Every Kentucky Derby winner, ranked by greatness of name
By Zoe West
143. Ferdinand (1986): Just boring. Poor Ferdinand.
142. Big Brown (2008): About as unoriginal a name as you could possibly give a large, bay or brown foal.
141. George Smith (1916): The most basic of basic names… two of them!
140. Donau (1910): I thought this was just a word, instead it’s an alternate spelling for the Danube River…not sure that’s any better.
139. Needles (1956): It’s not a name… and it’s not even an interesting word
138. Paul Jones (1920): See George Smith.
137. Worth (1912): I’m sure he was worth a lot to his owner?
136. Dust Commander (1970): This name doesn’t bode well for him winning races.
135. Joe Cotton (1885): Yes, a wonderful name for a horse when the country was just coming out of the Civil War/Reconstruction.
134. Fonso (1880): What did the poor horse do to deserve this?
133. Whiskery (1927): More of an adjective than a noun. Could have been an apt description though.
132. Burgoo King (1932): This horse was named for a local stew…not much else to say.
131. Hindoo (1881): Nothing to see here, just a horse named as a racial slur.
130. Ben Ali (1886): Was boring-ly named after his owner. I know some people like to name sons after their fathers, but do horses have to deal with that as well?
129. Spokane (1889): Surely there are better cities to be named after.
128. Orb (2013: One of the worst names on here, just boring.
127. Manuel (1899): A simpler name for a simpler time.
126. Alan-a-Dale (1902): I don’t know what this means.
125. Lieut. Gibson (1900): There at least was a lieutenant Gibson around this time period, but I can’t find out enough about him to know if the name is good or not.