Wrong call: giving a horse a bad name just heaps on the mental anguish

We have reached a time of year that, I must confess, leaves me a little apprehensive.

The moment has arrived to start naming the yearlings who have been purchased at the sales or arrived from other sources through the autumn and I have come to learn that people are generally absolutely dreadful at naming racehorses.

Don’t get me wrong, there are more serious things to be bad at than struggling to come up with a creative moniker for a horse to go by on the racecourse, but I do shudder at the prospect of what is to come.