'Til now I'd discarded the country code identifier from results, thinking it was superfluous. It didn't even twig when I was entering records into my database for the first time when two horses of the same name, competed on the SAME DAY (one in Australia, one in NZ; naturally). Name and date comprised my record key, I added the track to ensure uniqueness and went happily on my way.

Now that I want to use my database for different means, it's a whole 'nother story. If only I knew everything I wanted to do before I knew I wanted to do it...

The content on that RISA Renamed Horses link posted earlier seems to be VERY untrustworthy.

For example, looking at horses appearing on lists where their name was changed on (random date) 18-Aug-2011:


The Renamed Horses list from 22-Aug-2011 has the following entries:




The Renamed Horses list from a couple of months later on 30-Dec-2011 only has:




Why do the other horses no longer appear on the list?


Racing & Sports seem confused as well. Per their online Horse Records for the omitted entries:

- Weekend Flight doesn't exist; records remain under Wooden Swallow

- Mink (NZ) is the current name for a horse formerly known as Think Mink

- Do You Think is the current name for a horse formerly known as Ingham


They appear to have handled the same information in 3 different ways...

Mink is especially confusing as not only does a notification appear of its name being changed to Think Mink on 18-Aug-11, it does so again on 19-Nov-11. And for good measure, one more time on 9-Mar-12.

Racenet lists a 19-Sep-11 performance in their results under the name Think Mink - as you would expect given the Renamed Horses list from 22-Aug-11; but this would be entirely *unexpected* if using the 30-Dec-11 list (where the horse is presumably still called Mink).

So when is a name change a name change? (and if you think it's a problem solely for amateurs, note that Racing and Sports indicate Think/Mink had a 26-run career, whereas Racenet contends the exact same horse - given sire/dam/birthdate - ran 10 fewer races, having ignored its NZ efforts. RISA lobs for some place in the middle and calls it at 19 races run!)