I am sure that even most sometime partners in Karakorum could not positively identify each of their stable's charges through the years. And only someone with that kind of familiarity would have had reason to ask why there had not been a horse with the stable name itself, as opposed to the bevy of "Karakorum this" and "that Karakorum" names that populate New York racing. The assumption would be that "Karakorum" had indeed been advanced once, only to have not made a great dent in the racing world, and that we were at least in a waiting period before it could be used again.
Imagine my surprise, then, when in the course of my review of 1996 charts, I ran across Ridder Thoroughbred Stable's Karakorum breaking her maiden by 10 lengths at Santa Anita Park. Karakorum Racing (or is Farm?)'s website says they had their first winner in 1997, or at least had their first winner at NYRA then. This was again a year after California's Karakorum broke her maiden.
There was something where that 10-length maiden win came from for Karakorum; indeed, she was a good deal more classy than most of the authentic Karakorums, using her California-bred status to try stakes in over half of her 13 starts, and placing in a couple. She does not seem to have had a broodmare career.
Going to the on-line names book, "Karakorum" is permanently unavailable. I'm guessing that stables cannot be represented by a horse of the same name (nor, of course, can anyone else use that name). If this is the rule, it certainly is silly that Karakorum probably runs a score of horses every year honoring itself, and that somehow separation and non self-promotion are considered intact just because there's a word in tandem with Karakorum in the names.
Through the tedium of the Karakorum names, I'm determined to have some fun with them. It's actually prime territory for my penchant for over-analysis..
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