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QUEER NAMES OF HORSES HORSESOwners Owners and breeders often follow queer no ¬ tions about naming their horses One of the odd plans was that of the late James Arthur of Melbourne Australia There were always seven letters in the names of his horses He seemed to think some supernatural virtue was attached to that number because so many good horses had names containing seven let ¬ ters Among winners of the Melbourne Cup were Lantern Toryboy The Barb Glencoe Warrior Don Juan Haricot Briseis Chester Calamia Arsenal Carbine Auraria Revenue Acrasia Piastre and Sasanof One wonders whether Arthur ever took the trouble to count the number of horses that raced under seven lettered names and ascertain what percentage of them were winners not to say good win ¬ ners The result of an investigation of that sort might have disturbed his superstitious fondness for the figure No such American plan would seem to be at all tenable Of the 141 winners of the derby at Epsom twenty two have borne names of seven letters the most famous being Orlando Galopin Or ¬ monde Donovan Lemberg Sunstar Tagalie Aboyeur and Pommern There is an unlimit ¬ ed field of research here for some statistical fiend
