US Jockey Club orders Austrian Painter renamed Merrylegs after complaint

The US Jockey Club has ordered the racehorse Austrian Painter to be renamed Merrylegs after determining that its original name referred to Adolf Hitler, according to the Guardian. The decision followed a formal complaint and a review by the organisation’s Registry, with the horse’s full sister also required to receive a different name.

The two-year-old had won its first race at Horseshoe Indianapolis on Monday before the naming dispute resulted in the order. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Jockey Club said the Registry had started examining the matter immediately after receiving the complaint earlier in the week. Its registrar subsequently found the name ineligible.

The organisation cited Rule 6.F.9.d as the basis for its decision. That provision bars names likely to cause offence or be threatening on grounds that include race, religion, national origin and politics, among other characteristics. The Jockey Club said it took such matters seriously and welcomed the complaint being brought to its attention.

The Guardian reported that the phrase Austrian Painter is used online as an indirect reference to Hitler, allowing people to discuss him without using his name and potentially triggering content-moderation filters. Hitler was born in Austria and worked as an artist in Vienna before the first world war. However, owner and breeder Scott Herbertson appeared to suggest in social-media posts that the horse’s name referred instead to the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt.

The ruling also affects New Order, Austrian Painter’s full sister. The Guardian noted that, besides being the name of a British band, the expression can refer to Nazi Germany’s plans for occupied Europe. Herbertson responded on social media by saying New Order was his favourite band. Although the Jockey Club identified Merrylegs as the replacement name for Austrian Painter, the report did not give a new name for the sister.

The intervention is not the first time the Jockey Club has required a horse’s registered name to change. The Guardian cited the 2019 case of Noose, which became Scabbard following an order from the organisation, as an earlier example of its action over horse names.