Oasis & Racing? Owners Have “Definitely Maybe” Been Naming Horses After the Tracks

It’s finally happening! Those Gallagher brothers have ironed out their differences to take the greatest band of the 90s on tour in 2025. Music lovers rejoice as Heaton Park, the Principality Stadium, Murrayfield, Croke Park, and Wembley Stadium brace themselves for what has rapidly become the biggest music event of the decade.

With 15 long years passing since their last appearance at the 2009 V Festival, it makes you wonder what Oasis fans have been doing in the intervening years. Endlessly replaying (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Or perhaps reliving the glory days at the local 90s night, or gazing out the window mourning the death of music in the 21st century.

All of the above may be true, but horse racing owners with Britpop leanings have taken a different approach. In the absence of new albums or live shows, racehorse owners appear to have scratched their indie itch by naming their equine heroes after Oasis songs. Don’t believe us? A run through the track listing of the classic debut, Definitely Maybe, may change your mind.

Track 1: Rock ‘N’ Roll Star

“The day’s moving just too fast for me.”

And so were most of the opposition for the Lee Carter-trained Rock ‘N’ Roll Star, who won only one of nine starts between 2013 and 2015. Sired by Cockney Rebel, it seems most likely that owner Phil Cunningham was a fan of Steve Harley, but perhaps his choice of name reveals a soft spot for the Mancunian songsmiths.

Track 2: Shakermaker

“I’d like to be somebody else and not know where I’ve been.”

It seems possible that the Stuart Crawford-trained Shakermaker desired to be something other than a racehorse and somewhere rather than the track. Making his debut when second in a 2022 bumper, Shakermaker hasn’t been seen since.

Track 3: Live Forever

“Maybe I don’t really wanna know how your garden grows.”

Switching our attention to the USA, the Ronald Westermann filly, Live Forever, was something of a late bloomer – failing to win any of her first nine starts but finishing with a flourish to score three times in her final four outings in 2016.

Track 4: Up in the Sky

“Tell me, how high do you think you’d go before you start falling?”

Not very high in the case of the 2006-2008 Point-Point performer Up In The Sky. Raced 11 times, the mare failed to enter the Winner’s Enclosure but did, at least, fall only once.

Track 5: Columbia

“This is confusion. Am I confusing you?”

Was he named after a deep cut on a British 90s album or the South American nation? Only owners D P Azzopardi, Ms S D Puddy Et Al know for sure. Whatever the case, Columbia, the racehorse, wasn’t much good – failing to win in five Australian starts between 2016 and 2019.

Track 6: Supersonic

“I’m feeling supersonic, give me gin and tonic.”

More often than not, backers of the ex-Jessica Harrington-trained Supersonic would be found at the bar rather than the payout counter. Speedily bred and named, he won second time out in Ireland but failed to trouble the judge in eight subsequent outings. Only three years old, the less-than-lightning-quick sprinter now plies his trade in Hong Kong.

Track 7: Bring It On Down

Non-runner

Track 8: Cigarettes & Alcohol

“You could wait for a lifetime to spend your days in the sunshine.”

The wait for the son of Ocovango, Cigarettesnalcohol, to win a race is similarly interminable. Unplaced in seven outings for Richard Spencer between 2021 and 2022, he pulled up lame on his final start and has, hopefully, found a more suitable endeavour.

Track 9: Digsy’s Dinner

“I’ll pick you up at half past three, we’ll have….”

Lasagna raced 19 times in the USA and picked up a sole win at Finger Lakes in 2020. Moving swiftly on.

Track 10: Slide Away

“I dream of you and all the things you say. I wonder where you are now?”

Unlikely to be in the dreams of too many punters, the winless Irish point-to-point “star”, Slideaway, could most often be found somewhere towards the rear of the field

Track 11: Married With Children

“Goodbye, I’m going home.”

There appears to be no direct equine tribute to the album closer, but we have spotted racehorses going by the names of Trouble And Strife, Ball And Chain, Henpecked, and Game Over…