Pimlico Special Is Rated R

BALTIMORE — Saturday’s Pimlico Special is R-rated.

One of the contenders has a name so risque that some track announcers and sportscasters deliberately mispronounce it to avoid offending their listeners.

The staid Jockey Club, which approves the names for all U.S. thoroughbreds, is chagrined. “This is a name,” said a spokesman, “that we would prefer not to be in active use.”

Even the mother of owner Mike Pegram is shocked. “You named a horse WHAT?” she asked her son.

Pegram named him Isitingood, and the horse is flaunting his name in the face of the racing establishment. At the age of 6 he has developed into a very racy thoroughbred, setting a world record for one mile and winning five of his past six starts. He will be second choice in the betting against a powerful field assembled for the Pimlico Special.

Pegram has a penchant for giving his horses striking names. No Silver Charms for him. Some of his more notable runners to date have been Letthebighossroll, Letthebiggatorout, High Hard One, Stop the Bleeding and Straight to Bed. After Pegram, his partner Terry Henn and trainer Bob Baffert purchased a son of Crusader Sword and Wancha at an auction in Miami, Pegram recalled, “We were sitting in a steak house and I said, ‘We’ve got to give this horse a good name.’ After a few beers your mind gets active. We asked ourselves, ‘What does a crusader do with his sword?’ ” Thus Isitingood was conceived.

The Jockey Club is charged with processing applications for the names of more than 35,000 thoroughbreds born in the United States each year. After a computer does some initial screening, at least four people scour the list for company names, copyrighted names or those that are otherwise inappropriate. Spokesman Jim Peden said, “Some people consider it open season on the Jockey Club to see what they can get away with. You should see some of the ones we catch.”

Pegram is unrepentant for the club’s discomfort over Isitingood. “We’re not in church,” he said. “This is a fun business -- and I like to have fun.”

Pegram, 45, has loved the game ever since he was a kid growing up near Kentucky’s Ellis Park, and he always harbored the dream of owning racehorses.

But first he had to make some money. Starting with meager resources (“When you put your refrigerator on your financial statement, you know you’re broke”), Pegram sought a McDonald’s franchise. McDonald’s had nothing to offer in Kentucky, but it had an opportunity for Pegram in Seattle -- just as a great economic boom was beginning in the region. “Timing is everything,” he said, “and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. The hamburgers started selling pretty good, I had some jingles in my pocket and I decided to buy some horses.”

Indeed, with nearly 20 McDonald’s franchises, Pegram has plenty of jingles. His intent to get serious about the sport prompted Baffert to quit training quarterhorses and move into the thoroughbred game. It was the beginning of a meteoric rise that took Baffert to the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs with Silver Charm last week.

In 1992 Baffert picked out the son of Crusader Sword for whom Pegram and Henn paid $87,000. Three days after the purchase, an X-ray disclosed that the young colt’s sesamoid bone was in three pieces. “It’s my fault,” Baffert said. “I’m going to gave him six months off.”

Pegram took the news gracefully. After Isitingood won his first start, Baffert discovered a chip in his knee and gave him more time off. Then he found a crack in the colt’s shoulder blade. More time off.

In the summer of 1996, a new racetrack, Emerald Downs, opened in Seattle, and it revived the famous race, the Longacres Mile, that had been the main event of the former track in that city. Pegram wanted to have a horse in his city’s big race, and Baffert promised: “We’re going to go up there and win it.” Isitingood had finally overcome all of his physical problems and was training superbly. He went north and won it. Pegram felt as if he’d won the Kentucky Derby.