IT is now common practice for racehorse owners to come up with quirky and sometimes unheard of names for their potential equine stars.
Makybe Diva the champion mare that became a legend when she won her third successive Melbourne Cup six years ago is a prime example.
Her moniker was derived from the first initial of six female employees of the horse’s owner Tony Santic.
Waikikamookau (why kick a moo cow) was one of the first quirky names to grace the turf in Australia and it was the pronunciation of his name that captured the imagination of the general public.
In Launceston last Sunday night Tasmania’s latest tongue twister Tuktoyaktuk notched his first win but not before causing some racing commentators to agonise over the pronunciation.
The powerfully built grey gelding is owned by his trainer Dianne Ray-Luttrell who also bred the horse.
When searching for a name the trainer opted to call him after a place she saw while watching one of her favorite Pay TV shows Ice Road Truckers.
Tuktoyaktuk is a small township located north of the Arctic Circle on the shores of the Arctic Ocean in the northern region of Canada.
Tuktoyaktuk (pronounced Tuck Toy Uk Tuck) was formerly known as Port Brabant but the community was renamed in 1950 and it was the first place in Canada to revert to the traditional native name that is the anglicized form of the native Inuvialuit place-name Tuktuyaaqtuuq that means “it looks like a caribou”.
So ends the geography lesson!
Tuktoyaktuk may be a name from left field but what lies at the centre of it all is a powerful athletic horse that might have the potential to go all the way.
With Eddie Brennen in the saddle, Tuk made full use of his inside gate to share the lead and when the rider called for the supreme effort at the top of the home straight he burst clear and went on to score by almost two lengths from the favourite Tsar Of Russia with Una Dawn 1-1/4 lengths away third.
Ray Luttrell was thrilled with the win.
“It’s taken a while but he finally broke through,” Ray :Luttrell said.
“The horse has always shown ability and while I’ve bred many there was always something a bit special about this one.”
“Even when I was looking for a name I wanted it to be special – different – in some way.”
“I like the TV show Ice Road Truckers and when one show featured the town of Tuktoyaktuk it somehow seemed like an appropriate name for this horse.”
“His mother was by Toy Pindarri so it seemed to fit,” she said – By Peter Staples.