journeyman Jim Gosger<\/a>, who played professional baseball in the 1960s and \u201970s with six different clubs.<\/p>\nGretzky the Great \u2014 A Grade 1 winner by Nyquist named for the greatest hockey player of all time, Wayne Gretzky.<\/p>\n
Gronkowski \u2014 The 2018 Belmont Stakes runner-up to Triple Crown winner Justify, Gronkowski\u2019s namesake is four-time All-Pro tight end and four-time Super Bowl Champion Rob Gronkowski.<\/p>\n
Halladay \u2014 Halladay, by War Front, won the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap in 2020 among three stakes wins. Namesake Roy Halladay was the more accomplished athlete with two Cy Young Awards in a Hall of Fame career as a tenacious pitcher in Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n
Joe Frazier \u2014 \u201cSmokin\u2019 Joe\u201d Frazier is one of boxing\u2019s true legends, an Olympic gold medalist and heavyweight champ best known for his epic battles with Muhammad Ali. Joe Frazier the racehorse was a workmanlike gelding who won seven of 29 starts but never came close to the success of his namesake.<\/p>\n
Kobe\u2019s Back \u2014 Five-time stakes winner Kobe\u2019s Back began his career about two months after NBA Hall of Famer and all-time great Kobe Bryant ruptured his Achilles tendon. Bryant returned to play two more seasons; he subsequently died in a tragic helicopter crash Jan. 26, 2020.<\/p>\n
Lemieux \u2014 A stakes-winning Florida-bred by Nyquist, Lemieux was named after Pittsburgh Penguins Hall of Fame center Mario Lemieux, the number one pick in the 1984 NHL Draft who led the Pens to back-to-back Stanley Cup wins in 1991 and \u201992.<\/p>\n
Marciano \u2014 The 2001 Tesio Stakes winner also ran in that year\u2019s Preakness Stakes. He was named after the undefeated legendary boxer Rocky Marciano, the relentless knockout specialist who was the heavyweight champion from 1952 until his retirement in 1956 at age 32. Marciano, the racehorse, was sired by the stallion Two Punch.<\/p>\n
Nadal \u2014 In 2020, Nadal won all four of his starts, including a victory in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby (held in two divisions that year), before an injury knocked him off the Kentucky Derby trail. He is now a stallion in Japan. Nadal was named for one of the most revered players in tennis history, Rafael Nadal, who has won a record 14 French Opens among 22 career Grand Slam victories and won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award in 2011.<\/p>\n
Nyquist \u2014 The 2015 champion 2-year-old male went on to become the first unbeaten Kentucky Derby winner since Smarty Jones. He was named for NHL star Gustav Nyquist by owner and devout hockey fan J. Paul Reddam and his success begot dozens of hockey-themed racehorse names.<\/p>\n
Sarazen \u2014 Named for one of the greatest golfers of all time, Gene Sarazen, who won the U.S. Open and PGA Championship in 1922, the first two of his seven majors. Sarazen, the racehorse, debuted in 1923 and was Horse of the Year in 1924 and 1925.<\/p>\n
Sean Avery \u2014 A Grade 1-winning racehorse who finished first in half of his 14 career starts, Sean Avery\u2019s namesake was a pro hockey player who played left wing for multiple teams and built a reputation as an agitator not afraid to mix things up with the opponent, leading the NHL in penalty minutes twice.<\/p>\n
Syndergaard \u2014A flame-throwing right-handed pitcher, nicknamed \u201cThor,\u201d Noah Syndergaard rose to prominence with the New York Mets, dazzling in his rookie season and pitching that fall in the 2015 World Series. He made the All-Star team the following year but mounting injuries later slowed his career and fastball. His namesake also started out hot, winning a stakes race in his second start as a 2-year-old, and continued to be competitive at that level through his 6-year-old season in 2020.<\/p>\n
The Great One \u2014Grade 2-placed The Great One is another racehorse by Nyquist named in honor of Wayne Gretzky, whose nickname is \u201cThe Great One.\u201d Gretzky is the all-time points leader in NHL history and has more career assists (1,963) than any other player has total points (goals and assists).<\/p>\n
Tikkanen \u2014\u00a01994 Breeders\u2019 Cup Turf winner Tikkanen was named after one of Wayne Gretzky\u2019s teammates with the Edmonton Oilers.\u00a0Pesky winger Esa Tikkanen\u00a0carved out a reputation as one of the best defensive forwards in the sport while winning five Stanley Cup championships.<\/p>\n
Tyson \u2014 Heavyweight boxer \u201cIron\u201d Mike Tyson\u2019s fights in the late 1980s and early 1990s were must-see events as he carved through opponents and carved out a reputation as one of the sport\u2019s all-time great knockout artists. Multiple graded stakes winner Tyson, by Tapit, was named by co-owner and co-breeder John Sikura in the boxer\u2019s honor.<\/p>\n
Utley \u2014 Philadelphia Phillies All-Star second baseman and 2008 World Series champion Chase Utley was beloved in \u201cthe City of Brotherly Love\u201d for his heady and relentless playing style. His namesake on the racetrack was a Grade 2 winner by Smart Strike who won six of 25 career starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What do one of the NBA\u2019s all-time greats and a promising racehorse have in common? It sounds like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-35831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}