Jockey Club looking in to origin of Austrian Painter's name

The Jockey Club has opened a review of a horse whose name serves as an online euphemism for Adolf Hitler, two days after the 2-year-old won his career debut.

Austrian Painter won Monday at Horseshoe Indianapolis, and Shannon Luce, The Jockey Club's vice president for communications, confirmed Wednesday that the Thoroughbred breed's official registry is investigating the name.

The phrase "Austrian painter" alludes to Hitler's failed ambitions as an artist. Online, people often use it to refer to Hitler without naming him, sometimes to get around content-moderation filters. That practice goes by the name "algospeak," as in "unalive" for "kill" or "pew pew" for "gun."

Scott Herbertson bred Austrian Painter in Indiana out of his stakes-placed Amira's Prince mare Galileta, whom he bought privately in June 2021, lost via claim and then claimed back in February 2022. She won her final three starts in summer 2022 in the claiming ranks at Belterra Park before Herbertson retired her to be bred. Indiana-based sire Sleepy Eyes Todd covered Galileta in 2023, producing Austrian Painter the following year.

Responding to questions on X about the name, Herbertson said it refers to the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt and wrote that he would not change the name.

Austrian Painter has a yearling full sister named New Order, the name of a British rock band and also the term Nazi Germany used for its planned reorganization of occupied Europe.

Three of The Jockey Club's naming rules could come into play. Rule 6(F)(10) bars names that are suggestive, vulgar or obscene, names considered in poor taste and names that may be offensive to religious, political or ethnic groups. Rule 6(F)(11) bars names that appear designed to harass, humiliate or disparage a specific individual, group or entity. Rule 6(G) gives the registrar final approval over all name requests.

The Jockey Club cited Rule 6(F)(11) in January 2021, when it ruled the name Grape Soda ineligible a day after the gelding won his debut at Aqueduct. Trainer Eric Guillot had chosen the name to mock TVG analyst Ken Rudulph, who is Black. New owner Lawrence Roman renamed the horse Respect for All.

In 2007, Garrett Redmond sued The Jockey Club after it refused his request to name a filly out of Jefferson's Secret, a Colonial Affair mare, "Sally Hemings." The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that The Jockey Club, as a private entity, can veto any name.

Because Austrian Painter has already started, Rule 6(D) would require both names to be used until he has made three starts under a new one. That happened in 2019, when Noose was renamed Scabbard after two starts, including a runner-up finish in the Saratoga Special (G2).