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What’s in a name? Plenty of unwanted pressure for Beadman’s trainer Peter Snowden

When a horse named after a legendary jockey lines up in a maiden at Newcastle on Saturday, his trainer Peter Snowden admits he’ll be as nervous as if it were a Group 1 at Randwick.

Ray Thomas
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6 min read
10:25AMApril 24, 2025.
Updated 19 hours ago

There’s a level of unwanted pressure that comes with training a racehorse named after a legend of the sport.

When Beadman lines up in a maiden at Newcastle on Saturday, his trainer Peter Snowden admits he will be feeling as nervous as if it were a Group 1 at Royal Randwick.

The two-year-old colt by super sire Snitzel is named after Hall of Famer Darren Beadman, one of the all-time great jockeys.

Snowden has had a lot to do with the jockey during their racing careers, particularly the period both were at Crown Lodge when John Hawkes was trainer.

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“Darren was a champion jockey, he was the dominant rider in his day,’’ Snowden said.

“It’s an honour to be training a horse named after him but there’s a lot of pressure that comes with it.’’

The trainer recalls a time when a racehorse named after him called Snowden was showing some early promise including a city win when ridden by Beadman.

“I told the owners I was proud they called the horse ‘Snowden’ and he won a few races then levelled out,’’ Snowden recalled.

“One day at Canterbury he was a very short-priced favourite and I watched the race from the betting ring when he was beaten.

“There were some punters ‘potting’ the horse big time saying Snowden’s a weak so-and-so.

“That’s what I mean when I say there is pressure training a horse called Beadman – but I do think he’s a very nice colt.’’

Jockey Darren Beadman (left), back in his riding days, talks with Peter Snowden, who was then working for the Hawkes stable, at a Canterbury Park meeting in Sydney.
Jockey Darren Beadman (left), back in his riding days, talks with Peter Snowden, who was then working for the Hawkes stable, at a Canterbury Park meeting in Sydney.

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Beadman was purchased for $900,000 as a yearling at the Magic Millions Sale and is raced by a high profile syndicate of owners including Newgate Farm supremo Henry Field.

Field said the colt was a “good looking, quality son of Snitzel” and the name “Beadman” was a popular choice among the ownership group.

“We thought it would be nice to name him after Darren Beadman,’’ Field said.

“I’ve spoken to Darren about this horse before and we give him a bit of cheek saying the colt needs blinkers and gelding.

“But he’s a very nice colt, still not the complete package yet, and we feel he will develop into a good three-year-old.’’

The Snowden-trained Beadman was impressive on debut when he endured a wide run and ran a close second to stablemate Akaysha in fast time at Kembla Grange.

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Beadman will be watching his namesake with interest at Newcastle on Saturday.

“It’s funny because I was at Kembla the day he (Beadman) had his first start,’’ the Hall of Famer said.

“The horse was about four stalls down from us and he was pushing his strapper up against the rail and she was saying ‘Dazza, get over there’.

“Apparently, Dazza is his stable name but when he is naughty they call him Darren.’’

Snowden said he is considering taking Beadman interstate for the Brisbane carnival if the colt runs well at Newcastle on Saturday.

Akaysha had to break 56s for the 1000m at Kembla Grange to beat Beadman on debut and she is putting her perfect race record on the line in the opener at Royal Randwick on Saturday, the ATC Bookmakers Recognition Handicap (1100m).

Snowden also has a good opinion of Akaysha’s emerging ability and will use the Randwick race as a potential springboard into some better races in coming weeks.

Akaysha is by Snowiden’s former Golden Slipper winner Capitalist and was bred by prominent owner David Baxter. He named the filly after an Australian company which is becoming a global success story in the renewable energy space.

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There’s a story behind the names of most racehorses. For example, the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Jet – who accepted for Akaysha’s race on Saturday but was subsequently scratched – is a superbly-bred colt by champion stallion Zoustar out of stakeswinner Villami, who cost $1 million at the same sale Beadman was purchased from last year.

Jet seems an appropriate name for a racehorse and a check of the Stud Book revealed there have been eight racehorses of the same name dating back to 1785 – but they haven’t set the racetrack alight yet. There’s always a first.

Also in the Randwick two-year-old opener is The Little General, a stablemate of Jet, who is resuming after finishing fourth on debut in the Kirkham Plate last spring.

The Little General was a nickname given to the great Tommy Smith, the inaugural Hall of Fame inductee, who trained more than 7000 winners including 246 at Group 1 level, and a world record 33 consecutive Sydney trainer premierships. There is a statue erected in his honour near the trainers’ hut at Randwick.

Gai Waterhouse with the bronze statue of her father TJ Smith at Randwick.
Gai Waterhouse with the bronze statue of her father TJ Smith at Randwick.

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Rachel King, rider of The Little General, will wear the famous colours of royal blue, green stripes and royal blue cap that were synonymous with Smith during his time in charge at Tulloch Lodge.

Then there is Gobi Desert, a promising two-year-old filly from the Kris Lees stable, who is appropriately named as she is by Too Darn Hot out of Hell It’s Hot.

Some racehorse names are not so obvious. Lisztomania, who ran in the $200,000 Tamworth Gold Cup on Thursday, is named after Franz Liszt, a famous Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist during the 1830s and 1840s.

Liszt was said to be so popular, he had his own “groupies” who followed him around Europe. The phenomenon became known as “Lisztomania” – more than a century before “Beatlemania” swept the world.

Cheeky puns, risqué innuendo and sneaky euphemisms aside, the naming of racehorses is actually bound by strict rules adopted by international horse racing authorities.

Names can have no more than 18 characters, and numbers and punctuation marks are out to make the job of the racing commentator a little easier. Suggestive, vulgar or obscene names will be rejected – most of the time. Often, the Urban Dictionary comes in handy.

There are those racehorses that are named after an amalgam of their sire and dam names like Lonhro’s Queen (Lonhro-Queen Of The Hill), a starter in the Neville Waters Handicap (1200m).

But some owners like to get creative with their names and others have more inspired meanings.

Grebeni (Ocean Park-Dubrovnik), one of the main chances in the Precise Air Handicap (1500m), is cleverly named after a group of five small islands situated just off the coast of Dubrovnik in Croatia.

The great Makybe Diva, the three-time Melbourne Cup winner, was named by owner Tony Santic after the first two initials of his five office employees – Maureen, Kylie, Belinda, Diane and Vanessa.

A personal favourite is unbeaten Group 1-winning three-year-old sprinter, Private Harry, who is part-owned by Steve Reid, a businessman and former Sydney racing official, who wanted to name a racehorse in honour of his father-in-law, Harry Dennis, as an acknowledgment of his heroism and service during the Vietnam War.

“I got a recommendation to buy into a yearling by Harry’s Angel, and I wanted to name it after my father-in-law,’’ Reid said recently. “Harry doesn’t talk much about the Vietnam War but I asked him about it and he told me he was only a private in the Army.

“I said ‘no mate, there is no thing as just a private in the war.’ He fought for our country on the frontline, we are very proud of him, and I wanted to recognise his service so I named the horse, Private Harry.’’

The Registrar of Racehorses is responsible for considering and determining naming applications and they adhere to a specific set of rules including the permanent protection of the names of champion racehorses like Phar Lap and Winx.

The names of Melbourne Cup and Cox Plate winners are permanently protected while the names of other Group 1 winners cannot be used again for a minimum of 50 years.

Some elite Group 1 races have longer protection periods with the winners’ names of the Golden Slipper, Caulfield Cup, ATC Australian Derby and Victoria Derby off limits for 99 years.

Which brings me to the Team Hawkes-trained Furious, a starter in the Terry Maskell Handicap (1200m) at the Randwick meeting.

Furious shares his name with the former champion filly who won the Victoria Derby, Rosehill Guineas, ATC Sires Produce Stakes and Champagne Stakes in 1921.

She was such an outstanding racehorse that a three-year-old fillies feature race is named in her honour and run annually during the Sydney spring carnival.

The naming application for Furious, now a five-year-old gelding who has won three of his nine starts, was lodged in 2020 – which is exactly 99 years after the filly of the same name won the Victoria Derby.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/horse-racing/whats-in-a-name-plenty-of-unwanted-pressure-for-beadmans-trainer-peter-snowden/news-story/cbd9853eef2f13b343f07e97b7f2416e