NAME GAME

Couple of well named winners at Seymour yesterday by God’s Own and Magnus.

God’s Own mare, Terpsichore notched up her third victory with a thriller over 1400m, while the Magnus filly, Usurper, also bobbed up on the wire over the same trip.

Trained by Andrew Noblet, Terpsichore is out of the Group Two winning mare Rain Dance Lady and, according to the ever faithful Wikipedia, the word Terpsichore hails from Greek mythology and means ‘delight in dancing’.

Being merely by God’s Own out of Rain Dance Lady would be warrant enough to acknowledge connections for a job well done, but if you look at the pedigree, each line has a reference to ‘dance’: the granddam of God’s Own’s sire, Redoute’s Choice is Dancing Show, God’s Own’s granddam is Zeigfield Lass and Rain Dance Lady’s sire, Jugah, is of course by the legendary Northern Dancer.

Meanwhile, Usurper looks pretty promising with her gutsy win after having no luck on debut at Sale on 4 December when the jockey’s saddle had shifted in the early stages: still, she ran on well for fourth – just a half length behind the winner.

Out of the Al Hareb mare, Drinkcard Princess, Usurper – according to the dictionary – is to “seize and hold by force” … which is exactly what she did!

For Magnus, it was winners on successive days (with the Barry Campbell trained Deceitful Cove lobbing at Launceston on Wednesday).

Magnus has now moved to third on the Australian Second Season Sires’ chart by winners and is right on target for consecutive Victorian championships.

The original Terpsichore!