The Jockey Club (US) has a class/history lesson on its hands - well after the conclusion of the civil war and the reasons that caused it.

A recent Jockey Club ruling (currently being challenged in court) states that you can only apply to use the name of a famous person for a thoroughbred if you can pass the threshold test of the name not being considered "offensive".

There are quite a few well known horses named after famous people in history - Nijinsky, Alberto Giacometti, Fasliyev, Mozart, Rostropovich, Stravinsky, Freud, Bach, Rossini, Beckett are just a few examples. It would appear that any skeletons in their collective closets managed to pass the test as all names were ultimately registered.

If you are famous for deeds other than art, literature, music etc then the Jockey Club may take a rather dim view of your application.

An article in today's Washington Times reports that a Kentucky thoroughbred owner is appealing The Jockey Club's ruling that he cannot name a horse after a slave of President Thomas Jefferson.

"Garrett Redmond, historian and owner of the Ballycapple farm in Paris, Ky., has filed a freedom of speech lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Lexington after being refused permission to call his 2-year-old filly Sally Hemings.

Hemings was a slave of Jefferson and is widely believed to have been his mistress who possibly also bore him children.

The Jockey Club originally told Redmond he would need permission from Hemings to use the name. Redmond told the Lexington Herald-Leader that in itself is illogical based on horses named Buddha and Louis Quatorze, for the French King.

Stewards then refused the name altogether, citing concerns it "may be offensive."

... it would appear Australia is less strict on such grounds of "possible offence" - we have a LEWINSKY (Snippets ex Dangerous Lady (by Danger's Hour (USA)) registered in the Australia stud book after all!