Why Just My Name?

I look over the long and gloried history of horse racing and the names of farms and stables are legendary - Meadow Farm, Claiborne, Hanover Shoe, etc. So when the time came to form an LLC, I tried to come up with an inventive name. Sadly, I'm just not that creative. My friend David Miller named his bloodstock and racing business Star of the North. How great is that? Seriously, he incorporated his love of his home state in the name and as it turns out we all want our horses to be stars. It works on a lot of levels.

I turned first to my college - Colby College in Waterville, ME. I didn't want to use 'Colby' in the name because of the proliferation as Colby for a first name. Additionally, there are probably trademark infringements that I really didn't want to take the time to research. I could have gone with the nickname, but who wants to join a racing stable named "White Mule" racing? Not exactly the message you want to deliver!

So I go back to high school. Peabody Veterans Memorial High School in Peabody, MA. The Tanners. You probably didn't know that Peabody once held claim to be the largest producer of leather in the world early in the 20th century until labor and land got too expensive and the factories turned to cheaper areas, like rural Maine and then overseas. Proud as we are of being the Leather City - and some of my ancestors toiled in those factories to make it so; I didn't think reveling in tanned animal hides gave off the proper impression either. Sure I could have gone with Peabody, but everyone would pronounce it wrong (it's quickly straight through, not like Mr. Pea-Body of cartoon fame - another strike against it, by the way) and that would have drove me insane.

All the racing related stuff I could think of was taken - Winner's Circle, Down the Stretch, etc. And I'm not particularly creative, either. I can put together a profitable business deal, but coming up with something catchy or drawing...not so much. My cousin Christopher, an outstanding graphic designer in NYC, got that gene. In fact, I will be blogging about the silks soon and the logo that he created for me. Fantastic job. But that's another post.

So what did that leave? It left me to come up with the compelling name of Grevelis Racing Stable. I went that route mainly because I couldn't think of anything else, truth be told. But also, it was a decision that if I was going to do this and do it right, I'd be willing to stake my name and reputation on it. Now it's out there for all to see, to live and die, win or lose. I'm OK with that. It's some added pressure, but that's OK. I am committed to doing things the right way by my partners and my horses and I hope that will lead to success on the track.

The one sad thing? After I filed the LLC papers and started up the website, I realized that Donald Trump did the same thing. THAT was a comparison I would have liked to have avoided...