Equine on I-Six-Nine

What’s in a name? that which we call Bold and Bossy
By any other name would bolt as sweetly.

— Bill Shakespeare, Boldeo and Bossiet

We attempt to imbue much with the names we give our offspring and our critter companions. Horse trainers have a long history of apt, clever, and strange monikers for their equines. Shakespeare pondered the nature of the signifier in Romeo and Juliet, positing the object would be the object no matter what nomenclature attached to it. Would I be writing this newsletter if my name were George Clooney? That thought exercise is probably above my pay grade.

Still, there are times when a name really nails it.

Consider the two-year-old racehorse Bold and Bossy. Perhaps B&B would be as bold and as bossy if known by another name, but, after the stunt she pulled over the weekend, no doubt remains about the fit of her name!

On the Kentucky-Indiana border lies Ellis Park Racing & Gaming.

Slated for a Saturday race was Bold and Bossy. On the way to the starting gate, she spooked and bucked her jockey, Miguel Mena. Often, when a horse goes rogue at a racetrack, she will return to a familiar location, usually the barn in which she was cloistered beforehand. However, this visit was the first to the track for Bold and Bossy, so she did not find much familiarity in the paddock. Sometimes you just gotta flip the table and take off on your own.

The filly ditched the track, jumped over a levee, and hopped onto U.S. Route 41! Her trainers gave chase. Bold and Bossy was not satisfied with U.S. 41. She took the offramp and entered Interstate 69 before veering onto Veterans Memorial Parkway.

This scenario almost sounds too fantastical to be real. Fortunately, cameras captured the incident. The track’s footage shows the jockey getting the boot and baffled drivers documented her sprint on the asphalt.

Bold And Bossy Throws Miguel Mena Off In Race 1 At Ellis Park

2-year-old filly Bold and Bossy bucks rider, escapes Ellis Park racetrack

Pro tip: always film in landscape. Otherwise, your video will turn out looking like the footage of the horse on the highway above.

Thankfully, Bold and Bossy survived the escapade on the interstate and did so with minimal injuries. She lost two shoes and scraped up her front heel, but largely emerged from the odyssey unharmed.

I found the images of the horse running on the highways to be incredible. And I figured it might be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. But digging just a bit into the cloud compendium that is the internet displayed I was very wrong.

Drivers Save Horse Caught in Houston Freeway

The footage above is just three years old, where a horse hit the highway near Houston.

Other examples abound, including incidents in Maryland and California. In the latter incident, the horse galloped over six miles before deciding to stop by plowing into a parked Mercedes.