HOW DO YOU SAY M-SHA-WISH?

There has been much talk about Swettenham Stud’s new stallion Mshawish amongst the Australian breeding and racing industry. Mostly about his, versatility, his speed and the fact that he is the highest earning entire of champion Medaglia d'Oro.

But the one question that remains is, how do you pronounce Mshawish correctly?

Well, if you watch his race replays in America, even the race callers get confused, with a few pronouncing MISH-A-WISH and others calling MA-SHA-WISH, so lets put this to bed, once and for all.

It is pronounced correctly in three separate sounds, firstly the letter M, followed by SHA and finally WISH, M-SHA-WISH.

In Arabic, the word “Mshawish” means, “crazy,” and we believe that Swettenham Stud’s new stallion for the season will only be described as a “crazy good”.

There have certainly been a few other “crazy good” names of gallopers in the past. Some have stumped a few race callers in their day, and others managed to canter straight past the guard.

The rules ensure that each name must be unique, and limited to 18-characters. However, the more flexible guidelines, at the discretion of the governing body are those they “loosely” deem to be appropriate.

Here are some of the more creative names that have galloped around a track.

The NZ galloper, Waikikamukau, an oldie but a goodie, pronounced “Why kick a moo cow,” was certainly a crowd favourite, as were the cleverly named Redhotfillypepper, Maythehorsebewithu, Eighteencharacters, He’s No Pie Eater, Buck Buck Goose and No Speed No Feed out of No Pay No Hay.

Then there are names that make you laugh, like the famous Hoof Hearted, Sotally Tober, Sheikh’notstirred, Talk Derby To Me and Wear The Fox Hat (better with an accent!).

We all must admit we all like to trick the callers, such as “so and so" riding “The Harley”, “The Wave”, “Like A Rockstar” and “Under The Influence”.

…And I’m sure you all know plenty of risqué names that have slipped past the keeper, so let’s just leave that there, shall we. I think we have the stallion Foreplay to blame for most of them.

Even the Triple Crown winner Americain Pharoah has an interesting story behind his name, due to the confusion over the infamous misspelling of “pharaoh”. When a fan submitted the name during an online competition, with "pharaoh" spelt wrong, it was not picked up before being officially registered by the owners. Now trademarked, it ensures Americans will never spell “pharaoh” correctly again.

And finally our own famous triple Melbourne Cup winner, Makybe Diva was certainly tricky to pronounce (was it MA-KYE-BE DIVA or MAK-A-BE DIVA??) as it came from the first two letters of each of the names of the ladies working in Tony Santic’s office: Marie, Kylie, Belinda, Diane, and Vanessa.

So Mshawish, a 4-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro (another name that has stumped the industry with the correct pronunciation, try MA-DAG-LEE-A DE-ORO) stands in partnership with Al Shaqab (pronounced AL-SHA-CAB) and Taylor Made Farm (got that one).

An exceptional international galloper Mshawish, was an elite, versatile and sound five-time Group race winner with dual Group 1’s on dirt and turf, and there is no doubt he will pass his looks, ability, toughness and consistency onto his progeny.

We are happy if you still just call him “WISH” and all at Swettenham Stud certainly “wish” you all the best for the upcoming breeding season.

M-SHA-WISH will stand for $16,500 Inc. GST in 2017