A Racehorse Named Hitler, Disguised as Klimt

Last Monday, a 2-year-old colt won his first race at Horseshoe Indianapolis. On the program sheet stood Austrian Painter, Austrian painter, a name suggesting Vienna and an easel. Online, it has carried a second meaning for a long time, and that meaning leads far away from art.

The phrase refers to Hitler’s failed career in front of the canvas. Online, people use it to talk about him without typing his name, usually to get around moderation filters. The trick is called algospeak. The same pool gives us unalive for killing and pew pew for a gun. Two days after the win, Shannon Luce, the Jockey Club’s communications official, confirmed that the official Thoroughbred registry was investigating the name. A formal complaint had been filed.

Scott Herbertson, the colt’s breeder and owner, denied any bad intent. The name referred to Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, he wrote on social media, and he was not going to change it. The explanation might have held if there were not a second horse in the same stable. Research showed that Austrian Painter has a 1-year-old full sister named New Order. That is the name of a British rock band, and it was also the term Nazi Germany used for its planned reorganization of occupied Europe. It is hard to believe in two coincidences like that under one roof.

But it did not stop with two horses. Herbertson had submitted other names to the Jockey Club for the same colt, including My Struggle and Braunau Star. My Struggle translates into German as Mein Kampf, Hitler’s hate-filled book written in prison. Braunau Star points to Braunau am Inn, where Hitler was born; according to Herbertson, it referred to the birthplace of his wife’s grandfather. Faced with that sequence, the Klimt explanation and the favorite-band defense lose whatever support they had left.

And more and more is coming to light: Cole Alexander TV asked on June 4, 2026: “Who would you trust more to watch a child?” 18.2% voted for “a trans person,” 81.8% for “a Nazi.” Scott Herbertson commented: “Only 83%? I never look over my shoulder at the ATM because of a Nazi either.”

Herbertson also claimed innocence when it came to the sister. New Order was his favorite band, he wrote, adding “you lunatic.” Evil rarely introduces itself under its own name. It comes as a coffeehouse painter, as a favorite band, and keeps a harmless origin story ready for the day it gets exposed. The registry was not persuaded. It ruled the name ineligible and ordered it changed. Austrian Painter is now called Merrylegs, merry legs.

In its statement, the registry said it had been alerted earlier in the week through a formal complaint that the name was offensive and immediately opened a review. The registrar rejected it under Rule 6.F.9.d, which prohibits names considered likely to be offensive or threatening based on factors including national origin or politics. Such complaints are taken seriously, it said. Two additional rules define where the line runs. One bars names considered in poor taste or likely to offend an ethnic group. Another applies to names intended to disparage someone. The registrar has the final word on every naming request.

Herbertson, 58, a California native based in Texas, founded his racing stable in 2014. He has no major titles, but according to the racing database Equibase, he has 164 wins from 561 starts, with earnings of more than $2.5 million. None of that ever brought him this much attention.

The registry has made such interventions before, often over racist references. In January 2021, it rejected the name Grape Soda one day after the gelding won his debut at Aqueduct. Trainer Eric Guillot had chosen it to mock Black television analyst Ken Rudulph. New owner Lawrence Roman renamed the horse Respect for All. A court confirmed in 2007 that the registry has the right to do this. Garrett Redmond had sued after his request was denied to name a filly out of Jefferson’s Secret, a daughter of Colonial Affair, Sally Hemings. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that, as a private association, the registry may reject any name.

Because the colt has already raced, the old and new names must appear side by side for a while, until he has made three starts under Merrylegs. The same process was used in 2019, when a horse named Noose was renamed Scabbard after 2 starts, including a 2nd-place finish in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special.

Herbertson bred the colt in Indiana. His dam, Galileta, a daughter of Amira’s Prince, had placed in higher-level races. He bought her privately in June 2021. He lost her through a claiming race and claimed her back in February 2022. She won her final 3 starts in the summer of 2022 at Belterra Park before he retired her to breeding. In 2023, the Indiana-based stallion Sleepy Eyes Todd covered the mare, and Austrian Painter was born the following year.

The joke for those who enjoyed the old name depended on denial. The registry took that denial away from them. Merrylegs now belongs to an animal nobody can pin anything on anymore, while the wink behind the former name stands in the paddock without its audience.