Kentucky Derby 2017: Ranking the horses by name

8. Untrapped

I first misread Untrapped as Unhinged, but frankly, they both have a near synonymous meaning. Not trapped or snared. It makes for a nice name for a horse because it evokes thoughts of freedom of movement and choice. These are important ideas for a horse and specifically a thoroughbred racing horse.

7. Hence

This horse’s name is extremely understated. It’s effective, short on syllables, and it feels like the name of a winner. This horse has potential to be the wise-guy horse based on just his name. The wise-guy horse is the horse that pre-draw and post-draw is on nobody’s radar and by the time the race comes it’s too late to bet on him.  Hence feels like he’s going to fly under the radar in the race, but in our name rankings, I think seven does him justice.

6. Always Dreaming

I love this name and maybe it’s because I like to dream big. This name evokes that dreamer’s emotion. When you hear the name, it’s like someone is following you around with a boombox playing John Lennon’s Imagine on blast.

"“You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.”"

It’s a name that screams hope, rebellion, and heck, if you were going to bet on a horse based on a name alone, this is the only one that makes sense for this years Kentucky Derby.

5. Fast and Accurate

This horse’s name might as well be straight and to the point — because his actual name (Fast and Accurate) is a spot-on depiction of the horse’s character. He’s fast and he rarely misses his mark. He’s a winner when he is racing near the pace horse, but he struggles when out of the gate if he’s position in the rear of the field. He’s running near pace in the Kentucky Derby. This is a good name for a horse with this type of history.