we will look at the different names throughout horse racing that are linked to football, whether that be footballers or even football stadiums!
Greatest Footballers Ever
It should come as no surprise that many of the horses that are named after footballing stars come after the very best players in the world. Due to their global popularity and skills, these are the most popular footballing names seen! Messi and Ronaldo are two who are doing the rounds on the racing circuit, with the former being bred and trained by Grestut Brummerhof. Messi has 10 race wins so far, whilst Ronaldo has 7 wins throughout his entire career, emulating the footballing battle between the two superstars. However, these horses aren’t quite as impressive as their footballing counterparts.
Two of the best strikers throughout their generation are also used to inspire the names of horses, with these two being Zlatan and Aguerooo, with the second one being a reference to the iconic Martin Tyler commentary when Manchester City stole the Premier League title from their rivals Manchester United. Zlatan is a nod to the Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was a legendary striker for AC Milan and PSG, and in the horse racing world, he is a multiple-time winner! Aguerooo has proved to be as prolific as the former Manchester City striker, with the Charlie Wallis trainer claiming 18 wins at the time of writing!
Footballing Icons
Not every horse chosen to have a footballing name is named after one of the best ever, with some being named due to their status at particular clubs or just if they are a particular favourite of the owner. For example, Paul Nicholls trained Christopher Wood to 12 victories in 46 outings, and De Bruyne has won twice on the fibresand at Southwell! Christopher Wood might have been a surprising name to see on this list, yet with his form continuing to get better and better whilst at Nottingham Forest, perhaps the horse was good luck for the footballing counterpart!
John Terry was once a three-time winner for Amanda Perrett, whilst Bielsa claimed the same number of successes for Kevin Ryan in 2019. Bielsa was a popular name due to his managerial stint at Leeds, when he was able to take the club back into the Premier League after a 16-year absence.
Ooh Ah Cantona was named after the chant which was created for Manchester United legend Eric Cantona, with the horse winning five times across a 29-run career, with a horse called Zidane winning the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood in 2007. A play on words of Wayne Rooney being used for the horse Switcharooney, one of the horses that raced out of the stables owned by Michael Owen. The same can be said for horses such as Captain Gerrard, Bergkamp, Van Basten, Klopp, Van Dijk and Defoe.
A horse named Schmeichel, who is named after United goalkeeper Peter, ran 10 times in Ireland in the 90s, whilst King Power Racing Co has named two horses after two strikers that are part of the Premier League winning squad, being Fox Vardy and Fox Shinji.
Other Football Related Names
While many of the different names are mainly footballers, there are also other names used that represent both managers and teams. For example, Reviette might not seem to have any football correlation, yet it is actually a nod to famous Leeds boss Don Revie, whilst the Romford Pele links to Ray Parlour, and Yorkshire Pirlo is a horse named after Kalvin Phillips.
John and Heather Snook favour orange and black silks for their jockeys, as this is in support of their beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers, with these colours seen to be worn at Cheltenham Festival! They unsurprisingly also have a horse named Molineaux on their books, which is the name of the home stadium for Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Elsewhere across the horse racing industry, there have been runners of Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Goodison Park down the years, whilst in America, there have been sightings of names like Bayern and Dortmund from owner Kaleem Shah.
