Great Story Behind Horse Name

Published: April 20, 2015 04:10 pm EDT

The names people give Standardbred yearlings tend to play off the name of its sire, and, in many cases, the dam. The names of breeding outfits are also commonly front and centre. Sometimes the names of harness horses are associated with a great ‘thing’ or occurrence from outside the industry – and sometimes those stories are so good that they have to be shared.

He won 77 of the 324 charted races he participated in during his career. According to his racing records, he last raced more than 10 years ago (in terms of pari-mutuel races). Now, in April of 2015, a retired Standardbred lovingly known as ‘Jack’ has popped back up on the radar, in a story for a mainstream news outlet, the Portland Press Herald, no less.

The piece explains that the now-25-year-old Standardbred Postcard Jack was given his name in honour of Jack Garbarino, who later passed away (in 2009) in New York City. According to the article, ‘Postcard Jack’ was a mystery man at the time. He sent between 8,000 and 9,000 anonymous postcards to the now-defunct Oasis Restaurant in Madison, Maine. The postcards came from all over, and the identity of ‘Postcard Jack’ was unknown for more than three decades. Garbarino, a management consultant who had graduated from both Yale and Harvard, never revealed his identity.

In terms of his equine namesake, Postcard Jack retired as the winningest Standardbred in the history of Maine. The Portland Press Herald story about the gelding explains that ‘Jack’ has made the transition to saddle horse.

The career winner of over $238,000 in purses got his name in 1990. Horse owner Tom Dillon decided to name the bay ‘Postcard Jack’ after having dined at Oasis Restaurant and gotten a kick out of the abundance of Jack's postcards that were on display.

(With files from the Portland Press Herald)

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