The Silks

According to horseandhound.com, on October 4, 1762 at Newmarket, the English Jockey Club adopted the following resolution:

“For the greater convenience of distinguishing the horses in running, and also for the prevention of disputes arising from not knowing the colors of each rider, the under-mentioned gentleman have come to the resolution and agreement of having the colors annexed to their names, worn by their respective riders:"

Following this resolution was a list of the who's who of English racing and their respective colors to be memorialized for all time. This tradition spread to the new world and is in practice today. Some are very traditional like the Phipps black and red. Some are colorful and distinctive like the red, white and blue AP of Allen Paulson. Many are made up of solids, checks, stripes, stars. Virtually all are bright and colorful and reflect the distinctive personality of their stables. The one thing they all have in common: there was some method to the madness. Somewhere behind each set of silks is a story. I've heard stories as simple as I liked the pattern and the colors. Some reflect logos and other designs important to the creator. Here is one guy's thought process on the colors you see above (back view - front in these same, but with buttons).

I wanted to be traditional in the sense that I didn't want to be too overly designed. I didn't want some goofy crazy logo and was hoping to retain some class while still being distinctive. The job of logo design fell to my cousin, Christopher Kokinos, Partner and COO of The Halo Project (www.thehaloproject.com), a marketing/public relations/brand positioning company based in NYC. Actually, they are much, much more than that. I would encourage any of you looking for any kind of marketing assistance to visit the website and see what this remarkable team brings to the table.

I told Christopher what I wanted - a 'g' with a halo. Sounds simple enough, but I didn't really have a clear vision, so I asked him for a couple of versions and he sent me a 14 page .pdf document with some great variations on the 'g'. There were different fonts and styles as well as the incorporation of a horse head with the 'g' in several different styles. The creativity was very impressive. All of the folks that have seen all the variations were very impressed. Obviously I settled on the above design, but if any of you want to see all the options, please let me know. All designs are, of course, the property of The Halo Project and cannot be used, but you can see the creativity and thought that was put into the project.

The royal blue, white and gray combined to form the colors of my two alma maters - Peabody Veterans Memorial High School (Peabody, MA) and Colby College (Waterville, ME). The 'g', of course, is for Grevelis. The halo choice was two-fold, though both are related to my wife, Theri: she is a big fan of angels - one room of our house is actually called our 'Angel Room' and she collects angels of all kinds; and, most importantly, she is my angel. Pink is her favorite color and a shout-out to her.

What was left was to combine them as traditionally as possible while still maintaining some distinctiveness. I decided on white sleeves with a royal blue body. Rather than enclose the logo in a circle or something else, I decided to have it sewn on the body sans adornment. I really liked the results. I'm even more excited to see them on our jock, flying down the stretch at Canterbury Park and, hopefully, in the winner's circle.