May the horse be with you. Star Wars fanatics who enjoy a visit to their local racetrack will almost always scour the upcoming racecards to look for Star Wars-inspired horse race names to back at the sportsbooks. Although the name “Star Wars” is permanently unavailable for use in The Jockey Club’s registry, many race horse owners have opted to pay homage to one of the world’s most popular film franchises.
There are quite literally dozens of races and meets hosted throughout the world, many of which include horses named after much-loved characters and battlegrounds in Star Wars. In fact, there have been a few hugely-successful race horses named after Star Wars icons. First and foremost, let’s take a look at the horse Skywalker, named after Luke himself. Skywalker was born in 1982, which was in the midst of the early fanfare surrounding the franchise. Skywalker was trained by Michael Whittingham and was bred and raced by the Oak Cliff stable.
As win rates go, Skywalker was quite the race horse. He won eight of his 20 races, including two hugely-notable successes in the 1985 Santa Anita Derby and, the biggest of all, the Breeders’ Cup Classic a year later. After all that success you would be forgiven for thinking that Skywalker would have been set for a quiet retirement, but after ending his racing career he began a second calling as a sire.
Breeder Arthur B. Hancock III also bred and raced a horse with a prominent Star Wars name. Obi Wan Kenobi was born in 2003 from the Skywalker bloodline, and over time he became a fully-fledged stakes winner, eventually raking in $240,157 in prize money. On the flipside, Hancock also bred a gelding in 2003 called Han Solo who was nowhere near as successful as his Skywalker relative. In fact, Han Solo only finished in the top three places in 13 of his 31 races, winning just two of them in total.
Moving away from U.S. horse racing, there was another Star Wars-inspired race horse name discovered in Germany. Lando, which was almost certainly named after Lando Calrissian, played by Billy D. Williams, was equally as proficient on the racetrack as Skywalker. Lando shot to stardom by winning the 1993 German Derby. He then followed that up with success in the 1995 Japan Cup. Lando would eventually win ten of his 24 races, scooping over $3.4 million in prize money. Lando was equally proficient as a sire, helping to breed three more champion horses and 16 stakes winners.
Race horses named after planets or moons in Star Wars
There are also plenty of horses that have been given names inspired by moons or planets involved in the Star Wars movies. Coruscant was a horse born in 2001 to a sire called Halo’s Image and a dam called Sparkle Unit Won. With names like “Halo” and “Sparkle”, it’s unsurprising that their offspring was named after the city-covered planet from The Phantom Menace. Coruscant actually enjoyed some modest success, winning seven of its 23 professional races. Meanwhile Endor and Tatooine, born in 1986 and 1981, respectively, have both been professional winners on the racetrack.
The prolific nature of Storm Trooper race horses
Who would have thought that Darth Vader’s Storm Troopers would be so prolific in racing circles? In 1980, Storm Trooper, from the Windy Tide bloodline, was bred in Washington and ended up winning 11 professional races. In the early 90’s, another Storm Trooper came to the fore in Kentucky and rose to fame by winning the Grade 1 Hollywood Turf Cup in 1998. Back in Germany, another horse named Storm Trooper—bred by Baron Georg von Ullmann—raked in over $300,000 in career race earnings.
It’s clear to see that the appeal of the Star Wars franchise in the horse racing industry is as strong as ever. Although you won’t see punters duelling with lightsabers on the side of racetracks, it’s fair to say that Star Wars-inspired names are some of the most popular (and successful) the sport has ever seen.